Sinningia 'Diva', Scampering Kittens, African violets outdoors, and Columnea 'Red Skelton'

 This is Sinningia 'Diva' that was given to me by Patrick Worley.  I don't know where he got it or it's background, but it's very lovely and has a good double effect.

The plant is medium in height and not too sprawly!

 Winston is trying his best to look innocent while hiding his sister who is frolicking behind him... note the tail and ears....

This is Ivy. She's wondering why some weirdo human is screaming and shouting and jumping around like the chipmunks do outside. She's confused.

 This is Walter the Gardening Cat. He knows that it takes a more subtle approach to be a gardening cat. First you have to lull the unsuspecting "humans"into a false sense of calm before proceeding to "garden". He knows that if he's very cute and in his box... he'll be all but ignored while he's actually trying to "help" with the gardening.

 This is the dish garden from the spring show. It sits outside in the rain and wind and dappled shade and the African violet grows just fine, thank-you-very-much! So much for the superstition about ever getting any water on the leaves or changes in temperatures... they do just fine as an outside plant as long as they don't have too much direct sun.

The blooms also seem to be a brighter intensity of color. The one drawback is the little chipmunk bites out of the front two leaves however.... oh well....

 I was so excited to see some orange in one of the trays yesterday. It is Columnea 'Red Skelton' which seems to have HUGE blooms on a small plant.

Not bad, eh???


Questions???

Comments????

Transplanting Sinningia Seedlings, Sinningia bullata x douglasii x self

Obviously, these seedlings are opening the box for themselves and desperately trying to crawl out. Time to pot them up into a little larger space.

These are from the Gesneriad Society Seed Fund. It's the top label, the natural hybrid of Sinningia bullata x leopoldii x self.

 This is what they look like with the cover off. They are quite crowded but healthy and ready for transplanting.

 Just the usual reminder, always label your work with the plant's name, and any other information you wish to remember. It can't be said enough times that you will (after a couple of months) NOT remember just which of the little pots had the "special" plant you wanted to check on.

 Gently lift the mass of seedlings out of the original pot. Trying to extract them one at a time still in the container seems to damage many and not be very useful.

I like to use a "recycled" party tray for a work space. The bright white plastic makes finding what you're looking for much easier. Before you start ripping and tearing, take a second to really LOOK at what you're about to do. There's usually a better side to start out with than the others.

 A little magnification doesn't hurt and some tools with delicate ends don't hurt either. You don't need tweezers but a nice slim skewer with a pointed end, or a thin object pointed like a pencil helps loosen tangled roots a bit more delicately than a huge set of fingers.

 I was so EXCITED to find that the seedlings had already produced tiny tubers! This is pretty cool if you ask me! It also says that I probably was leaving the seedlings in the seedling-box too long. You can see the little ball and some roots in the center of the photo.

 This was another seedling with a tuber already forming. Some of the seedlings didn't have such handsome tubers yet, but you get the idea.... Sinningias are great! They try to protect themselves from infant-hood onwards with a tuber that will start growing again if something terrible happens to the top, such as being eaten off by livestock.

Here is a shot of the three RED community pots I put the seedlings in so they can continue to grow larger. (The orange are S. douglasii). I got the community pot idea from Patty K!!!! She makes the excellent point that the seedlings need to have some roots growing before they need individual pots. Why waste 20 or 30 two inch pots and all the soil that goes into each of them when a few community pots will allow plenty of space for each of the babies for now and take up much less room under the lights when they are first establishing themselves. After the plants get slightly crowded in these pots and have a healthy root system they can go into an individual pot.

After the community pots have their precious seedlings in them, they need to be modestly watered so that the soil is MOIST but not soaking, soggy and drippy.... then put the seedlings in a tray with a dome on it so that it mimics the closed environment that they just came from in their little closed deli container. You will slowly transition them to open air later.

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Alsobia RM 2010-2 and Other Fun Stuff

 This is special. Here is a yet unnamed Alsobia recently collected by (I believe) Ron Myhr. The Violet Barn is selling it currently. The plant seems to be a good size grower but even a small plant has multiple blossoms.

 This bloom is about an inch long and at least half an inch wide along the tube. The opening flares out to show a really cool throat with all sorts of spots!

 This will be a popular plant I think. And with the large flowers, it might be fun to hybridize with it too.

 This was blooming in the other room. It looks like an octopus and well.... even though this is an orchid, it needed to be put in this post.

 I'm a fan of the Thumbergia battiscombei. It's like the "Blue Sky Flower" Thumbergia (which, btw, they have in the Como's new tropical display) but this one refuses to be killed by neglect, no water, plant-torture and chilly conditions. With some good culture it would really be a cool specimen.

 I found a S. 'White Sprite' blooming next to the S. pusilla. Both are alive and well, another success with micro minis.

 This thing is putting on a nice display. It probably should have the flowers more open and less curled but the multiple blooms per stem is very nice.

It's a Streptocarpus 'Versace'

 Nice color on this Jessup x self Sinningia. The purple throat is even more dramatic in person, but the petal color pretty much shows up correctly in the photo.

I just really like this photo. It's a Streptocarpus 'Silvia'. All summer long in the heat my collection almost died out. This plant, although not good looking, held on and keeps blooming. I'm hoping it stays alive so it grows into a plant for a show at some point.

If you send me an email (club members) I can post whatever you have blooming, or growing, or even perishing... you don't need to know how to use the blog if you don't want to fuss with it, just shoot me an email with a photo attachment.

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.

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What's Bloomin'

 Lots of things are blooming today. Here's the miniature Sinningia speciosa  from the other day with most of its blooms open. A real cool plant.

 Here's a chimera African violet called 'Emerald City' The lavender pinwheel pattern is accented by the green tipped petals.

 'Jim's Daphne's Choice' Episcia is a really nice clear yellow color. There aren't too many really good yellows in Episcias yet, but this one is very pretty.

 Chirita tamiana is a great little plant that is about the size of a semi-miniature violet. It's easy to grow and get to bloom and the blooms last a nice amount of time. It might be my favorite Chirita.

New to me is this Primulina tabacum. Cool little flowers on this plant. I just got it but I hear that they get larger : )

 This is Dale Martens Streptocarpus 'Tanzanite'. Nice flowers on a smallish plant. Fun to grow.

Now this is an interesting one. xCodonanthus Aurora. It blooms on a small starter plant with a really nice looking peachy flower with a lighter cream color lip. 

 Can't forget the Sinningia 'Gabriel's Horn' tricolor sport. This one is a favorite too with it's calyx double flower.

 Not quite blooming, but Sinningia leopoldii has kept compact to about 6" tall and already it's making flowers! YAY! Not a three foot high monster this time.

Here's a Petrocosmea 'Shortin' Bread'. Nice shape with no fuss and cute little blue flowers.






The last one for today..... an unnamed Streptocarpus that looks for all the world like 'Purple Panda'. Whatever the name, it's really stunning with the pure white top petals and the hint of netting on them.

What do YOU have blooming? Send pix....

What's Bloomin'

 Here's a little small growing Sinningia specosia that I found at a "big box" store about a year ago. It's going to rebloom this week!

 It's entire diameter is about 8" across which makes it about the size of a standard violet but with bigger and more delightful flowers.

 This is a miniature Sinningia called 'Freida'. This is its first bloom here. Looks like it will be a nice medium size and the color is bright and charming.

 How about Ozark 'Pink Sunrise'?

 Finally, I got some flowers on the Streptocarpus saxorum. It's one of the family that has a branching habit. It's caulescent - having a well-developed stem above ground.

 I'm wondering about trying to cross it with something..... hmmm

 This is S. 'Peachy Propeller'. It's like S. 'Gabriel's Horn' in that it has a second row of "petals" (which is actually an altered calyx) but in this case... I was expecting a bit more show out of the flower.

 It's sort of cool, but.... I'll wait and see what it does when it blooms more.

 Sinningia 'Laura'. A classic. Nice color, nice shape and a nice medium growing size that stays good looking.

Here's the sprawling, winding and overall floppy but interesting old-tyme S. 'Apricot Bouquet'. It's always putting out a few flowers here and there and it makes sort of a cheerful addition to the collection.