September photos and chitchat

Nice Alsobia! Mine had one flower and then inexplicably croaked...

Alsobias bloom on and off throughout the year. I don't know of any method to force the non-stoloniferous ones.

Eucodonia 'Tiny Tot':

Sinningia guttata:

Sinningia 'California Gold' x leucotricha. I like the flower and I think that the plant has potential. It's in its first growth cycle. Too early to tell.

Nematanthus hybrid:

Great pictures everybody!

Lynn

Sinningia 'Amizade'. Already has two buds. Thanks so much, Lynn! This is my favorite small Sinningia! :)

Sinningia 'Bright Eyes'

Sinningia guttata. Second seedling.

Sinningia 'Chippewa Twilight'

Nematanthus hybrid. @Jamie: Not a Kohleria but a Nematanthus after all... LOL

Once more, from the side

Eucodonia 'Tiny Tot'. I think that those fuzzy leaves and tiny flowers make it one of the most adorable Gesneriads. :)

Different flower and some more buds

Kohleria 'Peridots Mango Martini'. Not too floriferous for me but the flowers are nice size, last for a long time and I just love the colors. :)

Kohleria 'Peridots Kitlope' x 'Pink Shadows'. This one has been blooming its little behind off for months now. I left all the spent pedicels on it to show just how floriferous it is.

Kohleria 'Kapo' x 'Cinnamon Toast'. Second flower. I LOVE this one.

Sinningia reitzii "New Zealand"

Sinningia lineata "Highly Spotted Clone".

I love the pictures Olaf! I can't believe Amizade is budding already....must be your magic touch LOL.They are all adorable,but I especially love 'Kapo' x'Cinnamon Toast ' and Sinningia reitzii.

Lynn

Thanks Lynn!

Unfortunately, S. reitzii only has this foliage pattern on juvenile plants, as far as I was able to find out. Once they grow up, they have plain green but nonetheless very attractive foliage. So, I'll enjoy it while it lasts. :)

'Amizade' has surprised me quite a bit alrady. She arrived with almost no signs of wilt and perked right up in a baggie. Now she has two buds. This one certainly is "The Perfect Hybrid", as Arleen Dewell titled an article on 'Amizade' in Gesneriads a while back. :)

Really nice! Are you going to grow out the Kohleria Kapo X Cinn Toast three generations and name it? It's a fantastic flower.

Thanks Jamie!

Well, I certainly plan on doing so and I have already figured out a potential name. Kapo is in Hawaiian mythology a goddess of fertility (and many more things) and she has a daughter named Laka (goddess of, among other things, the Hula dance). I think that Kohleria 'Laka' would be an appropriate name.

The funniest thing is that I kept another half dozen of its siblings and none of them have bloomed yet. This could be very interesting next season or even towards the end of this season... :)

What a great collection of beauty. Some of them I've never seen before. I guess I'll have to make some room for some new gessies. I love my little S, gutata from you, and can't wait to see it bloom. It's growing so nicely. Where do you get your gessies from? I've never bought any before, just violets.

Thanks! :)

I grow a lot from seed, also get a lot in trades and if I mail order, I do that at Rob's, LLG and Dave's.

That's a perfect name!

Beautiful as alway Olaf!

Wow,wow,wow@ Kapo x Cinnamon Toast
eucodonia tiny tot is a cutie too

Jan

I have a question. I have probably 15 African Violets. Some from the grocery store & some from growers. And they all bloom over & over so I must be doing somehting correctly. I've had some for @20 years.
But eventually they all seem to form long, brown stems. So I cut off the roots, plave the plant in a container of water, wait for roots, and then re-pot.
Is forming these stems normal and is this how I should be getting new roots on them?

Thanks............

Kohleria 'Dark Velvet'. She has never bloomed for me indoors. This is the first season that I tried her outdoors here in Chicago and that's the result:

Kohleria 'Dark Velvet'. First flower.

Kohleria 'Dark Velvet'. Second flower.

Kohleria 'Dark Velvet'. Second flower, side view.

Very nice Olaf.I was just sent a start of it.

Qwilter,
I will try to answer your question.Violets don't usually get long brown stems,but maybe you are growing them with more than one center crown or do you mean they are getting long necks?.There are lots of ways to fix this,but if yours have been happy for 20 years,why change what you are doing? You can always cut part of the neck off,let it dry slightly and dust it with a fungicide and replant it.Violets do lose their lower leaves as they age and new growth comes from the center.Hope this helps.

Lynn

Thanks Lynn!

OK, I guess it is the "neck" I was referring to.
Thanks.................. some seem to get necks regularly and others don't.

All of them eventually develop a neck.If it's just a short one all you have to do is set the plant deeper into a new pot,fill,and water carefully till well established.If it's a long neck you need to "perform surgery". Here's a useful link.
http://www.robsviolet.com/lessons/necks.htm

That would be another pretty good link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E41MZG8Keg

I agree with Lynn. They all will develop a neck sooner or later as new leaves grow and old leaves drop.

Thanks......................Currently most are in full bloom but I do want to re-pot before winter sets on so I can work outside.

A better picture of Sinningia 'Orange Zinger':

Kohleria 'Bristol's Possibly Bronze' x 'Pink Shadows'. First flower.

Sinningia 'Amizade'. Look! Buds! :)

Thanks so much Lynn!