Thank you all, for your kind words! You all don't know what it means! I am glad to be here, and as I said before, I do lurk, and I am glad everyone here is faring well!
One of the tidbits I shared I the talk I gave in October was the secret of my "elaborate" set-up when photographing flowers. I will now share that secret with you also, below...
This is a photo of a collection of my blooming streps...
And this is the set-up... including a photo-bomb by Romeo!
See how fancy it is???
Love the bomb, you rock, Romeo!
To answer some questions...
Yes, my own hybridizing has used most of the fantasy streps I have, particularly the DS varieties from the Ukraine. I also have a dear friend in Pennsylvania that has been hybridizing for about four years, and focusing on fantasy as well. I have many of her hybrids and use them in my crosses too. I currently have seedlings growing out from 11 crosses, most of which have fantasy as both the seed and pollen parents.
As for how my streps are grown... we still live in an apartment, so space is limited, and they have now overflowed into all rooms! LOL! The majority of the plants are in the dining room on two 4-foot wide shelving units, with three shelves each used for the plants. On these, I use 4-foot 2-bulb T8s. I have a shelf each in the living room and our bedroom where my favorites and currently blooming plants. They are in south-facing windows and get natural light, and supplemented by T5s. I have broken down and purchased yet another shelf and T5s for two more light shelves... I am not using them quite yet, but with 200 seedlings just transplanted, and WAY MORE to be transplanted, those lights will come on soon.
The shelving units I use are the ones readily available at places like Lowe's amd Home Depot... metal (both chrome and black available) with adjustable shelves. I have both 4-foot wide units and 3-foot wide units. They are very sturdy, and aren't too bad looking.
A lot of my other gesneriads can go out during the summer months, and flourish on our balcony, but streps would never tolerate the heat!
First photo is an older shot of one of my shelves in the dining room...
They don't always looks that clean and neat!
Second photo is a recent shot of the living room shelf, looking out to the balcony.
Karen, its all so impressive.
and I love Romeo!
Ha ha... thank you Sally!
Romeo was an "accidental" addition to our household in July 2013. We went to pick up bird seed at PetsMart before we left on vacation, and ended up with an 8-week old kitten from one of PetsMart's adoption promotion. He definitely picked us, and with three teenage daughters along, he wooed all of us.... hence the name Romeo. From one pound kitten that went on vacation with us, to 17 pound prince of his domain!
handsome fellow! does he rule over Remy... and didn't you have another as well?
Yes... Remy and Skye.
He can be a big bully at times... it doesn't help that he outweighs them by about six pounds each.
Karen, the photo bomb is just too funny. Sounds like you have quite a system set up for those streps!
Aww...Romeo is cute :)
I was looking at my Red Pearl Amaryllis and it's second stalk is about to bloom. What really amazed me though is that it is starting to grow a 3rd flower stalk!! I didn't know amaryllis did a 3rd stalk. Super exciting :)
My Dancing Queen is putting up a third stalk.
my Minerva has a third stalk. This stalk is what I consider the normal height and normal size flower. The first two stalks were very short and the flowers sort of on the small size and didn't seem to open fully, although everyone at the library enjoyed it.
Hmm...so I guess it's pretty common. I never knew that though.
I gave my mom one of my Red Pearls. She has never had an amaryllis before, and has been calling me off and on completely ecstatic over it. Hers bloomed a few weeks before mine did, and last Sunday she called to let me know it is on its FOURTH bloom stalk!!! She wanted to know if that was normal or not - I told her it was pretty normal for two bloom stalks, but three or four is pretty awesome.
Here is my Mini Amaryllis getting ready to bloom. Once it is finished blooming I will have to repot it. Just too crowded in that pot now.
Forgot the pic
Holly---that is so cute!
Please show us a picture when the bloom opens up. G.
Gita, I think these mini ams came fro you on one of our visits, Holly seems to think they came from our Hobby GH meeting. Do you remember?
Ric--
I do not recall ever having had mini Ams....
I would not add to my already seven pots of Amaryllis that i have.
Holly must be right. DAH!
I did just pot up the 4 Amaryllis (3 white and one red). The 3 white ones went in one pot.
I will give the pot of whites to Aina (my DD) as a Birthday gift (2/11). She turns 50!!!! Ouch!
She will complain...I know it--as she has 2 cats that like to jump on everything and mess
with any plants she has--like one Aloe.
I already sprinkled the top of the soil with a lot of Mosquito granules and will douse it with
Cayenne pepper powder before i give it to her. That should keep the cats at bay.
Will that hurt the bulbs any???
Aina has mostly black IKEA desks and tables and chairs. Very minimalistic.
The pot of 3 white Amaryllis should set it all off nicely.
I also potted up the red one in a nice, roundish clay pot.
Don't know who will end up having that.....I already have a lot of reds. No whites...
We will see what's what when the dust settles.....
Gita
3 or 4 bloom stalks are what you can get with the "jumbo" size bulbs we've been able to get from ADR... or with a regular bulb that you keep for next year, watering and feeding it so it gets ever bigger. :-)
Wow Aspen, that's great to have 4 bloom stalks! My second stalk is close to blooming.
Here's Blossom Peacock, a very pretty, smaller amaryllis. Only one bloom stalk though. The leaves came up before the bloom stalk.
Mini Amaryllis, It has two flower stem right now so by the time that this bloom is done the other stem should be starting. I wonder if there will be more coming on.
I discovered buds coming out on Clivia. They seem like small clusters, on three of the four stems, and they are very pale. I probably didn't fertilize well last summer. Otherwise the plant has seemed healthy and growing. A pretty bulletproof thing that is always dark green.
Sally--
You have 4 bloom stems coming out at the same time on your Clivia???? Lucky you!
Please send pictures when they are i bloom!
My one Clivia decided to bloom soon after I took them down to the Shop
for the winter's snooze. I didn't even bring it upstairs--as I had NO room for it.
The other has yet to bloom. This is the really pretty one--with the deepest Orange blooms.
When the Clivia bloom clusters start to emerge from the tight base, (How do they do it?),
they are very yellowish and pale. Not a hint of orange. Almost anemic looking.
Then--as the stalk grows, and the tight blooms start to open a bit--the color creeps in,
until it is all gloriously orange.
I should bring mine upstairs to hasten the blooming a bit...they are still down the
Shop where it is pretty COLD! Will have to rearrange a lot of pots to make room for them both.
OR--it will be the coffee table between the 2 sofas.
Another project! Need to re-pot all my Amaryllis plants before they pop in the old soil.
Gotta do it! Gotta do it!.....It is so cold down there--I don't feel like working on things there.
G.
A couple pictures of my succulents. The jade plant (I think it may be a Gollum) is in a pot Terri (Aspenhill) bought to one of the swaps.
thanks Gita, I guess they are OK after all
Nice succulents, Robin! Awesome healthy lookin Jade in that nice pot.
"(I think it may be a Gollum)" I'm pretty sure you're right Robin. Those depressions on the tips of the leaves are the give away. Nice looking. Our Clivia is flowering again in the GH. It needs separated, there is more than one in the pot and the others were taken up to the house when they flowered. Currently our Queens Tears is up here putting on a show, it also needs separated, I may have some of both for the swap.
Ric--
Clivias do VERY well even when ridiculously root bound!
You can just leave them as is.
At least you will get some bloom from some of the stems.
Believe it or not--when I first got my Clivia from a friend, it was in a 12" pot
and was in full bloom. It had been in this pot for 30 years. Never fertilized--
and seldom watered. It had belonged to my friend's Mom.
When I divided it--a MAJOR effort to even get them out of the pot--I ended up
with 12 new plants. It is hard to believe how they all fit in the original pot!
I potted each up and that is where all the ones I shared with you all came from.
1--original gifted plant
2--some of the divisions
3--all divisions potted up.
Can you believe that 12 of these divisions caame from that one pot?
talk about rootbound!
Look at those blooms!
Gita, The one that is blooming right now came from you originally.
So you just completely ignore your bromeliads and guess what they do? Throw up flower stalks everywhere. Well not completely ignore, Ric does water them, but they haven't been cleaned or re-potted for a very long til.
Here is the Queen's Tears more pics to come when they completely open. The colors on these are amazing.
Good going Ric lol
Now, that seems a different variety QT than what I got from ecnalg. I could be persuaded to take in an orphan off those....to help you out, ya know....watch for the tears; they actually are nectar, they make a droplet that does not just evaporate like water. I had a bloom on mine, the color lasted a few weeks what with the pink bract coming out and eventually the actual bloom.
I will put you down for one Sally.
I have two other bromeliads that I will be dividing. They send up these amazing pink and purple flower spikes. One of them is Variegated the other solid green.
Here is one of Gita's babies blooming.
thanks Holly!
Here is a pic of the open Queen's Tears, the blooms are pretty amazing.
Holly--
That "Queen's Tears' is amazing! I love the colors mix in the open blooms.
Especially the blue.
You say this is a bromiliad? I have never seen any others except the ones
for sale at the HD. Even when I was working at the grower's--that is all they sold.
I have never grown a bromiliad, because of their short bloom time and then--no more.
G.
We have found our Queen's Tears to bloom on and off pretty much all year. Gita, if we divide one of ours, would you want some?
Pat--Why not! It would be nice to have that..
Tell me more about this plant. What does it look like when it is not
blooming?
Can I trade you back a start of one of my Orchid cactus?
I have a couple growing nicely in small pots.
1--The Epi "Ackermanii"
2----The Ric rac Cactus--which has not bloomed except once years ago.
It too is extremely heavy once it reaches this size...
3--and the other Epi that grows so massive with the fat fronds hanging
down around 3' long. This can get VERY heavy. Once more, i am afraid
Of it pulling put the ceiling hook and come crashing down on the plants below.
BUT--OH! The blooms on this one!!!
4--Here are the 3 Epis hanging by my window. The massive one is in the white
pot hanging all crooked due to immense weight of it. It is just about 3 years old!
The Ackermanii is hanging to it's right. Hard to see it...It's fronds are sticking up.
The two Ric-Rac ones are on either end.
No need to trade, Gita. Unfortunately we do not seem to have much luck with those beautiful Epis that you posted. They look something like spider plants made from snake plant leaves with serrated edges. There are multiple clusters of leaves with a space in the center that an acorn can fit into perfectly and from which the flower spike arises. Normally there are multiple clusters in a single pot. Very undemanding and prefer less water than most house plants. We put them outside in a somewhat shady spot in the warm weather.
And there would have been a photo with that last post if I had not clicked on the wrong thing. These senior moments are so aggravating!
