Never turn your nose up at an unknown strep leaf offered!

Some of the best streps and avs I just 'happened' on to! We are all guilty of just making a list of 'the BEST' of any gesneriad. That is where we fail. This particular little baby strep was started by a leaf from Bonnie (I think). She is precious and I will never let her go.

The longer I grow the more important I realize it is just to find a way to trade leaves and not try to judge whether we are getting the 'best of the best'. It is always in the eye of the beholder.

Here is Blue Heaven in a tiny pot with her first bloom.
Please share something you have grown that you weren't excited about getting in a trade, etc........and it turned out to be one of your favorite plants.

Agreed Gail, she is precious!

That is really beautiful!

Pat

I love it! No, I can't see myself turning my nose up at Bonnie's or anyone else's on here. I love them all and I can't see anyone growing something that I wouldn't like. Maybe some other type of plants...I don't like cactus LOL.

i got an unknown that turned out to be silvia

Hi everyone!
Isn't it fun to get unknown plants! Today I completely repotted and put strings for wicks in one whole gro light stand of streps. There was one marked 'Spring Day Dreams' but it can't be. Now I can hardly wait for her to bloom to see what this purple instead of pink strep is.........will post it.

I am waiting until Thanksgiving until my friend from Houston comes down to her boys' place in Rockport as she is bringing me another stand from The Container Store in Houston. In the meantime, I don't know how I can squash this many streps together but I will!!!

Aspenjocop,
I am the worst at wanting just the streps I want............but I am learning that some I have never heard of become treasures to me. (Bonnie just sent two strep leaves I am dying for so I can't wait for babies)

Gail,
Are you going back to wicking Streps. again ? I'm just curious.I have gone from my favorite...handwatering...to wicks....to matting....back to handwatering,etc. LOL. Right now the only Strep. I have wicked is the Roulette Cherry you sent me.It is too tall for most of my shelves,so it is on the top shelf on a wick,further from the lights and only in a 2 inch pot.It blooms it's head off that way.

Lynn

Jim told me that since I had all my streps on capillary matting , it would be easier and faster to put strings in them so they absorb the water and fertilizer better. So...............I did one stand today.

I have all my african violets on grids and I am wicking them..........just a different way. The plants sit on the grids and wick the water in a permanest tray the grid is sitting on.

Gail , Doesn't wicking streps keep them wet all the time .................don't all streps want to dry between waterings ? I am kind of lost now :)

Connie

Let me see how to explain how I do it................not very good at teaching anything.

When my streps get dry on the matting, I pour water and fertilizer in the tray. I measure how much I put based on the size of the pots. I try to keep the same size pots in one tray. For example, all 2 1/4" go together.........all 4" pots go together, etc.
After the plants have sat in the water and fertilizer for several hours, I go back and check to see if there is any sitting water. If not, I leave the streps alone until they all dry out again. If there is extra water in the tray, I use my turkey baster to get it out of the tray.

With the heat of the lights on for 11 hours a day, the matting might stay damp a couple of nights but then it dries out along with the plants..........

In this picture you will see that I have not put the string in these pots yet............the ones on the right are in 4" pots so they don't need watering as often as the 3" pots on the left in the picture.............just showing an example of pot size. (Forgive the fact that they have not been groomed in a long time)

Gail, is that spaghnum I see? What are you using for fertilizer?

Your plants always look so gorgeous!

Pat

Those plants look horrible as they haven't been trimmed, groomed, etc............but I think they are basically healthy...........

I use 1/4 tsp. of 20-20-20 (from CApe Cod with very low urea) to a gallon of tap water and Reverse Osmosis water..........
I use 1/8 tsp of Miracid to a gallon of water about every two weeks to keep the soil more acid.......

I tried spaghnum one time growing streps and it was a disaster......once the plant grows you can't separate the roots and divide the plant or do anything with it. Other people are very successful. My mix is just a very light mix...lots of perlite.......

LOL Gail,
I am busy repotting and taking the strings out of all my Streps.!! For me strings and matting didn't work for babies.I was careless and wound up overfertilizing and overwatering and murdered ^_^ a bunch...who knows next month I might be cursing and putting strings back in LOL.

Lynn

LOL @ Lynn!

lynn it happens to the best of us,

Thanks,I feel better now.....I think..... LOL!!

WE have all killed a lot more plants than we have grown successfully (LOL)

yuppers,

Now I feel even better LOL.I had such a bunch of beautiful plants till I tried changing too much at one time.....at least I think that was the problem.I should have experimented with only a few plants....but shouda,coulda,woulda LOL.
I probably got too cocky.Out of 76 Strep. cuttings or leaves only 1 did not make babies....so it's a piece of cake....right?? WRONG.......out of a big bunch of larger ones,plus tons of babies, (a few hundred) I now have a pathetic bunch hanging on for dear life....even some that were big enough to send babies and leaves to others,which I did.
Thanks to my friends here I have lots of leaves down....plus some of my favorites are still really nice looking plants.I guess they were tougher than the rest.

Lynn

I would never Gail, you are still here in spirit!

And you always will be!!!Lou

That is a beautiful bloom!

I really need advice from Gail. My streps look terrible. I just lightened the mix with more perlite but that doesn't seem to be working either.

I don't know...seeing her pictures, she just has magic with streps! I've tried so long to grow them and I just have no luck with streps at all ! Can't grow orchids either. But I can grow just about anything else.

tish

Just keep trying, you'll get it sooner or later.

tish;
keep hanging in there, i had problems at first also, takes awhile to figure out just the right amount of everything. you will get it.
mrsbonnie