Gloxinia perennis

This first photo is property of the Gesneriad Reference Web.  http://www.gesneriads.ca/

I have a cool flower blooming in my plant room this week and it so happens that the Ges. Reference Web has some interesting commentary on this flower. I quote from them: "Gloxinia perennis is a rare example of a "perfume flower".  The perfume droplets produced by the flower at the base of the corolla are collected by male bees, and used to mark swarm areas and attract females.  During the course of collecting the perfume the bees effect pollination of the flowers.  While rare in the Gesneriaceae, numerous orchids use similar mechanisms for attraction of pollinators."

 My plant, which seems to be a robust grower, is just coming into bloom now this fall. The blooms are simply glorious because of their fuzz and their size!

 As you can see the flower is handsomely large and a cool shade of lavender!

If I were a bee I'm sure I would really like the season these are in bloom. I've not detected the scent yet, but I understand that it is sort of like spearmint.

I look forward to seeing if I can detect the fragrance soon from my flowers.

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African Violets 'Yukako', 'Frozen in Time', Harmony's 'Lil Stinker' and Streptocarpus 'Tutti Frutti'

 These are the "treasures" I brought back from the WI Chapter's African Violet growers show in Madison, WI last weekend at the Olbrich Conservatory.

The blooms are a bit travel weary but still, they are awesome flowers and I can't wait to see them growing at my house.

This is the very interesting African violet 'Yukako' with the green chimera stripe!

Another on the green theme... African violet 'Frozen in Time' which I think is just awesomely cool.

 A new Streptocarpus introduction by Nancy Braun called 'Tutti Frutti'. This might be my single favorite color combination on a Strep. ever. Again, the blossom is a bit abused by being stuffed into a closed box for a 400 mile drive, but 'ya know', it is still very lovely!

 This is Harmony's 'Little Stinker'. The variegation on the leaves is said to be chimera variegation. This is very interesting and only a few cultivars seem to have this type of leaf patterning. I was told by the grower of this plant that it needs to be kept cool. I will give that my best shot but I'm a little worried that all the variegation will go away.

Did you know that temperature affects the amount of variegation that shows up on the leaves???

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Comments????