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Angel's Fishing Rod (Dierama) Growing advice

WiltshireWildWiltshireWild Posts: 64
in Plants
My grandmother grew angels fishing rod back in the day and I am contemplating having a go growing it myself. I've never seen one in real life but they look quite spectacular in the photos. Has anyone any experience with this plant? I can't find much information on it. Is it easy to grow and does it flower reliably? It seems to have fallen out of fashion.  


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  • BenCottoBenCotto Posts: 4,718




    Apart from teasing out a few dead leaves I do nothing to mine - no feeding, watering, dead heading, fertilising. So, yes, they are easy to look after.
    Rutland, England
  • Simone_in_WiltshireSimone_in_Wiltshire Posts: 1,073
    @WiltshireWild I'm no expert in Dierama, but tried them and failed. I don't think they like clay soil.

    I ♥ my garden.

  • Butterfly66Butterfly66 Posts: 970
    We’ve got some and as @BenCotto says they need little care and attention. Ours struggled during the last winter and I thought I had lost them but all now growing well and some in flower - I’d also moved them in the Autumn and did read that they can sulk for a season afterwards. Have had them about three years and all flowered reliably until this year


     If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero
    East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I've rarely seen them round here, if at all, and they'd need to be sheltered because it's windy. I don't know how well they manage winters, but those are becoming increasingly milder here too -unfortunately.
    All clay soil too, but you'd obviously improve that if you had it before planting them, to ensure good drainage and to counteract weather. That's possibly the reason they aren't terribly popular here, as well as winter conditions, although I've sometimes thought of getting one. 
     
    Worth a shot though @WiltshireWild if you can give them the right position and conditions. Very nice by a pond, as in @BenCotto 's photo   :)  
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • Joyce GoldenlilyJoyce Goldenlily Posts: 2,933
    I have several clumps of dieramas, Angels Fishing Rods,  growing in my garden in various colours.  They are in flower at the moment.Some are by my pond where I think they are happiest. They are a bulb and do not like hard winters. I tried some dwarf ones which have disappeared. I do nothing with them except remove dead foliage in the Spring. The different colours flower at slightly different time to each other and I have had a very pale lemon one which I think I may have lost this last winter, it has always been much more "miffy" than the others. There is one lavender one which I love, fingers crossed it keeps going. Blackbird is a deep port wine colour and more vigorous than others. Guuinevere is a white tinged with pink. The pulchella is the pink one seen most often.
    My sister bought me a selection of very young plants, no more than a few blades of grasslike leaves when they arrived. I lost some of them the first year, not enough TLC and nurturing under cover I think. My soil is gritty so well drained, they like dampness during the summer. I will ask my sister if she can remember where she found them. 
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    They’re easy to grow here,  so far survived a few cold spells and covered in snow.
    i grew them from seed,  took a few years to get to flowering but now they just take care of themselves,  I don’t feed anything, they don’t mind the drought,  we are on acid soil.
    They need splitting but I’ll wait until next Spring.



    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    I grow them as well here in Bath, on clay soil but high up on a raised bed where they get plenty of sunshine. They need no special care, I just tidy them up in spring by cutting of the dead leaves. They're gorgeous, mine's the dark raspberry reddish one.
    They do look best where they can be higher up or by a pond as per Ben's. They don't seem to mind windy conditions.
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • TenNTenN Posts: 184
    I bought some reduced at the Hampton Court show about 4/5 years ago from Burncoose. I've got a shed on a decked platform at the back and they grow at the front of that, nicely sheltered and enjoying the warm. Also got Gaura and Salvia in the same spot and if you sit watching it's all a bit hypnotic. Not sure which ones I have but there's one that's a sort of blushy pink red looks great in the afternoon sun.
  • WiltshireWildWiltshireWild Posts: 64
    Thanks for all the replies. Good to see people are growing it in most parts of the UK. I can see from the RHS website it is listed as hardiness H4 meaning around -5 to -10C. It's native to Africa so I guess its not fully hardy in the UK. I am in quite a frost pocket where I live in wiltshire, but from comments here it looks like its still mostly ok in UK. 
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    I think the coldest it got here was minus 6° this year,  it didn’t bother it at all. 
    I’ve never checked outdoor temperatures before. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

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