What's blooming and growing...

I've got a few blooms, nothing spectacular, and there are only a couple blooms on each that I'm showing here. the prettiest is the winter smiles!! it's smashing!! lol
Aca's red ember
Fisherman's paradise finally has a bloom!!

Grape Slush
Jungle print has a little flower about to open.

Lyon's pirate's treasure if it would open completely is a pretty bloom
midnight radiation

This message was edited Jan 14, 2013 8:07 PM

With such pretty foliage who needs blooms?

Lynn

Tiger
Winter smiles :)
Buckeye Cranberry Sparkler is full of blooms.

Nice pics!!

Connie

Wonderful pictures!!

Thanks, I wonder, if it's the solid colored leaved AV's that have the spectacular blooms and the variegated ones, have more showy leaves than flowers? If this is so, I need more like winter smiles!! lol

A couple more of my streps that have been blooming lately...

Bristol's Spectacular
Exotica
Harlequin Blue
Spin Art

Not a gessie...
But my Jewel Orchid (Ludisia discolor) is also blooming...

i may have to get me an bristols spec , its pretty,good job on them all.my jewel is getting ready to bloom too


JIM

Morning! Every ones pictures are so pretty.

Karen your streps are beautiful,you need to do some pollen swapping.

Kathy Ann,your AV's are so pretty.What is the dark stuff I see under some of you plants? Is it something you put on the shelf so the pots sit good? Nosy Rosy here ^_^

Have a great sunday,Jan

Jan.... Hehe! Thank you! And I am thinking of doing some crosses. I have been studying my blossoms and looking at all the parts when they fall off. Some of the newest varieties have strange pistils that I'm not sure will accept pollen.

Jim... B's Spectacular is very nice! I bought it directly from Rob's. A pretty forgiving variety...

Karen

Karen,go to the link,it's easy!

http://www.streptocarpus-info.com/crosspollinating.html

Thanks Jan... Yes, I have read that info several times.
I'll keep y'all posted!

Karen

Jan, are you talking about the shelf liner that came with the shelving unit? it's just a thin piece of plastic the same size as the shelf, kind of like a liner, I like it though, I don't have it on all the shelves, even though I do have one for each shelf. It does keep the light from shining through to the next shelf when I use those liners. keeps dirt and water that might drip from the bottom of a pot from falling down into the light fixtures too.

Those Streps are georgious!!

ill probally wait and get a big one from him at the show,they seem to save the bigger ones for the convention,i know the two i went,the ones they sent me right before the show were smaller then the ones they had there

Hi folks,

Thought I would add a couple of pictures of plants blooming here at home. The first is an AV called 'Emerald Love' and the second is a Strep called 'Bristol's Psychedelic Sun.' The Strep came as a leaf in the last round robin and that leaf produced 4 plants, all of which are flowering right now.

Earle

Wow Earle!

Very nice Earle!
As I recall, I put leaves of B's Psychedelic Sun in the RR box...
I am glad someone brought them to their full potential!

Karen

Hi Karen,

I am very glad you did. I also am waiting for some S. 'Nightmare' to bloom. They came from a leaf in the round robin as well. I have had wonderful luck with the leaves from the swap. Thanks for participating. Looking forward to Spring to do it again.

Earle

Beautiful plants Earle!

@ Karan,seed piggy here.I love growing crosses out.LOL

Kathy Ann, Liners .I like them.Thanks for the info!

Jan

Ha ha Jan! I'll keep you in mind!

Good for you Earle! I lost Nightmare, so be sure to show it to us when yours blooms!

I wanted to mention, I wrote the wrong name on lyon's private dancer, it should say Lyon's pirate treasure. i changed the name on it.

I was going to ask if you could root streps by the leaf too. I see you can from reading Earle's post.

Yes Kathy... Very easy to grow new streps from leaf cuttings. I've even had leaves in transit for ten days that I put down and had 100% success with. The secret is to keep the mix very light... to avoid the leaf rotting.

Karen

Karen

Does the time of year play a role in rooting your strep leaf cuttings? I seem to be having some real problems getting leaves to root in the past month or so and I am wondering if it is the time of year.

TIA for your help.

i also have real good luck with spagnum peat moss,

Jim, I have heard of others that use sphagnum with good luck... I just have not tried it yet. I do start Kohlerias in it though.

Carolyn, I'm not sure... I suppose it could. I have a number of leaves down right now and what I have found is that they are not showing babies as fast as my summer set, but there is far less rot this time... in fact, none! While they don't show babies as of yet, they are all rooted and all the mother leaves are still green and crisp. In summer, I would have babies within one month, but I also had about 25% of the leaves rot.

Karen

Karen -thank you. I am not rotting either and quite frankly did not put two and two together. However, I am also not rooting.

Rot does not always mean no roots or no babies...
So be sure to wait a bit, even after you see that a leaf is rotted.
You can get babies to come up even after the leaf goes away.
I generally leave the container under the lights for another couple of weeks before I give up.

Don't toss those leaves Carolyn LOL!!

I wish you great success with your hybridizing Karen. Gotta keep us updated when you decide to start crossing :)

LOVE the pics everyone.

Connie

Connie

I am learning......

Karen - when you start hybridizing, would you start a thread on it? I know it will take quite some time to go from pollination to seed to flowers, but this is something I have been interested in doing as well.

I know Carolyn and we will help you all we can :) Meant that has I have done it too many times myself. Heck, I received a Sinningia (Florist Gloxinia) years ago that was the most beautiful plant I had ever seen. It slowly died on me no matter how hard I was trying to save it. Well, little did I know they are grown from tubers and it was going dormant. I threw it away!! I wish there was a group like this back then.

Here is a pic of what the seed pod looks like on a strep. Pretty neat!!

Connie

LOL....the giant of all seedpods!

Lynn

LOL!! Was trying to keep it isolated and in the window but that sucker sure did stretch LOL!!!

Connie

Thank you, Connie. I really appreciate it.

Hey all,
Don't forget to sign up for bingo! I will post the list of picks soon.
Lynn

Kathy Ann ,
Can you tell me where you purchased your buckeye cranberry ?
It is beautiful.
Thanks ,Patti

I got it off eBay from blue mountain violets. He's gone for the winter but will be back this spring.