African Violets and Gesneriads: Diastema vexans, Amalophyllon clarkii and other rhizomatous, 1 by bsimpson1972

bsimpson1972 wrote:
Hey Tish!

I'm still getting the hang of growing rhizomatous Gessies from seed. I started different ones early December and they looked bad. Etiolated, anemic and bad. But they kept hanging on. Then as soon as the days started getting longer they perked right up and started growing like they are supposed to. My conclusion is that rhizomatous seedlings seem to need more light after germination than other Gessies.

I have some Gloxinella lindeniana seedlings that were doing the same thing. I have both Diastema vexans and Gloxinella lindeniana under lights and on wicks now and they are doing fine.

This morning I noticed that my Niphaea oblonga rhizomes have started breaking dormancy.

BTW: Nancy Kast's article on Primulina tabacum made me curious about this species and sure enough, it was the first plant that I grabbed from the sales table. I followed Nancy's advice, repotted the plant and keep it well watered and fed. It's growing like crazy and has 7 flowerstalks coming up. 2 leaves snapped on the way home and they immediately went into the propagator. Both leaves are still looking good and I guess, I'll have a good chance of babies soon.

Amalophyllon clarkii (Phinaea sp. nov. USBRG 96-336) sprouting rhizomes.