Columnea 'Red Skelton', Sinningia 'Miriam G.", Chrysothemis pulchella

Now, do you want something that puts on a show? This is Columnea 'Red Skelton'. Mine is still a young plant that's living in the same little pot it got shipped in. It requires very little fussing and the blooms are, like some Columneas, very long and bright.

As you can see by the ruler the flowers are over three inches long.

Typical for gesneriads you will notice the four joined stamen holding the pollen. Columneas have an intriguingly shaped flower probably designed to attract a specific pollinator... could it be a humming bird? The color would certainly attract them.

The hairs on the flower tube also show up... another thing gesneriads have in common... lots of hair!

This is a cool miniature Sinningia named 'Miriam G.'.

The splash of uneven darker magenta really highlights the flower's face. If you look to the top left at the back flower in the photo you see that the blossom curves sharply up resembling a pipe for smoking tobacco. Another adaptation to attract a specific pollinator?
 The plant seems to grow reasonably compactly and keeps its shape. A really nice variety.

 I can't resist putting these up on the blog. This is of course a Chrysothemis pulchella.

There are a few things that make this a really cool plant. First, the calyx are so bright orange. They come out before the yellow flower appears and they stay even after the yellow petals are all done and gone.

Another thing about the Chrysothemis is that they are one of the gesneriads that make TUBERS!!! So, even when you goof up, break it off, neglect it and dry it out.... chances are that it will resprout from its tuber like a Sinningia. It's also one of the very brightest yellow/orange gesneriads I can think of .... and being as those are my favorite colors I would suggest you will really have to try one too!

Questions??? Comments???

Drymonia 'First Peach', Sin. 'Zillinova and Nematanthus 'Bijou' are more of What's Blooming Today!

 This is Drymonia 'First Peach' and it's the first time it's bloomed for me!

Woo hooo, it's a pretty flower and it sure "looks like a gesneriad" from the shape and fringes on the petals etc.

 It is a sturdy plant that has stiff leathery leaves and I would imagine that it could grow pretty large. It's blooming with two blooms in a 4" pot right now. Maybe it will be the sort that likes growing in dappled shade outside in the MN summer. It would be lovely!

 Here is our friend and vexing plant Sinningia tubiflora. It doesn't seem to bloom indoors all that often but when it does it has a sweet fragrance and those super long flowers are pretty interesting to look at.

 A poor shot of Sinningia reitzii but it's still decked out in Christmas colors and no matter how mean you are to it and how dry and wilted it becomes and how many leaves you kill off, it will come back from almost anything and still bloom consistantly.

Just think if you were to actually do a good job caring for it.... Nice plant IF you keep hacking it off, otherwise it gets too tall for the lights.

 One of the mid-size Sinningias called 'Zillinova'. I think it's from Kartuz Greenhouse. Nice textured leaves and really nice blooms with some interesting patterning on the petals. The flower has lightish lines on the petals and they are similar on all the flowers, sort of like you creased the petals but you didn't.

 Here's a first for the collection... I finally got a Nematanthus brasiliensis 
to bloom with a second flower coming. These are pretty cool and they hang down on a long pedicle.

 Here's something else new to the collection!

This is Nematanthus Bijou. It started out as a very sickly little cutting that was graciously given to me from an Ebay order that sat in a hot box wayyyyy toooo long. Most all of the leaves were mushy and many fell off but this one came back and rooted.

Now it's a very pretty little starter plant.

The leaves are very dark green and shiny and the flowers seem to come on a young-ish plant. The petals are a nice bright yellow with orange while the tube is a bright orange with the characteristic "goldfish" lump.

Questions???

Comments????

Streptocarpus candidus abscission lines on the leaves

This is a photo of Streptocarpus candidus from the gesneriphiles list on the Internet. It's a group that chats about all things gesneriad using email. People can ask questions or post photos, answer questions or make comments. If you aren't already signed up for this, you probably should be!

Look here for more info: "gesneriphiles@lists.ibiblio.org" <gesneriphiles@lists.ibiblio.org>

Anyway, I saw this photo posted by Bob Stewart and had to ask permission to put this on our blog because it's so cool. This is Streptocarpus candidus. If you will look carefully at the photo you will see that the leaves are lighter green on the top and there is a defined line and then the regular green on the bottom. These leaves are doing what our trees do in the fall and making an abscission layer and they are planning to shed the upper parts of the leaf to conserve on water.

Bob explained a bit more for me and I'll quote him: "What is happening in the picture is roughly the same thing that happens to an oak tree. In both cases the plant is preparing for winter. In winter, water is in short supply, either because not much
falls or because the water is frozen so the plant cannot get at it.

The plant needs to reduce its water loss, and the way to do this is to
reduce the leaf area. The oak tree forms a layer of waterproof corky
cells at the base of the each leaf petiole, cutting the whole leaf off
from the rest of the tree. The leaf will eventually fall, although in
oaks it may not fall until spring.

The streptocarpus forms a layer of waterproof corky cells part way
down the body of the leaf, cutting the far end of the leaf off from
the rest of the plant. The far end of the leaf will gradually die and
dry or rot away, though in mild situations this may take months.

In spring the oak tree grows whole new leaves from buds along the
stem.

In spring the streptocarpus starts extending the old leaf from a layer
of generative cells near the base. This is the same layer of cells
that produced the leaf in the first place, and the leaf simply gets
longer from the base."

I would very much like to thank Bob for the use and description of the photo and also encourage people to go see about the gesneriphile list. There is a LOT of useful info on it.

Questions??? Comments????