African Violets and Gesneriads: whats your favorite window?, 1 by RainGazer

RainGazer wrote:
I'm no expert, by any means, but I tend to have really good luck with Streps. The only way I've found to really kill them is to just plain not water them. I think they'll do well in pretty much any amount of light. They bloom well for me in all of my windows (being east, south, and west - I don't have good north windows and don't really feel that any plant gets enough light in a north window anyway), they bloom well on my plant stands, even on the shelves that are very close to the lights for the orchids. In choosing a window, I prefer to have them in my south kitchen windows. Those windows have screens and are the low-e windows. I've read that screens can cut down the intensity of sunlight by 50% (but don't know if that's really true or not) and I don't know if the low-e factor has any effect on the intensity of the light. For the most part, just give them some light and they'll bloom their hearts out.

Streps can get crown rot, so it's best not to keep the soil moist all the time. I grow mine in a tray. When they're basically completely dry (but the leaves have not wilted yet) I pour in enough water to come about half an inch up the sides of the pots. That gives them enough to soak up what they want, with only a little bit left standing in the tray, and that usually evaporates within a day or two. If I follow that routine properly, they grow like weeds.

critter, I'd give it a try. 'Kitten Face' is a Strep that is almost always in bloom for me, so it might be a good candidate to try. The blooms are smaller and aren't very vividly colored, but there are so many that I just can't resist loving it! :o) The crazy thing put up a bloom stalk and bloomed, then grew a plant at the end of the bloom stalk and now it's blooming like mad! I had to prop it up with a skewer!