'Jude's Calico Cat' Streptocarpus and Seemania medea

 Here's a very pretty Streptocarpus. It's 'Jude's Calico Cat'! The netting on the lower petals is quite eye catching along with the magenta throat stripes! If this is just a baby plant and its producing this many blooms, it's one that will be very popular!

 This is Seemania medea. It's one of the plants from the "Midwinter Madness" order from Rob's Violet Barn. It's blooming already.... wow. I'm hoping that this one has a lot of rhizomes so that sharing happens : )

Another shot of the Seemania medea. I have a different Seemania that just keeps blooming and blooming, perhaps this is one of those genera that is a "hidden treasure". It's not widely grown but really should be. We'll keep a watch on these and see how the continue to grow!

Thanks to Jude for sending us the pix!

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How To Plant Gesneriad Seeds: The Extra Detailed Version

 Welcome to the long version of "How to Plant Gesneriad Seeds", with lots of photos!

First you need a trusty cat or two... I know, it seems counter intuitive, but who else will so carefully inspect your work??

Let's start out with a clear "deli" container of your choice. Make sure it's clean. I also use some long fiber sphagnum a few steps further along, so having it out and preparing it at this stage of the process is a great idea.

 I take the long fiber sphagnum moss and rub it vigorously between both hands to make a fine dusty powder. One hand was needed for the camera in this shot, but take both hands and make a fine powder, throwing out all the chunks.

Inspect your work carefully and then get it into a small container that you can set aside for a while.

 Here is the powdered sphagnum moss with the lumps taken out and set off for use later as a soil topper.

 Take your deli container and something sharp (being careful not to stab yourself in the process) and make a couple of very small holes in the top. We want almost 100% humidity and not much air circulation, but a little air exchange is a fine thing.

You and your Sharpie marker are now good friends. You will want to keep good records about your seeds such as the date they were planted, which variety etc. The Sharpie won't fade with time or come off if wet. With multiple seeds being planted, you WON'T remember which was which two weeks from when you planted them.

There are many very wise people on the net that suggest using various planting media to start the seeds. If you have a favorite USE it, but I use what I use for planting my gesneriads. It's a light mix and I don't find that it has any negative side effects (such as algae growth, etc.)

 I moisten the mix. As I'm hoping you can see from the photo, the soil mix is DAMP but fluffy, crumbly and friable. It's not sticky, chunky, oozy or gooey at all. This is an important point. The seeds need moisture to germinate, but you don't want to rot them!!!

 Here's where the powdered sphagnum comes in. I sprinkle a very thin layer on top of the moistened soil. It's said that this helps prevent any fungal problems associated with seeding. Perhaps because of the nature of the sphagnum or because it simply seems to work for me.... we'll go with that.

 Now we have the seed bed prepared. The box has tiny air holes, the soil is moist, the topping of powdered sphagnum is on, we're almost set to roll!

Here are some labels. I use a double (hopefully) foolproof method of marking the seedlings, especially when there are multiple varieties like I'm going to be planting today. The white labels are IN the box and the Sharpie Marker writes on the OUTSIDE of the box. This way if something does get dislodged or put in the wrong place, you can still figure out what is where. It's nice to do this a bit ahead of placing your seeds down on the soil. You won't be fussing with marker tops and so-forth when it's time to focus on the teeny tiny seeds.

Gesneriad seeds are SUPER SMALL! They aren't sort of small, they are almost powder-like. This means you have to take special care when planting them.

 You WILL need a completely clean sheet of white paper (so you can see the seeds) cut into a reasonable size and with a fold half way up the paper, like shown in this photo.

 Always work OVER THIS PAPER. The seeds will scatter and any breeze can move them, so working over the paper (with the friendly inspection cats now in the kitchen having a mid afternoon snack) is essential.

 These seeds usually come folded into a tissue paper. Very carefully unfold the paper and leave it over the white paper you've prepared.

 This packet had about 15 total seeds in it. I put out about 11 for the photo, but I'm only going to plant about half. If something should happen to my seedling box, like a mildew or a damping off fungus or if I drop the box, I'll still have some seed in reserve to try one more time. Some of these seeds are pretty rare... be careful.

 You will perhaps note in the photo above that over the lettering on the label above the letters 'h' and 'a' is a little speck.... I've blown up this photo so you can see the "speck" is a single seed... it's really that small.

 Here's the time for a steady hand and nerves of steel. I spread out my few seeds on the paper so that when I am moving them to the soil, they will hopefully come off the paper one at a time and are spread out. This makes transplanting the seedlings so much easier than having them in a tight ball of micro-size green when it comes time to start moving them to their larger quarters.

 Here's a shot of half of the packets planted on the left and the right side waiting for it's precious additions.

 Here's the box all planted. Close the cover so it snaps closed and .....

 I put mine under some lights. These are quite far from the bulbs. Make sure that your lights aren't too warm. The seedlings do need light to germinate, but they don't want to cook either. They could go by a window or just on a shelf till you see something sprout. Like any other seedlings though, keeping them in dim conditions promotes leggy growth and weak plantlets.

Just to give you one more sense of how small gesneriad seeds are... they are the specks next to the paper clip and the stick pin. From something so tiny comes (sometimes) a giant shrub!

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Just One More Como Orchid Show Photo... I Couldn't Resist!

 I really love miniatures! This was a display by Bob W. that was located inside the Como's bonsai display room. Not only is the home's outside nicely detailed and fun to look at, the inside was also decorated to fit the theme!

If you look closely at the window on the left side of the house you will see that it must be a nice East window with bright light (but not too much direct sunlight) since it's home to a happily growing and blooming Phalaenopsis!

I'm such a fan of the miniature orchids that I have to share the source of them.... They are a cold porcelain creation done by Patty! You can see more of the little orchids and other cool things by clicking the link. I have an suspicion that this idea might be swiped for the fall violet show at Bachman's this year. A few potted flowers lining a dish garden's path would be so fun!

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More Como Conservatory Winter Carnival '12' Orchid Show Photos!

A couple of posts ago you got to feast your eyes on some of the really lovely orchids featured at the Como Winter Carnival Orchid Show.

At the time of the first post I didn't have any specific photos from club members so that we could show them off properly. Now we have a few for you to enjoy.

This is a Paphiopedilum Wellesleyanum displayed by Jim V.

 This is a Dendrobium Maiden Charlotte displayed by Patty K.

 Here's a pretty one! This is Phalaenopsis Timothy Christopher

Steve G. displayed one of my personal favorites. It's Phalaenopsis  Malibu Bistro. I've had one of these plants before and the stripes just jump out and grab attention. Mine however didn't look nearly this wonderful.

 Here's one I'm not familiar with. It's a Stenosarcos Vanguard. It's displayed by Jim V.
















A group shot of the first three all together!

 Meanwhile...... each season the Como Conservatory displays a seasonally themed flower show in it's Sunken Garden Room. The whole room is simply filled with gardens full of flowers usually done in a color scheme. This time, after the really cool poinsettia display around the holidays, they've transitioned into these lovely smelling and eye-popping lilies.

The Sunken Garden is amazing. Click on this link to see more!

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Aeschynanthus marmoratus Up Close and Personal!

This is a flower from an Aeschynanthus marmoratus!


It's a really rather cool flower but I suspect sometimes overlooked because it's primarily green with it's rather flashy colors left to just the interior lip of the flower.


This is a close up shot of the calyx when it's been detached from the petals. It's got a nice bit of bright red hair on it.

These are close ups of the pollen sacs and how they are connected, as is characteristic of many in the family Gesneriad.











A bit closer shot. Interesting surface of the anther here.

These following pictures were of a leaf that I snapped to see what was inside. Sometimes the stringy stuff (vascular tissue) doesn't break right off and you get to get a closer look at it. What follows was completely unexpected and one of the coolest things I've accidentally found looking through the scope.

The "fibers" were quite transparent and looked sort of spiraled, so I got come closer looks at them.

The fibers were formed in a spring-like spiral. I really like this!

A little flower dissection happened because I wanted to see if there was anything interesting going on where the stamen were attached to the flower tube (petals). The razor blade shows the point where the filament attaches. I thought this would be cool and it turns out to be a non-event. I guess the vascular tissue was really much cooler. 

The pictures do show how the cells are pigmented to give the flower it's coloration and also how they align in the tissue. Too bad I can't get more magnification to see if we could see any of the individual cells.....

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