Northern Illinois Gesneraid Society Show & Sale

Hi All:
Just tpo let you know we rae having our show march 18 & 19 at the Chicago Botanical Gardens. If you are any where near, stop by & see us.
Bonnie

Sure wish I could Bonnie.Are you entering any plants this year?

Lynn

I'd love to go, Bonnie, but if it's not in walking distance, I can't go!

I need to see if there are any gesneriad shows in my part of the universe . . . I have so many questions regarding gessies other than violets . . .

I'd love to go and see Bonnie's plants, but can't right now.

What kind of questions Nichole?

Is it supposed to do that? How many blooms is it supposed to have? If it has more than one crown, is it disqualified from entering? Is it allowed to have stolons branching out, or do I have to have them all tucked in? How can I tell if it's ready to be repotted? Is it ok if the strep only has one large leaf? How big should this get? What can I do to make the bronzing color go away? Does this variety need more humidity than this one? Does this need a special type of plant food, or can it use the same as the AV's? Here's my plant . . . can you tell me what I need to do to "fix" it?

.That's just a few . . .

I think your plant is not supposed to be invisible? ^_^

Some of us here could help with many kinds of Gessies and you know you can also ask anything on Jim's group.

No, the plant shouldn't be invisible, unless that's written into the schedule. But, those were basic questions I find myself asking when it comes to sinningia, streps, episcia, etc.

David is great for information on sinningia . . . and I'm sure Dale M. would help, if I could only find her email address. Jim is always helpful when I catch him on FB . . .

But sometimes, it is nice to take your plant to a real person, so you can watch what they do with it.

In lieu of that, though . . .

Here is E. My Black Beauty. It is in a 5" pan pot. I'm running out of places to stick the stolons when they get long enough to bend. Someone told me I should just cut them off, and stick them in the soil. I do understand that at least for this plant, I'm not restricted to one crown, etc, but I want it to look good too. Suggestions, anyone? I'm hoping to enter it in the club show at the end of april . . .

You know what, though? I'll post the rest of my questions in a different thread. I don't want to hijack this one.

Hi Nichole,
Your episcia's a beauty! I grew this liliacina from one stolon I received a year ago. I just followed directions. Lay down new stolons (remove leaves near stem that will be buried) until there are 3-5 stolon in your pan. It looks like you already have that. Then remove all new stolons thereby directing growth to the existing 3-5 until those are as large as you like. At that point you allow growth of only extra stolon in a chain. Remove all others below this. That allows those one stolons to become large and make a nice, bushy specimen. I did all this and got Best Episcia at our B'ham show. This was my first year growing episcias, so if I could do it then EVERYONE else can too!

Congratulations Jamie! It's a beauty.

Lynn

Jamie, can you come to my house to help me in person?!?

So, I'm thinking maybe I'll go ahead and remove the larger outer leaves on each stolon, cut off the new ones starting (hey, they may root before the club sale end of April), and hope that any holes are filled in nicely before show . . . I'll post a picture after I "butcher" it . . .

Hi All;
we had our show & what a great show it was. we had 135 entries,took them forever to judge them all. But the show went great & we had a ton of people.I did get 2 ribbons, 1 for second place & 1 for 3. these judges were so tough, there were 6 big beautiful terriums, they would not even judge them as they have to make at least a 70 to be judged & they said none of them got that score. I still can't figure that one out, as they were really beautiful. i thought. one they said were not enough gesneraids in it. well the lady that did that one only grows 2 differernt gessies, so the rest of the plants inside were others. Go figure. oh well. still was a great show.glad it's over, very tiring.2 days. lol
mrsbonnie

Bonnie,
It sounds like you had a great time.Congratulations on your ribbons! What plants did you win with?
I bet the people with terrariums were so disapointed.
Did you take any pictures?

Lynn

Congrats, Bonnie!

Actually i won a ribbon with 3 micro mini sinningia's in a tiny windowbox display & also strep heartylands baby egrets. I forgot my camera that day, but others did take pictures, so soon i will show you some. Yes everyone that had a terrium was really dissapointed. but still was a great show.
Bonnie

Bonnie,
I know your Sinns. are always gorgeous.Heartland's Baby Egrets is such a beautiful Strep.

Lynn ^_^

here is a pic. of the terium i did for the show.
bonnie

It's so pretty and what a unique container!

Lynn

Very pretty, Bonnie! What are the plants inside? I see the blooms for a sinningia, and is that a violet off to the left?

Inquiring minds want to know.....everything! What kind of light do you give it?

Oh, Bonnie!! You did a great job. I love terrariums :) You had some tough judges show up at that one!!

Connie

Thanks all , the plants are
alsbb1obia cygnet, sinn. paper moon sinn, poupee, simm woodnymph , there are 3 of thoses & a trailing violet
bonnie

Bonnie, just beautiful as always!!

congrats Bonnie/.

Hey Bonnie!

The show was awesome. The setting was awesome. The weather was awesome.

I bought, of course, way too many plants.

Meeting everyone there was a blast.

The biggest success for me was, though, to turn somebody on to micro mini Sinningias.

Happy growing everybody!

Olaf

And if I wasn't such an airhead, I would have posted this picture in the first place.

Diastema latiflorum grown by Dale Martens.

Hi Olaf and welcome! Lovely picture.Sounds like it was a great show. ^_^.

Lynn

Thanks Lynn!

Yes, it was an awesome show. Very nice people there. Unfortunately I didn't take too many pictures because I was too busy chatting and buying plants...

Here's another shot of Bonnie's entry:

And this is a wonderful example of Episcia 'Cleopatra'.

They are great.As soon as I can I will post a few pictures from the Omaha show.

Lynn

Petrocosmea 'Keystone's Bantam'

Chirita 'Patina'. A show stopper.

Saintpaulia 'Phobos'. I just can't get enough of those fantasy spots.

Sinningia richii 'Robson Lopes'. This one made my jaw drop.

For all fellow mini Sinningia fans:

Sinningia 'Matt Hudson'

Sinningia 'HCY's Aries'

Sinningia 'Los Angeles'. My favorite mini. Leaves, cuttings, tubers. Anyone? Pretty please?

This message was edited Apr 10, 2011 4:14 PM

Love those mini Sinns.! I only have a couple and not the one you are looking for,sorry.