Capillary Watering Mats: How DO They Make Them Anyway?

First of all, you probably will need some help with this project.

Truthfully, you don't need help because it's a quick and easy project, but sometimes you get help anyway and have to work with it whether you like it or not.







Capillary, or MAT WATERING is one method of providing water to your plants. The plants sit on the fabric (which you make wet by pouring water into your tray) and the plants absorb the water. This is a quick method for watering a larger number of plants. Top watering each plant in a collection of 100 takes quite a long time, simply adding water to a mat-watering tray of perhaps 10-15 plants takes only seconds.

You will note that most of the typical trays sold at garden centers are roughly 22 inches by 11 inches. The interior floor-surface that you would be putting the mat down on is just a bit smaller. A piece of fabric (your mat) can be roughly 20 inches by 10 inches and fit perfectly in the tray.


Polar fleece, also known as simply fleece fabric is a nice choice for this. You can get just the amount of fabric you want and it's non-rotting because it's synthetic and easily washable.

You will need good table space so you can spread out the fabric and measure it. And, you will need a decent scissors. There is NO substitution for a decent scissors!!!!!

 Explaining size and layout to others can be a bit confusing, so hopefully this diagram will be of some use. TWO continuous yards of fabric is the easiest length to use.  It's the most practical, and cost effective length to choose. Do NOT bother with a single yard, you do not get many mats and you waste a lot of fleece.


Fleece is sold on a bolt and it's folded. It is typically 58-60 inches wide (or 30" folded) This is PERFECT FOR OUR USE!
Two yards is 72" long. Our mats are 20 inches long each. You can see that you can get three 20" lengths (or 60 inches of length) used with about 12 inches left over. If you unfold the very last 12" -see diagram - you can still get three more mats cut and you will have literally almost NO waste.

You lay out your fabric on the table. I only actually measure ONE of the mats, making it a measured 20"x10" mat. I put that mat onto my uncut fabric as a pattern, or template and cut my fleece from there. The photo shows that you can get three 10" wide and 20" long pieces from the uncut fleece.

This is NOT a project for the obsessive compulsive. Fleece is stretchy and not all the edges on the piece are perfect. Some of your mats will be a bit larger or a bit smaller or imperfectly rectangular. This is not a problem. The water will still be absorbed by your plant whether your mat is perfectly shaped or not.

When you get your mats cut, you place one in the bottom of the tray and pour whatever water or fertilizer solution you use on the mat. The plants then take up what they need. It also helps increase humidity around your plant. You'll have to experiment with just how much water to pour on, it varies with how large and thirsty the plants YOU grow are, how dry your room is etc. The mats are washable. Shake off any soil bits and toss them in the washer. They can be bleached, or they can simply be rinsed off with a hose, or in a sink. (Don't put dirt down the sink drain.)

Having a double set let's you wash some and still have mats in the trays. Also, although white is usually out of fashion after September 1st, (and there are 100's of colors of fleece) I chose white, not because it is hard to keep looking nice, but because it might reflect more light to the plant compared to black fleece or a darker color. You can experiment with what color you might want to try.

You will get 21 mats from two yards of fleece. Here's my helper doing a quality check. If you aren't quite sure about the layout, write a comment and we'll see if we can help!

What's Doin' the Bloomin': Sinningia 'Zillanova'

Meet Sinningia 'Zillanova' This is a really nicely indestructible hybrid of Sinningia bullata crossed with something I can't track down today.

The Kartuz catalog describes the plant as, "Showy deep salmon pink flowers above attractive bubbly textured leaves. Large, easy grower. New Sinningia hybrid by Jim Steuerlein." 

I was curious about the white line patterns in the flowers. I thought I was doing something to the buds. But, the only other photo I could find on the internet of this plant also shows the interesting line pattern.

This plant went through very hot conditions and still kept nice looking leaves. It seems to be a winner!

Scary Meeting - One Dark and Stromy Night

 The Halloween meeting started off "innocently" enough with some talk of "creating new creatures to roam the .... ", uh, I mean hybridizing a nice Aeschynanthus humilis with a super secret bunch of pollen. The goal will be to get a cross that will be, as the mad scientist termed, "special"!!!

 The pollen, which is visible on the white paper in the top photo is put on selected stamen (which are sticky and ready to be pollinated). The preferred method of transferring the pollen to the 'mother' plant is very simple. Get enough pollen on your index finger so that you can see it and carefully transfer it to a potentially ready flower. Many such crosses were made to hopefully ensure that some were successful and seeds would be produced.

 Following the laboratory demonstration, *evil laughter sounding in the background, the "Night of the Living Dead" program proceeded. This is the night when the contestants bring their plants that are closest to DEAD (but still showing some 'spark' of life) and they compete with them for the Best Horticultural Specimen prize!

 The competition was fierce! A panel of expertly trained judges (five of them) examined all the entries for any visible sign of green. Much careful deliberation was made. Valuable and awesome prizes, plus the "honor" of recognition was on the line!

 Frighteningly twisted, this entry made it to the top of the heap.

The owner and proud grower of such a horror (shall I mention names???) is really the all time record holder of the title with this being the THIRD CONSECUTIVE YEAR OF WINNING IT ALL!

Congratulations Sue! : )

PS: This plant was slated for dissection and burial but will be stuck in a bag and resuscitated... and brought back to life!!!!!!!!! Mwhahahahhahahhahahahaha

 Another prize for either most artistic or just plain weirdest went to this thing.... a Paliavana of some genus that has grown to "frightening" proportions! Crawling and climbing it's way past any of the other specimens in its way it has become.....

 

 Six or seven feet of horrifyingly vigorous Kudzu-cousinie fun! It's "bat" pollinated too!

Lastly, in the chamber of horrors (or propagation box as it's usually known) we were treated to a demonstration of how to properly set up a prop-box with multiple genus' and how to keep them all straight and labeled properly. The photo doesn't show well the fact that everything is labeled from left to right (like a book) so that it's easy to always have the proper name on the specific plant!

Come to the next meeting to hear if there was any success with our lab creations!

Fall African Violet and Gesneriad Show

Bachman's Heritage room was the site of  this year's North Star African Violet Council's show and sale.

The Gesneriad Society also had a lovely display of gesneriads at the show to interest and hopefully delight the public who came to see them this weekend.

One of the gesneriads on display was the Aeschynanthus humilis which has been growing over at the CBS. It was in full and lovely bloom for the occasion.














Lots of really well grown violets were on display and for sale also. This one is especially colorful and beautiful!

The next opportunity to see gesneriads and violets on display will be at the Har Mar spring show at the end of March. Mark your calendars now so you don't foget!

Seemannia sylvatica - now in a store near you!

 Look at what awesome plant was just sitting on display waiting to be purchased at Linder's Greenhouse in St. Paul???

This is a Seemannia sylvatica 'Bolivian Sunset', which was formerly called Gloxinia sylvatica (which is on it's current label that it's marked with at the store.)

Text taken from the outstanding website owned by Ron Myhr, the Gesneriad Reference Web:

"The species in the genus Seemannia were formerly placed in Gloxinia until a revision of the group in 2005.  The revision resulted in a number of other changes to the rhizomatous Gesneriads, in addition to the transfer of these species to Seemannia. 

Seemannia is comprised of four species with primarily red or reddish tubular flowers.  While similarities in appearance do not always indicate close relatedness, genetic analysis in this instance suggests that the morphological similarities do in fact reflect underlying relatedness.

Seemannia is primarily an Andean genus, distributed through Bolivia, northern Argentina and southern Peru.  S. sylvatica is known as far north as southern Ecuador.

The most widely grown of this group is S. sylvatica, which has also contributed to a number of hybrids.  This is a variable species.

All members of Seemannia have rhizomatous storage structures at the root, and typically die back seasonally, usually in response to drought, before re-sprouting when more favorable weather arrives.  They are therefore easily propagated from rhizomes, and can also be easily propagated from tip cuttings.  Under some circumstances, these plants will produce long stringy/wiry aerial propagules, which can also be planted to produce additional plants."

Hope you enjoyed the Gesneriad Reference Web's site, it's owned and maintained by Ron Myhr.

There are quite a few great looking plants at the store currently and some unusual gesneriads such as Aeschynanthus
 that are not simply 'Lipstick plants', Episcias, lovely S. speciosa and perhaps a Codonanthe vine (which I've never seen on sale commercially before.)

Making a Natural Garden for a Show, Part 1

 Before beginning a natural garden, you have to select the proper plant material. Although it's not recommended, sometimes tasting it helps the "artist" get the feel for his masterpiece.

 Inspecting the plants sometimes includes checking if there are other interesting features about the plant, such as rhizomes. With gesneriads, this feature can really make an arrangement.

Selecting the natural item for the base is important. Does it have pockets and spaces to plant in? Is it good looking? Is it something that you can "really get into"???

  Are there any mice in the crevices?

 When in doubt, check all the holes thoroughly, with both hands.

With arrangements it's good to really pay attention to all the details.  Chew the extra bits off the back so that it will look good from all angles. It's those extra touches that will make your display stand out from the rest.

And finally, if you can really get into your work, it's probably going to look "smashing" at the show.

Stay tuned for planting the natural garden in part 2 of our series, and transporting it to show in part 3.

Special thanks to Walter for modeling and technical support. We just couldn't do it without him.

Sinningia 'Apricot Bouquet' and Friend

Although the photo shows 'Apricot Bouquet' pinker than it might look in natural light outside, I was surprised to find this little friend sitting on the leaf.

Here in Minnesota we don't have many exotic looking pollinators ... and not all that many find their way inside a home and onto a plant that perfectly complements their handsome coloration! If magnified enough you can see pollen sticking to the feet of this little fly. I was sort of hoping to see if any of the flowers would form a pod.