Part 2 of What's Bloomin' Today, Kohleria 'Ryskan, Cobananthus calochlamys, Gloxinia 'Dragon's Song' and Primulina tabacum

 This is a pretty cool bloom on Kohleria 'Ryskan'. It's' flower is shaped more like a Sinningia and is quite large for a Kohleria.

 It's got nice coloration and the blooms seem to stay fresh for quite a long time.













This is Cobananthus calochlamys. I'm still having trouble getting it to really take off... tried the regular shelf, tried the terrarium... how does anyone else get it to grow well???

 This is pretty cool also.... it's Gloxinia 'Dragon Song' growing in a terrarium. It seems to like the humidity. The flowers are smallish and on the tall spikes which looks sort of striking!

 I was especially taken with the toothed lower lobes of the flower. I'm sure that some hybridization would make for interesting offspring with the right mate for this.

Now I'm thinking of how much fun getting into hybridization would be......

 I don't know why, with all the plants in the world, that they have put the Primulina tabacum in with the gesneriads, but it's a gesneriad and here one is!

The foliage smells like most of the other gesneriads that have fragrant foliage though. I don't personally think the leaves smell anything like tobacco, but they do smell like the Sinningias that are fragrant. Sort of floral/vanilla.

I like the stripes in the flower!


Questions????


Comments????

PS: We are up to 21,400+ views of the blog! Club... help me out here... let's put some really good, informative posts up!!!!

Pearcea v. Eduador, cobananthus calochlamys, Sinningia 'Prudence Risley' and more.

This is the flower from Pearcea v. Ecuador. It's got great contrast between the yellow and the bright red tones in the flower.

The plant has dark leaves covered with redish hairs and it grows well with lots of humidity.

I have it in a domed tray and it's really quite happy and blooming at a pretty young age.

To keep it reasonably compact, higher light is required.

This is a great little Columnea that is called Sundancer. Bright yellow blooms and it's still a very small plant. Probably in the same pot it came in from Rob's in the spring.

Nice polite leaves and form and the flowers are such a great shade of yellow. You probably need this one too.

This thing is quite the plant. It's a Cobananthus calochlamys. I've tried four of them and I finally have some success. The description in the catalog says it can be a windowsill plant and that might be my problem. I might have kept them too moist.

Currently this one is in a terrarium however because I don't want it to accidentally go totally dry.

The calyx is a bright orange and comes out a long time before the bloom.

The bloom is nicely fuzzy and the opening is reasonably tiny making me think that something with a long tongue must be it's pollinator. Maybe butterflies like this plant.

The fish are done and gone. The 55 gallon tank is now a terrarium again. It was a viquarium, an aquarium and now.... ta da.... it's a terrarium. It and four other tanks are now up and humidity filled. Hopefully many of the weirder species will enjoy this sort of environment.

And finally for part 1 of "What's blooming today", a Sinningia 'Prudence Risley is having a good time being red.

You really do want to order one of these from Kartuz. They are pretty nice plants. A medium size and only a little floppy (which might be my fault).

Questions, comments????