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????

Gloxinia erinoides, K. 'Strawberry Fields', Chautemsia calcicola, Columnea herthae, Microchrita 'Phuket', S. 'Prudence Risley' and S. bullata

This is becoming one of my favorite plants in the collection. It's Gloxinia erinoides. It's labeled Gloxinia erinoides 'Alto Paraiso'. It's supposed to have plain green leaves but it has the coolest spotted leaves with redish highlights. It looks more like the Google searches for G. erinoides 'Red Satin', but this was grown from seed from the Brazil fund and it "should" be what it says it is.

In any case, this is a cool plant with cute tiny flowers and it likes it humid!

This is an old friend, Kohleria "Strawberry fields". Nice plant that blooms and blooms and blooms with a huge head of flowers even on a starter plant.











Great red blooms held up on top of the plant.

 Haven't had a pic of this on for a while. It's Chautemsia calcicola. It's a tiny thing with small purple rhizomes. It really needs to be kept moist or it does NOT do it's thing. If you keep it too dry, and it still grows for you, the leaves will turn out tiny. If it does get what it wants, it seems to make a pretty good terrarium plant that is reasonably easy to get to bloom.

The one outstanding things about it is that it really makes the rhizomes in abundance (it seems) and they do start again after you've goofed it up a few times. Don't toss the pot till you've really searched for the little purple rhizomes.

 Got a baby of a formerly named Chirita augustifolia.

They make an easy offshoot to propagate.

 This is one of my favorites too. It's a Columnea lehmanii now known as a Columnea herthae. This little plant is pretty darn cool! I'm not sure if the flowers ever open much, but it sends out these little fuzzy blooms and they are really showy and cool and this is a plant you really need.

I keep this one under a dome too, and I'm not sure I have to, but it seems to like the humidity.

 Another picture of the blooms and bracts. Not bad eh???

 My Microchirta (annual) species from Phuket made the seed pod you might be able to make out on the upper right side. It's the long pointy pod like a Strep.

I'm going to set that seed and share, and see if I can keep the plant going after it dies for the season... being an annual and all.

Nice plant, it likes the humidity too... seeing a pattern today at all???

This is a Sinningia 'Prudence Risley'. There is nothing at all not to be in love with with this plant. It's got every good feature you want and nothing you don't!

Look at the color and size of the flowers!

Look at the pleasant size and good foliage!

Find this one!

Lastly, for today, but not least(ly).... This ia a baby Sinningia bullata. I get such a kick out of the fuzz. Nice plant. It seems to get big and I was so very sad to lose my tuber of my big one last winter, but I'm starting out with another and we'll see that we don't water this one too much.


It was very, very finicky about starting from a cutting, whereas some of the other Sinningias just threw themselves off the counter so they could put down some roots off a busted leaf, this one is a hard... or at least here it's proven to be tough to start more.

Questions????


Comments???? WE ANSWER QUESTIONS.....

Interesting Stuff Continued or Sinningia Tubers, and 'Prudence Risley"

 On November 27th, 2010 the post for that day was showing the progress of some of the Sinningias and other things that were being propagated.

You will note the tuber and the roots forming on this Sinningia.

 Here is another Sinningia that is doing something just a bit different than the first. It's putting out some leaves as well as roots. I think that there is a tuber forming but it's smaller than the tuber in the first photo.

Now this is a tuber being formed! Here is 'Playful Porpoise' making a rather large and robust tuber after only 32 days in a small starter pot filled with perlite and vermiculite. It's been watered with a urea-free orchid fertilizer periodically also.

And lest we haven't praised the Sinningia 'Prudence Risley' enough, it decided to BLOOM in it's starter pot, while forming the tuber you can see at the base (surrounded by the new and rather extensive root system.)


Any comments to share with the gang today???