Well, Episcias have this tendency to outgrow themselves rather quickly and then become leggy and unattractive. While easy to grow generally (particularly in a climate like Florida's), they still need a considerable amount of maintenance and grooming to look their best while they last... Some people start Episcias over every two to three months!
Episcias have nice flowers and a floriferous plant can be quite a show stopper but quite a few of the hybrids and cultivars aren't particularly floriferous even in the most favorable of all conditions. A good, easy floriferous and vigorous classic with HOT pink, large flowers is 'Pink Panther', for example.
Most people grow Episcias for their foliage and some don't even allow their plants to produce flowers.
Well, Sinningias in general may not have the attractive foliage of an Episcia but they shine in the flower department. They are just as easy to grow as Episcias but most are much easier to bloom and much lower maintenance.
Sinningias have a pretty forgiving temper and as long as you don't drown them or let them go completely dry for a longer period of time, you shouldn't have any problems growing them.
A good place to start are minis or any of the single flowered speciosa cultivars. There are also plenty of standard size Sinningia hybrids that usually get to be about 12 to 18 inches tall but there are some much taller ones. Many of the species are very pretty and easy to grow. S. eumorpha, cardinalis, leucotricha, bullata, reitzii, lineata, araneosa etc.
Check out Alan LaVergne's site "Sinningia And Friends". It's a wonderful resource on everything Sinningia and their close relatives Paliavana and Vanhouttea.
http://www.burwur.net/sinns/sinns.htm
Growing Sinningias from leaf, cutting or seed is not at all difficult but can take some patience in some cases. Also, when you grow Sinningias from seed, it can take two or three growth cycles for the tuber to mature. Often times the initial plant doesn't look anything like the mature one. That's particularly true for Sinningias with determinate growth like S. cardinalis or leucotricha.
Oh, one more thing: Sinningias are like Gremlins. They like company and hardly ever stay alone for a long time... My own experience is that it only takes a few short months to go from one Sinningia to over three dozen... LOL
Olaf
December Photos and Chit Chat
That is one beautiful Kohleria!
No Melanie LOL they never stop.I think they would both be bored to death with nobody to pick on.
Lynn
Ok, I am finally starting to get blooms on my recent babies trade with AVPat . . . here is a pic of Brazos Belle
Interesting, four-petaled flowers, Nichole! :)
Is this a mini?
Here's Achimenes erecta 'Tiny Red'. Finally two buds that the plant didn't blast... My fault because I let it go dry on a few occasions...
It is a miniature . . . I am going most mini to semi-mini this year, and this are the first blooms so far!
Brazos Belle (5232) 04/09/1983 (L. Ray) Single pink bell. Miniature trailer (DAVS 995, TX Hyb)
Nichole, thanks for posting this picture of Brazos Belle. How are the rest of those babies doing? Sure hope everything is growing well for you. I have quite a few new semi and mini trailers, if you might be interested for the coming year.
It's a cutie Nichole!
Congrats on the buds Olaf!
Lynn
Oh, Pat . . . they are all doing great. I think I lost a leaf or two, but other leaves are starting to send up babies. A few other plants have buds on them too, so it is only a matter of time. When I potted them up when they got here, I put everything in a perlite/vermiculite mix (because I didn't want to use my old mix anymore), and put them under a dome. Now that I have the new promix-bx recipe I got from David . . . as each plant needs to be potted up, I will use the new mix.
That's great, Nichole! I always worry about my av babies performing well when I send them out. I'd feel terrible if they turned out not to be good growers. Please post pictures as the others bloom too.
Pat
Nichole, did I send you Rob's Zoot Suit? This one is just coming into bloom. It has lots of buds still beneath the leaves.
Rob's Zoot Suit (9468) 07/30/2005 (R. Robinson) Semidouble blue star/thin white edge. Crown variegated dark green, beige and cream, glossy, serrated/red back. Semiminiature
Pat
Saintpaulia 'Heinz's Seduction'. After one plain pink single flower, the plant decided to come true to description after all. :)
This is the totally cutest little miniature ever. I got it for a dish garden for our African Violet show in the spring and I just love the color. It looks a little scraggly cause I had to groom it for the show but the flower is just the cutest. The color is hard to photograph. It is this cherry fuscia color that is very striking.
Here's another I am hoping will be ready to show. It is Beachcomber (I think, I am checking on that). It has a double bloom and some single blooms. Very large flowers and very showy.
That mini is adorable! Wow! BIG flowers on the other one and a very nice color combination!
Achimenes erecta 'Tiny Red' finally opened her first flower:
zozzl, they are so cute. And olaf that little Achimenes is adorable.
zozzl, forgot to ask what you have them planted in=type of mix. or is that just to cover potting mix.
Primulina (Chirita) 'Deco'. Freshly groomed and six leaves down for propagation for the Spring Round Robin. :)
That's a very nicely grown 'Deco'.
Here's a surprise bloom on my shelf, Strep. 'Pink Leyla'
Thanks, Jamie! I'm usually real bad at growing "Chirita" well but this one just cooperated all by itself. Seems like this is a very neat growing hybrid.
'Pink Leyla' is just gorgeous! Very nice colors!
Here's Primulina 'Stardust' after grooming and putting down five leaves and one sucker for the Round Robin.
And last but not least two Primulina 'Silver Surfer', 'Nimbus' and 'Lola' potted up and ready to grow. :)
Great pictures everyone!
Pat,that Beachcomber is a show stopper.
Lynn
Thanks Lynn!
Isn't 'Beachcomber' stunning? Wow! Almost makes me want to grow more Violets if only I was more successful growing them... LOL
Olaf
That Achimenes is so cute!!
I have my AVs in half/half coarse vermiculite and coarse perlite with a little bone meal and a little biostart tossed in. I have tried a bunch of mixes but they do so well with this and far less problems so far.
I am still not sure if it is Beachcomber. I have to take it to my AV meeting next week for the lady I bought it from to identify it. She could not tell from the picture..
I am so much better with non-AV gessies but going to a simpler mix has made a big difference in growing and less disease problems.
That pretty much means that you're only feeding slow release P with a little bit of slow release N, zozzl.
What makes me curious about this is the total lack of Potash (K) in bone meal and how long this could be sustainable for the plant...
Olaf
Olaf, that is just the basic mix I start with. I use a variety of weak fertilizers so the plants get everything they need, but they don't get anything for the first week or so after they are repotted.
Thanks, zozzl. That makes perfect sense! :)
Olaf
Ok so I haven't posted in a while because for a couple of months I had completely forgotten about my plants and had neglected them a bit but they have been trimmed, watered and fertilized in a weekly basis now so they all look happy again. Here is a picture of what I believe to be Optimara Harlequin. It's an Optimara but they never include the name.
Here is the whole plant. There are more buds on that inflorescence and 2 more coming up.
Here I've got Frozen in Time. I absolutely love chartreuse color on flowers especially on AVs.
And now just one flower
Finally the whole plant on it's self watering pot.
And stay tuned as I've got more plants budding. I'm soo looking forward to the blooms this winter.
Wow! Is THIS how your "neglected" plants look like? LOL
I usually can't grow Violets THIS well if I am actually paying attention to them!
Stunning plants! The one that immediately struck my eye is the Optimara.
Olaf
They are all so pretty! Neglect sometimes help. They want to survive. LOL
Another bloom for today. This one is called Canadian Sunset. It's a small and the second time blooming. I hope that with age the flower will be a bit more ruffled but anyways I love it.
Here is the entire plant. The plant is not a full as some of my other AVs but I still like the shape.
A fish tank full of micros (and some other plants...)
Sinningia bullata. The coolest foliage of all Sinningias.
And the wooly, fuzzy underside:
Olaf, I just love that Sinningia bullata. It is so unusual. And I seem to favor the wierd and unusual. Also a question for you about the plants in your aquarium. What size are the pots? Are they the little 1 oz. condiment cups? I just picked up a package of clear plastic condiment cups at a party supply store. As soon as I get a chance to burn holes in them, I have those mico mini seedling that I can put in them. I just hope that they are n ottoo big. I may put three of them together in one pot.