Fall African Violet and Gesneriad Show

Bachman's Heritage room was the site of  this year's North Star African Violet Council's show and sale.

The Gesneriad Society also had a lovely display of gesneriads at the show to interest and hopefully delight the public who came to see them this weekend.

One of the gesneriads on display was the Aeschynanthus humilis which has been growing over at the CBS. It was in full and lovely bloom for the occasion.














Lots of really well grown violets were on display and for sale also. This one is especially colorful and beautiful!

The next opportunity to see gesneriads and violets on display will be at the Har Mar spring show at the end of March. Mark your calendars now so you don't foget!

Seemannia sylvatica - now in a store near you!

 Look at what awesome plant was just sitting on display waiting to be purchased at Linder's Greenhouse in St. Paul???

This is a Seemannia sylvatica 'Bolivian Sunset', which was formerly called Gloxinia sylvatica (which is on it's current label that it's marked with at the store.)

Text taken from the outstanding website owned by Ron Myhr, the Gesneriad Reference Web:

"The species in the genus Seemannia were formerly placed in Gloxinia until a revision of the group in 2005.  The revision resulted in a number of other changes to the rhizomatous Gesneriads, in addition to the transfer of these species to Seemannia. 

Seemannia is comprised of four species with primarily red or reddish tubular flowers.  While similarities in appearance do not always indicate close relatedness, genetic analysis in this instance suggests that the morphological similarities do in fact reflect underlying relatedness.

Seemannia is primarily an Andean genus, distributed through Bolivia, northern Argentina and southern Peru.  S. sylvatica is known as far north as southern Ecuador.

The most widely grown of this group is S. sylvatica, which has also contributed to a number of hybrids.  This is a variable species.

All members of Seemannia have rhizomatous storage structures at the root, and typically die back seasonally, usually in response to drought, before re-sprouting when more favorable weather arrives.  They are therefore easily propagated from rhizomes, and can also be easily propagated from tip cuttings.  Under some circumstances, these plants will produce long stringy/wiry aerial propagules, which can also be planted to produce additional plants."

Hope you enjoyed the Gesneriad Reference Web's site, it's owned and maintained by Ron Myhr.

There are quite a few great looking plants at the store currently and some unusual gesneriads such as Aeschynanthus
 that are not simply 'Lipstick plants', Episcias, lovely S. speciosa and perhaps a Codonanthe vine (which I've never seen on sale commercially before.)

Making a Natural Garden for a Show, Part 1

 Before beginning a natural garden, you have to select the proper plant material. Although it's not recommended, sometimes tasting it helps the "artist" get the feel for his masterpiece.

 Inspecting the plants sometimes includes checking if there are other interesting features about the plant, such as rhizomes. With gesneriads, this feature can really make an arrangement.

Selecting the natural item for the base is important. Does it have pockets and spaces to plant in? Is it good looking? Is it something that you can "really get into"???

  Are there any mice in the crevices?

 When in doubt, check all the holes thoroughly, with both hands.

With arrangements it's good to really pay attention to all the details.  Chew the extra bits off the back so that it will look good from all angles. It's those extra touches that will make your display stand out from the rest.

And finally, if you can really get into your work, it's probably going to look "smashing" at the show.

Stay tuned for planting the natural garden in part 2 of our series, and transporting it to show in part 3.

Special thanks to Walter for modeling and technical support. We just couldn't do it without him.

Sinningia 'Apricot Bouquet' and Friend

Although the photo shows 'Apricot Bouquet' pinker than it might look in natural light outside, I was surprised to find this little friend sitting on the leaf.

Here in Minnesota we don't have many exotic looking pollinators ... and not all that many find their way inside a home and onto a plant that perfectly complements their handsome coloration! If magnified enough you can see pollen sticking to the feet of this little fly. I was sort of hoping to see if any of the flowers would form a pod.

Gesneriads and Poison Dart Frogs!

 I almost never see gesneriads outside of club meetings and fellow enthusiast's collections. I was pleasantly surprised when I was going through Como Conservatory's display for children about various types of frogs. This display highlighted the colorful frogs which are listed with their photos above the display case in the top photo.

When I was looking for the frogs I saw a familiar looking blossom and sure enough it was a little blooming Kohleria of some sort!

I just thought other gesneriad "people" should know and be on the lookout for other uses for the world's best family of plants!

Kohleria 'Lemon Demon'

 This is a rather interesting flower. Kohleria 'Lemon Demon' is what this plant was labeled and there is some question to it's validity. But whatever the name, the picture is pretty curious.

There is a plant at the CBS greenhouse that should be in bloom again soon and a nice photo of fresh blossoms will follow.

Strep Seedling Siblings

These are just two of the seedlings that grew out of a selfing of an unnamed peloric flower on a Streptocarpus. The color is a bit bolder than the parent and as you can see the left flower is quite nicely star shaped and ruffled with an even distribution of lines and color throughout all five petals. The right hand flower is more traditional with the upper two petals one color and the bottom three showing the patterning.