January Pictures and Chit Chat

That Kohleria 'Peppermint' is adorable. Love the freckles in her face. LOL

Love the pictuces everyone,thanks for sharing them with us!

Jamie,What's the name of the nursery you go to? I've never seen any nurseries when I go to Montgomery.Someplace beside lowes and walmart would be nice to stop at.

Jan

Southern Homes and Gardens on Vaughn Road. It has a huge greenhouse and sometimes sells standard gesneriads like Aeschyananthus, Columnea, Episcia, Streptocarpus, and Sinningia. Very rarely do they offer any african violets. They do have a good selection of other houseplants and tropicals though.

'Ballet Snowcone' is gorgeous! Wow! And I'm not even into white flowers...

As for the mini Sinningia: All the 'Chippewa' minis are subtle beauties by Marcia Belisle (if my memory doesn't fail me) and 'Chippewa Merry Martha' certainly is no exception.

The only Gessies that I have seen in the nurseries in Chicago are: tons of unnamed /unnumbered Optimara Violets, the occasional Strep, one Nematanthus, and one Streptocarpella 'Concord Blue'...

If it wasn't for Gary Mikita (Gary's Out Of Africa) and the annual show and sale (March 17th and 18th - just saying...), Chicago would be Gessie wasteland... LOL

Olaf, I have a question for you. My sinningia guttata is very tall. It's blooming like crazy and the flowers are starting to hit the light fixture. I can't raise the lights because of the other gessies. Can I cut the top of the gutatta and will it root? Also will the bottom part send off a branch if I lop off it's top? I'm in a quandry over this and don't want to lose this cute sinningia. I love the flowers it send out.

Hey Eileen!

I accidentally snapped the tip of one of my S. guttata a while ago and the plant didn't mind. There is a chance, however, that the shoot will look a little awkward afterwards because branches normally emerge from the upper leaf axils. Also, the remaining shoot will stop blooming because flowers only appear in the axils of the youngest leaves.

There is no guarantee that the tip will root but it usually does. S. guttata has a tendency to get leggy after a while and tip cuttings are one of the means to keep them going and looking good.

Olaf

Thanks Olaf. I'm going to try this today. I sure hope it roots for me. I'm going to take a few pictures before I do so I have memories of these cute little blossoms.

You're welcome!

I'm sure that it'll work! :)

Eileen,sinn guttata likes growing in natural light also,maybe you could put the plant in a window and enjoy the beautiful blooms before you hack it off!

Thanks for the info Jamie.I see a trip to Montgomery in the near future ^_^

Sinningia 'Heartland's WOW!'. Tomorrow... LOL

Sinningia 'Ozark Rosy Cheeks'. And another one...

@jamiew---if I put my plants in the windows I'll end up forgetting about them. The only two good windows face north but the sills are less than 1 foot off the floor. My bedroom windows - one faces west and the other south. Down here the sun is too strong. My only place is on the plant shelf.
I haven't lopped off it's top yet. I took two leaves to try to root. I would hate for it to stop blooming. I'm going to wait a bit. Does sin. guttata form tubers? I know some sinns don't.

Okay, my two cents on S. guttata:

The plant makes tubers. I don't know if leaves will work and make viable tubers. However, cuttings definitely work and are a quicker way and a much safer bet than leaves.

Again: S. guttata has a tendency to get leggy and lanky over time and that would promt you to start over with a tip anyway. It's just like with Kohlerias or Episcias. Although you'll lose some buds and the tip may make a few leaf pairs without buds, the plant will resume blooming soon after restarting.

Oh, and you can also put the plant on a wick if you want to avoid chopping it down and if you are, like me, a forgetful waterer...

Olaf

Eileen, I think that's Jan (Jannich) you were talking to about S. guttata. I read on another forum that Sinningia leaf cuttings sometimes produce plants with sterile tubers, but not always. I ordered some seeds of this from Mauro. It's so pretty with the dots.

And S. guttata is super easy to grow from seed. :)

And here's a picture of a tuber:

http://www.burwur.net/sinns/6gutt.htm

This Sinningia only goes dormant if it has to, btw.

Sinningia 'Heartland's WOW!'. Drum roll, please... LOL

Oh my!!! It that a double flower? It's beautiful.

I'm doing surgery tomorrow on my sinningia guttata. I'll just have to wait for more blooms.
Olaf, thanks for that link. I've bookmarked it. Lots of good info there.

This message was edited Jan 23, 2012 2:54 PM

Thanks, Eileen!

Yes, it's a calyx double. Here's the flower fully open:

Sinningia 'Ozark Rosy Cheeks'. Always a favorite. :)

Sinningia 'Texas Zebra'. I love the muted colors on this one.

Alsobia 'Cygnet'. First flower of the season on this plant... :)

I think that I am going to need another 4 tier shelf. I want sooo many more plants. It's not even funny. Olaf I absolutely love your plants. Eileen yours are very pretty as well. I've got to snap some new pictures of what's in bloom now. I've got 2 of my chimeras blooming and then some NOIDs that I got from a friend blooming beautifully as well.

Thanks, Rolando! :)

This is Seemannia sylvatica (or a hybrid). The buds really are dayglo orange. Originally acquired as xGloximannia 'Medea' but I seriously doubt that...

That seemania sure is 'dayglo'!!! Olaf, what camera do you use for your pictures. It takes such awesome pictures. Your closeups are awesome. They are very sharp and clear. I love it when I see the hairs on the leaves.

Thanks, Eileen!

I actually use a Sony DSLR A-200 with the lens that was in the box. Other than that, I only use Picasa for basic post processing and a freeware tool (UFRaw) in tough cases.

Olaf

Earlier this month I shared with you guys the picture of my first bloom on my AV Dale's Dream chimera. Here is what the plant looks 2 weeks after.

Now here is my second chimera in bloom. This one I purchased from Rob's violets. It only has 2 open buds but lots of inflorescences coming up. It is AV Moonlight Magic chimera

And the entire plant which is a lovely variegated leaf.

And now this is lovely AV Ethel's Reflection. Love how the spots vary by flowers. It has 2 flowers and about 3 more inflorescence coming up.

And here is a close up of Ethel's Reflection

Oppss wrong picture. Here is the entire plant

Now this one was given to me by a friend. She couldn't keep the AVs any more so she gifted them to me. It has become my current favorite. Love the flowers and how many flowers bloom per inflorescence. It's name is AV. Harmony's Pinkstone

The whole plants picture shows how floriferous it is.

And then I've got this very cute salmon with pink edge flower that I find adorable. It's AV. Bunny Hop

This picture with flash captures the color better and if you look at the side bud opening you can see the pink edge.

And finally these 2 are NOIDs that my friend gave me and looked whimpy but boy have they perked up and bloomed beautifully. The pink ones have such tiny flowers. I put my pink next to it for comparison.

And here are the 2 plants. I think that she propagated them by leaf cuttings.

Your Violets are gorgeous, Rolando! My goodness! :)

I just love the chimeras!

Olaf

And finally the blue one that she gave me without a name either.

This message was edited Jan 25, 2012 6:26 PM