Primulina longangensis, P. spadiciformis, P. 'Vietnam', Diastema vexans and a random Codonanthe

 Primulina longangensis has a nice purple/lavender flower. the plant is getting a little sprawly, but it put on a  nice show of flowers just recently!

 You might be able to see the little white flowers on this Codonanthe. It's doing a good job of just hanging around and growing. I like plants that just hang around and grow without a lot of fussing and bothering. It's one that doesn't seem to require a lot, it never drops leaves and from time to time it has these neat little blooms.

If you don't have a Codonanthe, you probably need to go out and find one! It's likely a C. devosiana but I'm not sure.

 Hello little Diastema vexans! This is a cute thing with flowers that have spots. They don't last long but they are pretty sweet and tiny and worth growing the plant. I think I need more light on my plant, it seems to be leggy, but otherwise, with enough humidity, they are very attractive and fun to grow.

 This is a Primulina spadiciformis. The plant itself isn't much to look at, but the flowers are large and nicely colored. I am pretty sure I'm the problem with the plant looking just so so.

Some of the Primulinas grow so perfectly even for the plant-challenged (me) so I am hopeful with a little more effort this one will shape up too.

OK, the best for last for now. This is what was labeled as a Primulina 'Vietnam'. This thing is awesome. I took the last bloom stem off for it's picture but it grows perfectly, sometimes makes an offset like you might notice to the left side of the picture and it's really cute!

The plant is about 6 or 7 inches across and that is all the bigger it will get. It's easy, did I mention that??? You need one, YOU REALLY DO!

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A little product placement, the Pocket Hose!

 So... when this Pocket Hose product was on one of those tedious tv ads, my kids had a hilarious time deciding who would be stupid enough to buy one.


I bought one and love it!

I water in five different rooms in a split level house.  I use a fair amount of water and to put it into gallon jugs takes a tremendous amount of time. One day I tried a coil hose and it worked pretty well, but it wanted to recoil and would sometimes knock down plants springing back into place.

I also tried an outdoor hose, it was much too stiff and was a disaster.

When I got this I was expecting shoddy materials and cheap fixture hookups. I WAS WRONG! The ends hook up easily to my bathroom faucet with NO leaking. The watering-end shuts off with no leaking on the wood floor. I'm also pretty happy with the fire-hose materials the hose is made of.

When I'm done I put the hose in the tub to drain and shrink back to it's original size. I hold up the hose to facilitate drainage. It's much lighter than a normal outdoor hose, it's much more flexible and it doesn't leak and it's not annoying. How's that for praise???

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Kohleria Ryskan

 This is Kohleria Ryskan. (One other post has a typo, so if you are looking up this variety, it's not spelled with a "t")

The fuzzzzzzzy buds are too awesome to describe in words. I like the Gesneriad habit of having hairy blooms and stems and this Kohleria is one of the coolest.

 I like everything about this flower... the color contrast, the very, very red stems.....

The bud expands as it's maturing to look more like most other Kohleria varieties, but it's still got some interesting color and texture.

It opens into a nice, bright flower too!

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