Some pictures of S. leucotricha to show the flowers on a mature specimen.

Showing the whole plant in a 6 inch pot. There were 7 stems with flowers open.
Click on a picture and open in a new window or tab, the larger image above has one flower in focus so you can see the hairs on the flower. The one below shows the hairs on the leaves.


This plant stayed in bloom for two months, from first flower until the last ones faded.
It is at least 5 years old. For the last several it has been in a greenhouse and had spent some summers out on my balcony behind a 40% shade cloth. The balcony gets full sun from around 10 am until 2 pm. In the greenhouse it gets about 50% of full sun in summer. It blooms about twice a year.
See the next post to see seedlings and a tuber being repotted.

December 23, 2010
Chas

I received three comments, here are the
Replies:
I took the photos. Please ask permission to use them. I'm thinking of printing one for an exhibit, to show what the species can do. Hopefully the seedlings will be on the sales table this spring.
I'd like to make this species available for everyone who wants one.
There also may be seedlings of S. reitzii and iarae.

My sinningia potting mix starts with the usual gesneriad mix of equal parts perlite, vermiculite and good Canadian peat moss. I add one part or more perlite and/or turkey grit for drainage, and a little charcoal for good luck. I use both the small and the coarse perlite, it all seems to work.
I put extra drainage material in the bottom of the pot, and sometimes use an orchid pot for the extra drainage holes.
I see the roots growing better in the faster draining mix. Clear pots are just so I can see the root system growing. Clay pots dry faster than plastic.
I prefer to use a pot 1 inch wider than the old pot. When I've gone from a 4 inch to a 6, or a 6 to an 8 inch pot, some of the tubers have rotted. The new soil stays wet a long time, and it takes a few months for the roots to fill the new soil. Once they do, the plant is fine.
That is one reason not to repot until the tuber fills the pot. We water heavily and often, so overwatering is always a risk. If you water only as the pot is starting to dry, you can use a more moisture retentive mix and repot before the tuber is pushing out the sides of the pot.
As always, what works in your growing conditions is best.

RO water has almost all the minerals removed. Jerry Fischer at Orchids Limited tells us to add 10% tap water to add back enough calcium, magnesium and trace minerals. Or add a little fertilizer - he sells his excellent blend as Green Jungle. U of Michigan formulas for RO water are fine. I can wait much longer to repot plants when using RO water. Also you can put a little agricultural lime or dolomitic lime in the soil mix.
I found the species sinningias grew fine with tap water in St Paul or with the RO water. If you're using tap water, I would flush the pot with plain tap water every couple months to remove mineral build-up.

Sinningia leucotricha

This is Sinningia leucotricha showing the tuber filling a 5" pot. The clear pot allowed us to see the roots growing. The seedlings are growing all around the edges of the tuber.
I've been putting off repotting this one and now I broke the plastic pot trying to get the tuber out.
The plant is more valuable than the pot.

Had to carefully cut the pot off the tuber. The mix is very free draining, as the plants are watered heavily several times a week. The greenhouse uses RO water, with a dilute fertilizer made for RO water added once or twice a week.

As the tuber fills the pot, it limits the amount of water that gets into the mix. This is likely similar to what happens in nature, as the tubers fill cracks in the rocks.

The roots held the mix in a block. Great drainage is essential where the watering is heavy. The roots filled this pot in a few months after transplanting. This one got high light in the greenhouse most of the year, sitting at the south end of the bench. Whitewash in the spring and summer reduces the light by about half, to around 5,000 footcandles in the middle of a sunny day. S. leucotricha loves the sunshine. Dense silver hairs protect the developing leaves as the plants grow in full sun.

A few seedlings, showing the tiny tubers that have developed over several months. The seedlings have well developed tubers for the size of the plants. These came up in the pot in the spring; it's now December 15. We will be repotting these about every two weeks for maybe 5 times. Dale Martens taught us this method, and it works. See posts over the next 3 months or so updating their progress.

Most of the seedlings have been pried off, gently, to leave most of their roots. Then they just fell apart. A good look at the tuber. And the solid block of roots. The first 2 or 3 cycles of growth on seedlings of this, and many other sinningia species, do not look like the mature plant. There may be several pairs of leave on the stem, and the leaves may not be as silver. And there may be surprises, as there were other sinningias blooming near this pot.


Repotting a large sinningia tuber with a good root system is easy. I like a pot about 1 inch larger in diameter than the old one. Today, we had some clay pots, and chose an orchid pot with slots in the sides for extra drainage. It is a little bigger than the square clear pot this was in.

I mixed some peat,small wood chips and rice hulls mix [about half] with some small perlite, coarse perlite and turkey grit for great drainage. And a little horticultural charcoal for good luck. And put the solid block of roots in the pot, filling around it with new mix.
The clay pot will allow the soil to dry out faster than a plastic pot. Here at the greenhouse, the risk of too much water and root rot is a major concern when repotting sinningias. As the roots fill the new soil, they will dry the soil faster.
Better to repot twice than rot once.
The choice of clay or plastic pots, how heavy a soil to mix and how often to water depends on your conditions and methods of watering. I like very good drainage for larger sinningias. Seedlings and smaller or mini-sinningias get a mix that stays moist but not wet longer [at home].
Check back for more photos of the seedlings and the big tuber repotted.

Co-authored by Jinean and Chas
after a very good December day at the greenhouse

Alsobia 'Cygnet'

Alsobia 'Cygnet' grown a different way! You might have tried the Alsobias in pots, but they seem so happy when allowed to sprawl a little. This one has the advantage of being in a high humidity environment, but grown at home mounted on bark with a generous amount of long fiber sphagnum, and voilà ... you have a much cooler display than the rest of the club members!

 Mounting the plants is relatively easy. A greenhouse or shop that specializes in orchids will have a piece of bark suitable for this task. Use some long fiber sphagnum (to hold moisture and the plant's roots) and attach a generous clump to the piece of bark with a clear "fishing line" type of filament. You now have a place to mount the plant. When you have a suitably rooted Alsobia it can be attached to your prepared piece of bark with more of the "fishing line" string. Now you get to be a bit creative with it's placement.

Try hanging it off of your light stand. It will get plenty of light from your fluorescent lights, and it will get to sprawl in a much more interesting and attractive way than if it was confined to a pot.

Remember to keep the spray bottle at hand so that it can be misted often enough to keep the moisture even. Alsobias don't like to dry out!

Isn't this a really pretty flower, with the fringed edges? More hybridizing really needs to be done with these.....


Comments??

Interesting Stuff Continued or Sinningia Tubers, and 'Prudence Risley"

 On November 27th, 2010 the post for that day was showing the progress of some of the Sinningias and other things that were being propagated.

You will note the tuber and the roots forming on this Sinningia.

 Here is another Sinningia that is doing something just a bit different than the first. It's putting out some leaves as well as roots. I think that there is a tuber forming but it's smaller than the tuber in the first photo.

Now this is a tuber being formed! Here is 'Playful Porpoise' making a rather large and robust tuber after only 32 days in a small starter pot filled with perlite and vermiculite. It's been watered with a urea-free orchid fertilizer periodically also.

And lest we haven't praised the Sinningia 'Prudence Risley' enough, it decided to BLOOM in it's starter pot, while forming the tuber you can see at the base (surrounded by the new and rather extensive root system.)


Any comments to share with the gang today???

Sinningia speciosa

This is a Sinningia speciosa that is going to rebloom in the middle of winter for no other reason, than perhaps it feels like it.

Nice to get the bright color and fun of watching it open when the weather was giving the landscape 20 inches of snow. See? There IS a reason for taking all the time to keep the flowers and plants...

The photo was taken only a little while after the first photo. It apparently doesn't take a Sinningia all that long to open the blossom when it's time to do so.

This was about four hours after the first picture. It's almost all the way open now. It happened to be around mid-day.

Look at the cool pattern inside this flower. I's spots and pattern must be quite seductive to something, and notice that while the purple petals are quite opaque, the center seems to be much more translucent and lets in enough light to sort of highlight the pistils and stamen.

Once again, comment by hitting the little link right under the post! Thanks....

Chautemsia calcicola, Sinningia 'Gabriel's Horn' and other cool stuff.

This is Siningia 'Gabriel's Horn'. Now this is a cool Sinningia. The calyx is modified so that it appears to have a double set of petals. As you can see the color is quite spectacular.

This is the Chautemsia calcicola. It was mentioned in the last post but here is another look at this extremely cute gesneriad that seems to do very will in a high humidity environment (think under a dome) but blooms quickly from a small seedling. Rumor has it that it also produces rhizomes??

This is a shot of the flower with a dime for comparison. You'll notice that the flowers are very small but showy!

The 'tiny twins....' Here is Sinningia 'White Sprite' and it's pal, Sinningia 'Moon Ray'. Both are very tiny plants with very tiny blooms. Look how small the flowers are in comparison to the plant label in the photo. This is the adult, full size plant..... even if you live in a closet, you probably have room for a few of these Sinningias.

How about this Nematanthus corticola? The blooms hang down off of long red structures that will make the flowers look like they were hung off a holiday tree. They are almost ready to show the flower which you can see in the photo still tightly compressed in the center of the calyxes.

This is Sinningia 'Piglet'. It is just about to open, probably within the day. It's a sweet light pink color, which is probably why it is named as it is. The interesting thing about this plant, at least for me, is that it went from sprouted (microscopic) tuber to blooming plant in two months. Who knew that Sinningias were so quick and easy to grow???

I just like this flower. It's a Columnea linearis. The long narrow leaves give it a distinctive look from many of the other Columneas and the pink color of the flower is a bit different also.


Comments?? Hit the comment link directly below, or you may write to the blog's address as found on the top right of the blog.

November 23, 2010 Meeting

The meeting started off with some interesting 'show and tell' plants. The first one here is a Petrocosmea minor grown by J.N. It's wonderful symmetry and shiny leaves (not to mention it's abundant blooms) make it a really attractive plant.

 There were two Sinningia iarae plants brought in for display. One was an older plant that has been growing for many years and produced the seeds that the bottom  plant was grown from. The S. iarae is a nice, easy to bloom Sinningia that is not necessarily considered a 'compact' plant but stays a nice size and will grow and bloom either under lights or in a sunny window. If growing the Sinningias in the window, it is helpful to remember to turn them frequently to ensure even growth.

This is a rather new and interesting Charutemsia calcicola. One of only a few to be in cultivation so far, it's a charming small plant that seems to like high humidity. It grows quickly and has lovely little flowers that have some yellow color to them.

 This is another Petrocosmea. it's being grown with a 'double pot' to ensure excellent drainage but to keep the moisture and humidity around the plant so it doesn't dry too much.

This is a bowl of Sinningia pusilla. Because of the wide spread of the greenery, is this one plant with a tuber, or seedlings that have sprouted and are all growing in a tiny colony?

 After the 'show and tell' portion of the evening there was the annual "Night of the Dead and Nearly Dying" competition. It is a fiercely competitive event with contestants preparing for months to prepare just the right entry! Some of the best entries for one of the three categories - (Closest to Dead Without Actually Going Over, Most Unusual, and Most Artistic) are shown here.

A 'Spin Art' Strep presented by S. J. was the most nearly dead, as seen in the small black, square pot in the photo to the right.

The most unusual was that trailing brain (uh, sorry violet) to the right and the most artistic entry of the evening was the Alsobia punctata you can see sprawling all over the table. Thanks to all the contestants who labored and trained for nearly a year to prepare these marvelous entries! Prizes of delicious chocolates were awarded.



More of the meeting followed with a presentation of a book from C. A. by MacKinlay Kantor called Spirit Lake to long-time club member J. M. in part in appreciation for service to the Society. This book reflects some directly related ancestors of J. M. and has a historical perspective to Minnesota's early years.

Long time grower, J. N. gave a presentation about growing Petrocosmeas. The main points about growing Petrocosmeas were that you should not water them in excess and make sure that the soil mix you use is considered very light. They enjoy excellent drainage, like many gesneriads do. The plants themselves can be grown out in the open without use of domes or humidity trays, but when you are propagating and starting the suckers, it's helpful to put them in an enclosed environment with more humitidy.

The Petrocosmeas do bloom in the winter, as we can see from one of the first 'show and tell' photos at the beginning of this post. They will do well in west windows that have strong, but not burning light. J. N. doesn't wick water these plants, but some club members commented that they do.

Other discussion was about where to purchase various fertilizers for the plants. A formerly popular brand called Peter's was purchased by the Scott's company and is no longer formulated like it was in the past. The grandson of the original Peter's company started a smaller company and went back to producing the original urea-free formula that is now sold under the name of Jack's. Apparently, the orchid mix is urea-free, but the African violet mix is not.

The meeting ended after everyone enjoyed really awesome homemade treats brought by C. H. and A. M's wife! Those members can feel free to bring those treats anytime in the future.

Unusual Streptocarpus Babies

I put down Heartland's Boyish Grin leaf and now it has babies. There are babies forming on the side of the leaf that is not in any soil. I am not sure what caused it since I did not use any rooting hormone or anything on the edge of the leaf.

I am not sure how long to wait to try and transplant them or if I should wait until the roots actually touch the soil. Interesting dilemma. If anyone knows what to do, please let me know.