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????


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Walter the Gardening Cat Gets Assistants

The blog has been on hiatus due to unforeseen circumstances.....

Back a couple of posts ago, Walter was not alone. He had some company in the plant room. If you will notice, his company was as round as a basketball and waddled.

*note Mamma was a pregnant stray taken from an area with all four-lane roads, traffic and cement and now given a permanent, loving and SAFE indoor home with veterinary care.

 SURPRISE!!!!

Walter welcomed into the world some newly minted gardening help. He was feeling a bit overwhelmed with his plant chores and thought some assistants would be a great idea.

This assistant is only three hours old.

 The "Itty Bitty Pretty Kitty Committee" started off at four ounces and had its eyes tight shut and ears folded down.












Walter did not expect quite so much a resemblance because he is only the "uncle" to the young ones.

 We spent a lot of time sleeping and eating.... eating and sleeping.

 Walter paid only a short and tiny visit to the happy new family and knew that he should wait about a month until trying that again if he valued his anatomy in one piece!

 We grew and grew and got weighed each day to see if we were making the proper progress.

 One day we even got to go on a field trip and try out a new soft bed (mostly for photo purposes). That did not last however. Mamma preferred keeping her family were they were and where she could keep a very, very close eye on them.







And speaking of eyes, our eyes opened to reveal a stunning blue!

After the "Kitty Committee" grew for a while they moved to a room where there were more toys and more fun. They invented all sorts of games like "King of the Pillow" which is still a Committee favorite.

 The Kitty Committee was charted and graphed and it amazed everyone that the growth was so perfectly linear. I wonder if they show you that at vet school?







The "Committee" even decided that being weighed wasn't so bad, they would assist in "helpful" ways.

 We're now much bigger and feistier and will challenge all toys that get in the way.

But, really... after all that hard play and training for the new plant room assistant job, there has to be a little down time. They are practicing some "nap therapy" now, which involves a vigorous round of wrestling and then a sudden drop into a coma.





Walter, in one of his weaker moments, was caught being nice to the kittens and snuggling. He will make a fine "horticultural tutor" when the Kitty Committee is ready to learn. 

Stay tuned for future updates on training for plant recognition, plant tasting and plant shelf selection.

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Thor, Streptocarpus 'Janice' and Alsobia 2010-2, all for your enjoyment!

 I'd like you to meet Thor! This is a voo doo lily, an Amorphophallus konjac. Thor gets quite large and takes over a bold and decisive place in the garden. Thor also got a tuber that was over 10 pounds in weight by the end of the growing season. Ahhhhhhh..... cool plants.

 This is Streptocarpus 'Janice'. Janice grew the seeds out from one of the free packets of seed the club was giving out at the Fair and Fall Show last year. Some of the seeds were from pods that were hanging out around here. But, who knew that the flower that would come out would be so cool and different from its possible parents? This one has a different shape entirely than anything I've seen out there currently, and it's much wider than tall. I think that it has some potential to be a cool plant. The downside of this one is that the leaves might not be as good looking as the flowers though. Some Streps do a better job of having tidy and good looking leaves.

And this is one of the newly found Alsobias 2010-2. Now that is a cool flower. I'm thinking that it also has a cool pollinator with the color directing the insect (or bird) right to the good stuff down into the tube of the flower.

Beautiful pictures, and thanks to Janice for sharing.

Questions??? Comments???? Also... please share too... 

David Thompson Streptocarpus from eBay, Black Streptocarpus 'DS Gotika' and more!

 Walter has a little surprise for you today.... he has been on eBay and found something that really made him happy. He found a BLACK flower that matches himself. He was pretty excited about it and figured out how to hack into the Pay Pal account.

*sigh

 First off though (to build excitement), this is Streptocarpus 'Victorian Lace'. It's not a Thompson hybrid but it's available on some of D. Thompson's eBay auctions.

This is a really beautiful hybrid that I hope more people grow!

Now HERE IS THE BLACKEST of the Streptocarpus currently available, - or so it's claimed. As you can see it really does show up as quite "black" although it's a deep indigo purple color. This is called Streptocarpus 'Gotika' which translates out to 'Gothic'.

This was introduced in Russia by Pavel Enikeev.

 It's very showy especially against other lighter Streps like the one directly under it which is Thompson's 'Morning Edition'. Unlike many other eBay sellers, Thompson sends plants that are in bud or in bloom which really sort of enhances the experience of getting that box in the mail. You get instant satisfaction and you don't have to wait to long to see what the flower looks like.

Sometimes the plants, although expertly packed (from all the sellers I've tried) suffer a little from the stress of getting beaten up thoroughly by the shipping services.

 This is another Strep. by Thompson called Saturn. It's got some 'Fleischle Roulette Cherry' heritage in there plus 'Night Beacon'. I think that this will be really showy when grown out as well.

This is a shot of the baby tray with one more variety showing up in the lower left corner of the photo, Azure Giant.

When this plant is a little older the flowers on Azure Giant will easily get to be over FOUR inches across. This is a cool plant!

Even if you are not interested in purchasing plants from eBay, it's very interesting to see what is out there to purchase. Many genus and hybrids that are not available commercially are to be found periodically. I've been trying to get some of Dale Marten' intergeneric hybrids. Changing your search slightly (by adding an 's' to make your word plural for example) can significantly change the results you get. Try out words like 'gesneriad', African violet kin, etc and see what you find.

Comments??? Questions????

Smithiantha multiflora from seed

 Here are the first blooms from my seedlings of Smithiantha multiflora!

Wooooooooot! I can't be any happier with them. The blooms even have a pleasant scent some of the day.

Here's a nice close shot of the flower. It's got a great clear white with the yellow in the throat, the foliage appears to be staying nice and dark giving it an over all lovely contrast. The plant seems like a winner!



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Feeling Red Today.... or... What's Bloomin' in the old plant room now.

 This is Streptocarpus 'Dale's Scarlet Macaw'. It's got the species dunnii in the ancestry which gives it its really good red color. The plant is quite slow growing at some points though and a bit of patience is required.

This plant produces numerous flowers per bloom stalk and it makes an interesting parent in hybridization. Dale Martens is the hybridizer and it's just one of her many, many cool  hybrids!

 In keeping with the red theme, this looked like a nice flower to add to the post. It's got the slightly lighter pink edges on the flower and that makes the flower really stand out.

 Much to my shame, it's an unnamed Kohleria. Somewhere along the line labels get up in the middle of the night and go missing. Whoopsie.

Even though you don't get the right name, it's still pretty nice to look at on a rainy day.

I got this Strep. at a local garden center (Tonkadale) and it has a really interesting red veining pattern over the hot magenta petal color. The point being that some garden centers and other retail outlets are finding out about the charms of Streptocarpus and hopefully more and more people will start growing them. With the recent explosion of hybridization taking place with Streps there have been some major advancements in pattern and color combinations. It'll be fun to see when they become as popular as petunias!

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Microchirita species, Thailand Phuket, Kohleria Napoleon V and Rattlesnake, Smithiantha multiflora and more are blooming today!

 This is Primulina (Chirita) species (Phuket). How about this for a cute plant?

The person that passed these around to the club started them from seed from the Gesneriad Society Seed Fund! A great place to get seed from for members, and a good reason to join and become a member.

 This little plant bloomed while quite small, as you can see. It's supposed to be an annual, so if you are enjoying it this year, be sure to let it set some seed so that you can replant and enjoy it again and again. It also requires very high humidity. Keep this one in an enclosure or spot where it won't dry out.

 This is Kohleria 'Napoleon V'. I really like the color contrast and the nice "gesneriad hair" this one has. It's blooming on a very small plant too.

 This Kohleria 'Rattlesnake" is also a nicely colored flower with the top two petals having the darker coloration.

Kohleria like quite a bit of light to stay short and sturdy and they also can be pinched to encourage branching. This allows them to become a nicely shaped plant.

 I'm pretty excited about this one. It's Smithiantha multiflora. It will have white blooms with yellow centers and it's just a seedling but already setting flowers. While Smithiantha can get to be tall, the spikes of flowers are sure to be very worth the "tall" factor.

 This little Episcia 'Jim's Daphane's Choice' is a really good, clear yellow. I'm hoping that something cool will happen with the Alsobia 'Chiapas' pollen I pollinated it with too. Perhaps they are closely enough related to do something interesting.

How about a miniature Sinningia 'Maiden's Blush'?? These are from seed also and blooming all over the place. It's a small plant but pretty nice and compact with the light and blush colored blooms.

So... that's what's blooming in the ole' plant room today. What about yours??? Send a photo and we'll post it so that everyone can share the fun of seeing what's bloomin'.

Comments???