Bringing in the Gesneriads from their summer outdoors! And, who knew that Sinningias made tubers so quickly outdoors?

 Here are some pots of gesneriads that went outdoors for the summer.

I had heard quite a few times that gesneriads, especially Sinningias, grow very well outside. Here in Minnesota the season is short and it was especially hot this year but they did seem to grow well.

 Here's a shot of the pots with a Sinningia macrostachya hanging down and if you will notice at the very bottom, blooming with the red tubular flowers.

 The Sinningia that just got popped out of the ground was looking good, note the size of the tuber on this one.

 Ok, so the post is mostly about the tubers! I was getting a kick out of the fact that most were filling the pot from side to side.

If you can see it the tuber starts at the left and goes to the very right side of the pot.

 Yep.... more tubers. This one made multiple tubers from a Sinningia reitzii.











Couldn't resist this shot... you can see the plastic pot distorting right before it pops.

Like this pot... it popped right open and this is what was inside of this Sinningia tubiflora.

Apparently it makes a roundish tuber plus underground stems of some sort also. I don't quite know if you can take these apart now or if you have to let this make more of a colony of plants.











Here's a shot of the tubers which can be separated from each other. They were laying side by side like garlic cloves do.

The outdoor collection is waiting to get into some trays for bringing back inside. They've been treated with Imidacloprid, let's hope it works.

These gesneriads do not seem to get any bug pests or get eaten by such terrors as Japanese beetles, which even tasted the Voo Doo lilies this year... blech!!!!

 Although it looks a lot like Sinningia tubiflora (which it probably has in the ancestry, it is Sinningia 'Apricot Bouquet'. It made a great tuber from only the cutting that got placed outdoors in June.

 The Sinningia macrostachya got long and will probably be trimmed. This Sinningia is especially forgiving and will root easily from cuttings, make giant tubers and won't rot when many other Sinningias seem to.

And lastly (for now) but not least-ly.... a Sinningia cardinalis cutting that went outdoors and managed to bloom! It's in nice shape and will look great under the lights!


Questions???

Comments???

Paliavana and Drymonia BLOOMING at last!!!

Hello..... this is a Paliavana!!!!! I"m told it's a Paliavana gracillis, but then again the pictures of it look like a Paliavana tenuiflora. Either way it is a Paliavana and it is mine and it is BLOOMING!!!!!!!!

 Now you have to admit, this is a pretty good looking flower!

The plant is finally happy after being tormented under low-light conditions. Now, that this cutting lives at a proper greenhouse, (it took about 4 months) *poof, it bursts into bloom... and what a lot of bloom it will have too.

 The flowers are in part bat pollinated. I don't have any bats handy to test out this claim, but it seems that it's certainly big enough for a bat to try to put it's little head in there.....

 The plant will have quite a lot of blooms. I'm hoping to see if it will either set some seed, or it can be crossed with a Sinningia or two and make something interesting!

This is something different, it's a Drymonia oinochrophylla. These are really cool little shiny plants that make the nicest rosy purple flowers! An outstanding small gesneriad that does nothing but grow pleasantly and did I mention that the leaves were shiny??? More pix of this one when it opens.