This little plant is just a little doll. Ma's Melody Girl is so pretty. I love her leaves, pretty shades of green girl leaves.
Ma's Melody Girl and Chirita
Here is Chirita Naine Argente. Bought her for her leaves a while ago. She just started to bloom. Just a lovely plant, love her.
I dearly love those girl leaves they are just so darling. What size plant is she? I wonder if it's chiritas that I really like. I was looking at pictures maybe from a conference and saw something that was so brilliant and vibrant and you could see the relationship to the AVs and to orchids like a cross. I saw the name but have forgotten. I'm focused on trying to learn AVs so I didn't pay attention. Besides, if I paid too much attention I might want them too! In fact I know I would. This is an evil hobby, there are sparkly pretty things everywhere to tempt you.
Great pictures Sally!! That Chirita is lovely.
Both are gorgeous Sally! Great growing!
very pretty!
beautiful leaves Sally! How do you grow her? I can't seem to grow Chiritas, except for the 'Dreamtime' Gail sent me! I kill all the ones with the patterned leaves.
Sally, I have been propagating the Naine Argente and I love her. Mine aren't nearly as large and pretty as yours is!
Grow Happy! Glad to see you around and I can't believe you still have 'Dreamtime'
Thanks everyone.
Annacanna, Melody Girl is about five inches wide I think. Really a pretty plant. The Chirita is large. They grow well for me. I appreciate that! :)
Grow Happy, I don't do anything special with my Chirita's. They are under my lights like the av's. Same food. Same soiless mix. The photo shows how they are under the lights.
Sally everything is so neat and beautiful! Wish mine could look like that.
Mine are all cramped up together........streps , that is!!! Yours are so organized and pretty!!
Goldleaf sent me my leaf of this chirita.
Oh there looks like a lot of room inbetween those lights and the plants. I was looking at a stand and it doesn't have that much space I don't think. It's not for a light stand I just thought my techie neighbor could get it to work for me if I bought lights. How much space between the lights and the plants if I try this?
Standard avs need to be 12" -18" above the plants. Semi minis and minis about 7"-9" I think.........
You can buy the shop lights and gro lux full spectrum lights (2 to a fixture) and one fixture to a shelf................at Walmart. They also come with chains and s hooks so you can adjust the height you want for the lights........
then this one I was looking at will not work because it's only 15" between the shelves and I think that the plants will be at least 5 to 10 inches tall when they are older, right? I think my NOID is at least 8 to 10 inches tall. And that would only leave 5 inches oh well I'll keep looking.
The best place to go if you have the room is Lowe's or Sam's. The big 4 feet long, 19" deep and 72" tall gives you 4 great shelves with lots of room...............I think they are 100.00...........that is what mine were. Most of the standard fixtures and lights come in 4' lengths.
Anyone with better ideas, please chime in..........
I have a small apartment and only have one space to put it and it's not 4 feet wide. It's only about 2 feet wide I think but i haven't measured it yet. Maybe a bookshelf with no back and removable shelves. I think I will go to a cheap furniture store and see if they have something like that. I did see a lovely unit from one of the those expensive places. I wish I could afford it. It was the perfect size so maybe I need to start saving.
They also make 24" lights that I understand are quite good. I have them in my kitchen and work great except that I made the mistake of attaching them under each shelf so that the shelves stay real warm all the time. (great for propagating) but not so good for growing.
Annacanna,
If you are growing just African Violets,they do not get tall (as long as they have enough light).Episcias,Petros,smaller Sinningias,and even some of the smaller or flatter growing Streps. will be just fine on 15 inch shelves,as long as the fixtures are flush with the top of the shelf,rather than hanging down several inches.Places like Target have many different size stands,not necessarily called 'plant ' stands.You can usually get them on sale at very reasonable prices.I paid $50 for a 54 tall,48 long,20 deep....That's just an example.Plants that don't need as much light,like those with light colored leaves,can be placed at the end of the tubes,where there is less light.
Great idea , Lynn. I hadn't even thought of Target.
LOL,Gail!!
I had to start out on a shoestring,because thanks to my wonderful friends here ^_^ ,plus ordering from some growers and propagating leaves,I went from one AV last fall to a few hundred Gessies.........from AVS,to Streps,to Chiritas.......and Episcias,Kohlerias,Sinns.,as well as some other Gessies I haven't grown for 20 years,such as an Eucodonia,a Petro.,a Chrysomethis,etc,etc. One of these days I have to get another stand........as soon as I get my extras sent off....got to make more space and time.
Lynn
In two years on DG, I have grown in mass sinningias , (both large and small), episcias, chiritas, all the odd stuff by seed (the species) from Mauro out of Brazil, avs, streps and every gessie I have heard of. I am now up to 8 stands............that is all I can possibly grow and care for............
Propagation is my passion in growing...which reminds me I need to order seed for Jan and me from Mauro and the Gesneriad Society. Jan, Rain and I had growing things we had never even heard of..............such fun from seed..........
Let me see tomorrow if I can find some old pictures........I used not to name them or date them so they are hard to find.