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!


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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!!!!

What's Bloomin', xNiphemenes 'Lemonade', Alsobia 'Cygnet', Achimenes 'Grape Wine', S. 'Gabriel's Horn', and Ivy with P. tabacum

 Ok, this is cool.... you have to think this is cool.... it is an intergeneric crossing a Niphea with an Achimenes! You get this cute thing.

I got it as a tiny plant and it obviously needs a couple seasons to grow out and I need to give it more light.

 It's a bit of a string now, but the leaves are very interesting with the dark venation and the bloom couldn't be cuter.

I'm thinking that it has rhizomes??? Haven't looked yet, but soon.... oh soon!

 Here's an old favorite, Alsobia 'Cygnet'. Cool blooms and a nicely compact plant this time.

Sometimes these Alsobias get pretty long and stringy also, but this one is doing pretty well. These would look nice on a natural mount like a cork bark or something similar.

 I've never tried any of the Achimenes prior to this year and I'm hooked.

I've learned some things... squirrels like to dig up the rhizomes and throw them on the ground if you put the pot outdoors.

 You CAN grow them under lights apparently.... I've not yet mastered the lush and full look yet, but the blooms make up for that. This one is 'Grape Wine'.

 Another favorite... one of the sport colors I think. This is Sinningia 'Gabriel's Horn' in the pink.

I like the calyx double thing going on.

This is Ivy looking at the Primulina tabacum. She is quite impressed that they look so lush and full. But... she mentions discretely that they need some grooming to remove spent blossoms... 1/2 point off for each of those!

Stay tuned for the second half of "What's Blooming Today".

Questions???

Comments???

Peloric Streptocarpus, Sinningia bullata and Other Fun Stuff

 I'm so excited whenever this thing comes into bloom and I know I haven't killed it up good (yet).... This is a really pretty cool 6 petal, peloric Streptocarpus that I grew from a selfing of an unnamed Strep that was white with some pink throat lines. The original parent wasn't this handsome. This plant shows a much more defined 6 petal peloric pattern and a very nice bold center pattern.

 I'm not perfectly sure if the same plant throws up different flowers or if by chance two seeds just grew up together in the same pot and I've never separated it over the years. This past horribly hot summer almost saw the end of this particular plant but by some wonderful chance it's still alive. You can see that some of the other flowers have the 6 petal design, but not the symmetric markings.

 Not all that rare, but I enjoy the fact that I can get a Streptocarpella 'Concord Blue' to bloom indoors. Perhaps it finally has enough light!

 I'm going to see if I can take some pix over the course of the next few days and watch as this Aeschynanthus radicans opens it's flowers. I like the fuzzy blooms.

 My very favorite plants have some sort of weird attribute to them and this one gets my vote as fuzziest and most adorable to grow. It's a Sinningia bullata. Mine got all sprawly and lanky over the summer, but the newer brighter lights might just do this thing some good too. It's been notoriously hard to get to make babies from cuttings. It even made a small tuber from a leaf cutting but would not continue to grow.

 I might (and I emphasize might) be coming around to the charms of micro minis. This is Sinningia pusilla. It's a pretty small little plant but I guess it's cute. It grows in a terrarium and seldom gets too dry. The flowers are huge compared to the size of the plant.

 Now... here's something more worthy of admiration, in my humble opinion. It's a Eucodonia 'Adele'. This is unbelievably a cutting that is sitting in a jar of water getting roots (or not). It just keeps blooming. I've had tremendous success getting Eucodonia to root and make more plants at most any time of year. Although this rhizomatous plant probably should be dormant, mine seem to stay in growth mode for most of the year.

 Back to the Primulina tabacum flower. It gets its photo in the blog again because the flower is so cool.
Is it a chimera???

Ok, couldn't resist. It's a begonia. It's in a color that most of the gesies don't bother with and therefore had to be put in this post so that there was some of nature's best color represented. Seems begonias like fluorescent lights too.

How about comments???? Go ahead.... leave a few.... ;)