His pods are great. I've got lots of little seedlings of both of those right now. You are very generous, Olaf!
November Photos and Chit Chat
Olaf, If I can be a beggar, could you please send me a pod when you get one ? I have a little 5inch glass house that would great with them> Thanks, Lou
No problem, Lou! LOL
Sinningia muscicola, pods
Sinningia pusilla, pod
Sinningia pusilla (top) and S. 'Mighty Mouse' in a brandy snifter
clockwise from upper left: Sinningia pusilla, 'Country Tiger' x self, Primulina tamiana and Saintpaulia 'Cirelda'. This Sinningia pusilla has an almost ripe pod as well. :)
There will definitely be enough seeds for everyone since every pod contains hundreds of seeds and the germination rate with fresh seeds is usually very high. :)
One more time: Streptocarpus 'Bristol's Red Typhoon'
Streptocarpus 'Fancy Pants'. Almost.
Streptocarpus 'Weismoor Blue'
Streptocarpus 'Happy Times'. This one is VIGOROUS!!! Thanks for these awesome Streps, Lynn! :)
Sinningia 'Amizade'. Love it! Thanks, Lynn for this beautiful plant! A fast but compact grower and steady bloomer. It's rare to have no flowers but it's full of buds. :)
Sinningia 'Super Orange' - or one of its children. The hybrid is fertile and the orange is stable. Oh, and I just harvested a pod. If the seeds are viable, I will definitely share. I also have some more Gessie seeds in the fridge that really need to be sown. If anyone's interested, just write me a D-mail.
Sinningia speciosa 'Bristol's Love Potion' and one of my pink flowered seedlings in its second growth cycle.
Olaf, your streps are gorgeous. I can't grow these at all. I can get babies from leaves, but as soon as I put them in their own pots, they die!!!
Thanks Eileen!
I would assume that it is a bit hot and humid for them in Florida...
In nature, a lot of Streps grow near cool streams. So, they like it humid but on the cool side. However, if you can grow babies from leaves and they die when repotting, then there's the problem.
What I usually do with pretty much anything leaf grown is (from Begonias to Violets...) to leave a little piece of the mother leaf or petiole on the plantlet and dip everything that hits the mix into some RootOne for its fungicidal purposes. Another crucial point is to keep the freshly repotted plantlets just as moist as absolutely necessary but keep the humidity up at the same time.
It's trial and error and there is no "Silver Bullet"-recipe for that. You'll get the hang of it. Just don't give up and keep on trying! That's what the hobby is all about! :)
Olaf
Primulina tabacum. In desperate need of repotting. Before.
And after.
And the bouquet of flowers that snapped off the plant during repotting. Oh well. There's more where that came from! :)
It's looking great Olaf!
BTW,a few of my baby Sinns. are growing the tuber above the soil.I know this is normal for Cardinalis,but on the others should I gradually bury the tuber?
Thanks Lynn
Thanks, Lynn!
It doesn't really matter whether you bury the tuber or not. It's more a matter of personal preference. As a matter of fact, if the stems aren't too brittle, you can roll up a mini Sinningia just like you would a Kohleria.
Olaf
Thanks Olaf.
You are very welcome, Lynn! :)
Kohleria 'HCY's Jardin De Monet' and 'Kapo' x 'Cinnamon Toast'. 'HCY's Jardin De Monet' is about two feet tall and full of buds. 'Kapo' x 'Cinnamon Toast' already looks large compared to other Kohlerias but is being dwarved by 'Jardin'...
WOW! I didn't think kohleria got that tall. Very pretty. What is the paint brush for? Are you going to change their colors? Just kidding. I think you probably use it to brush their leaves. I know I have a small brush to dust of my violet leaves after repotting. I'm messy and always manage to get soil/mix on their leaves. The brush comes in very handy.
Remember "Alice In Wonderland" where the queen's men were painting the white roses red? LOL
You guessed right. I use it to brush dirt off the leaves after repotting but in this picture, the pruner and the brush are for scale. :)
This is one large Kohleria. She started out as a few little rhizomes this Spring.
Actually, some Kohleria species can get even taller. Kohleria spicata, for instance, can easily reach twice this height.
Holy cannoli, that's a huge Kohleria!
Remember the person who said "Never throw away a tuber"? I put the tuber and moss in the back of one of my terrariums, thinking the worst that'd happen is that it'd be some nice soil cover. The darn thing sprouted. The bad news...no clue what it is.
Yep! I remember. LOL
Sinningias are tough, little critters! You'll find out once she blooms, which won't be long. :)
BTW: The tuber that I didn't toss is at it again, too...
Gorgeous Primulina tobaccum and you grow those kohlerias incredibly. BTW, I just snatched up a tuber of Sinn. tubiflora on ebay and there's still one left. It looks like the vendor is selling a massive number of succulents, with this one sinningia among them all.
Hey Jamie!
I have some tubiflora seedlings that can't decide whether to go dormant or not right now... Can't wait to put those little critters outdoors next year!
They get real tall and aren't particularly well suited for growing under lights but make an easy patio or garden plant.
They also are VERY prolific and spread by runners if they're allowed to.
Getting tubiflora to bloom seems to be a whole different subject altogether. For some it's a prolific bloomer while others never see even a single bud...
Kohlerias are both extremely hungry and thirsty when actively growing. They also need a few hours of good sunlight for strong growth. NEVER let a Kohleria dry out completely or it won't bloom or will blast its buds. Leaf damage will soon follow. Heat tolerance is pretty good but high temperatures and humidity often result in mildew damage and leaf loss. I grow my Kohlerias in a sunny East window in a 3rd floor apartment in Chicago. No secrets here. All I use for fertilizer is MiracleGro Tomato. My large Kohlerias, I usually keep a little overpotted because that makes watering less tedious. I don't usually pinch my Kohlerias and just let them grow and do their thing. If i have, I start several (usually 5 or 7) cuttings or rhizomes in one pot to get a full plant from the beginning. Propagating Kohlerias is generally about as difficult as propagating a Trdescantia or a Spider Plant. Cuttings root within days. Seeds germinate within about two weeks. Rhizomes can take anywhere from a few days to a few months to sprout. That's the part that can be a bit tricky but it's not hard. A very porous mix and even moisture prevents the rhizomes both from drying out and from rotting. Stubborn rhizomes can be stripped of their scales and the scales sprinkled on top of seedling mix and treated just like seedlings. The scale method is also the best way to keep fancy leaf varieties like 'Texas Rainbow' coming true. Kohlerias also make wonderful garden or patio plants. One more thing: Not all Kohlerias are good rhizome makers ('Dark Velvet' would be an example)! It's always good to have a few cuttings as backups just in case...
That's pretty much everything I can think of when it comes to Kohlerias. If I should have forgotten something, please ask!
I think that everyone should grow at least one Kohleria. They are fun, forgiving and remarkably easy and quick to grow to specimen size. They make cool plants for kids as well - the rhizomes are the coolest thing for them since they look like scaly worms or caterpillars... :)
Olaf
Great info, thanks Olaf. Now have your Kohlerias ever got leggy? Is it a good idea to cut them back (and root the cuttings of course)? if yes when is the best time -- after blooming, at rest or actively growing?
Here is my only K. Longwood I believe, starting to bloom again but the stem is getting long and twisted. I heard about rolling but too scared to do that now, the stem feels rather firm.
My tubiflora blooms in August every year, last year it was a little blah but I've figured out it was massively underpotted.
Well, old varieties like 'Longwood' get tall and leggy and tend to flop over. Unfortunately, that's normal and there's not much you can do about it but staking the plant when you grow it potted.
However, as a bedding plant in a greenhouse or in a suitable climate, the stems will support each other and the effect is much more tidy.
Look at tall growing Kohlerias as you would at a tall growing perennial in your garden, say like perennial Phlox. A single stem of Phlox would probably fall over at the first sign of a breeze but if you have a whole clump of it, the stems will support each other. And outdoors perennials that get bare from the bottom, you usually want to plant some fast growing annual in front of it in order to cover the unsightly, bare stems.
That's why the tall and weak stemmed Kohleria hybrids fell from grace as houseplants and most of the modern cultivars and hybrids are either shorter in stature or have much thicker and sturdier stems.
Rolling up a Kohleria is nothing to be afraid of. The best way is to let the plant dry out a little bit to make it more pliable, remove any leaves but the good looking ones on the top (about 2-4 pairs), take the plant out of the pot and just wrap the stem around the root ball. Then you plant the result into either the same or a little bit larger pot and fill with mix. Just make sure that there is as little stem as possible left above the surface of the mix. Don't worry if a stem snaps, the plant will make more roots from those injuries.
Here's a link with some more detailed instructions as well as some pictures:
http://www.violetbarn.com/lessons/propagating_kohleria.htm
Other than that, you can take Kohleria cuttings pretty much at any time of the year but if the plant isn't actively growing, it can happen that the cutting will root and just sit there for months while making rhizomes. Kohleria cuttings can be a bit tricky in this regard because sometimes the cutting seems to suddenly die without ever growing. However, if you knock the mix out of the pot, you'll often find one or a few rhizomes that you can then just pot up and wait for them to sprout.
One more thing: If you think that Violets have a "cold-water-burn"-problem, guess again! Most Kohlerias are much, much more sensitive to it than other Gesneriads! Careful watering is always a must with Kohlerias!
In general, Kohlerias are easy to grow and bloom but there are, of course, those caveats that can easily discourage someone from growing them.
It is hard to predict, what particular cultivar will work particularly well for someone just wanting to try one Kohleria but I would dare to suggest 'Perdiots Mango Martini', a very nice, medium size Kohleria with soft, medium green leaves and medium size salmon flowers with darker spots and streaks by Iain James. This Kohleria has been the "battle horse" for me. Another one would be 'Strawberry Fields' by Patrick Worley. This Kohleria has the most amazingly large, strawberry red blooms with an almost psychedelic pattern of slighly darker spots. It's a very tidy, upright grower and makes an "instant show plant" almost every time with very little effort.
If you can get your hands on any of the Swedish or Korean Kohlerias, you're in for a treat! Check out the links:
http://www.gesneriasterna.se/
http://www.dollyyeh.idv.tw/picture_other.htm
Also, check out Serge Saliba's photostream on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gesneriads/
I think that I covered pretty much all bases here... LOL
Have a wonderful Sunday everyone!
Olaf
Sinningia concinna is my favorite Sinningia species and this is why I love this plant:
And one more time:
One can never get tired of sinns lol. Even if she's NOID like this one. It's amazing how such a tiny plant can make a flower 2-3 times it's size:
Have to look it up
My only Aeschynanthus
Bucheye Country Girl, very long lasting blooms, pretty big too. Great plant, a pleasure to grow
Little Hopi, keeps blooming -- thanks Jamie! showing some speckles already:
Edited to say: I just love it!
This message was edited Nov 21, 2011 4:27 PM
