fuzz :-)

one of my favorites - looks like it might bloom this year...? Grown from seed, of course ;-)

This is really neat looking!!! What is it?? lol

Sinningia leucotricha?

THAT is just too neat! I love it!

oh very different Ki ! I like it too.

Looks like a fuzzy dog! Too cute!

That is so neat looking.Does it stay fuzzy like that all the tme?That is so cool.

I keep coming back and looking at that .... too cute .... I would have to give it a "pet" name!


...... going googling now!

I too want to know what it is... I thought it was a pet from the thumbnail photo when I first looked at it this morning! Ha!

Karen

Karen ... Key identified her plant as: Sinningia leucotricha




edited to add: Here's a link to Kartuz' Greenhouse with a photo of one in bloom!

http://www.kartuz.com/pc/10714/1GES13/Sinningia+leucotricha.html

This message was edited Apr 19, 2007 10:39 AM

Says it's easy ... I might just have to get one of these babies!

I thought this was a cat. : )

Wow!!! That is so cool! The photo with the blooms is gorgeous... but I bet Ki's will be just as nice!

well, phew, I just got back from the office and what a day !

Snowrose' ID is probably right - and I'll explain the "probably" part in a bit.

This is one of those you love it or you hate it things. Some people think the furriness is really rather repulsive for a plant, or maybe it's the odd silhouette....?

Anyway, it is easy so long as you don't water it too much. As the leaves grow, it doesn't look quite as fuzzy, but it does retain a good amount of it. The leaves are actually green and it's just the hairs that make it look silver. Here are a couple more photos from some site in Taiwan http://192.192.42.4/~tbgweb/cgi-bin/topic.cgi?forum=16&topic=6408&show=50

I still can't remember where this seed came from. I've started two batches of leucotricha seeds, and the most recent turned out to be a hybrid, not the species. The species has one "storey" or umbel of leaves. My recent batch all have multiple layers of leaves and they are much greener - definitely a hybrid. http://flickr.com/photos/ki/418184443/

But, the plant in the photo is from an older batch and it's the only one I have - it's possible that it came in the Gesneriad Society's mixed seed packet.

Now, the reason I say that it probably is leucotricha is that this is the first year that it's looked like a real leuc, with the single umbel of leaves and the almost-silver fuzziness. Last year, the leaves were greener, and towards the end of the year they started growing a second tier of leaves. Seemed to me to be a hybrid.... So quite frankly I'm very surprised that it's looking like the real thing right now.

Now if only my Sinn piresiana tuber would wake up!


Oh wait, I found a photo from a year ago that says this plant came from the mixed seed packet! I feel so lucky! Out of that packet, I also got an Sinn eumorpha and a Sinn cardinalis as well. I'm sure that had it not been for that mixed packet, I would not be so enamoured with sinningias. Anyway, here's the photo from a year ago with all the notes (move your mouse over the photo). http://flickr.com/photos/ki/136149763/

How rewarding, Keyring, that you grow from start to finish....seed to blooming plants. Your flickr photos are terrific and inspired me to register. Now I will have an outlet for all the pics I have and continue to take.

Do you grow your S.leuco in higher light levels (closer to the lights?) than 'regular' green leafed sinns because of it's silvery felted leaves?

http://www.hortusb.com/sile.html

From the looks of the photo on this link, I would be tempted to make cuttings of the umbels and root them to increase. Yay or nay?

I love my flickr account - it's basically a record of my plant stuff. Being able to tag and search and add notes and links and all makes it soooooo much easier than having files on my computer. And I don't care to make my plant notes a big ordeal - couldn't keep a diary and I'm sure I wouldn't keep a plant one.

hmmm... nay on the cuttings. Not that I've tried bit, but from all reports a cutting may root but may not form a tuber, and won't sprout growths. If you take a bit of the tuber with your cutting, then you may have luck

Light wise, the cardinalis hated getting as much light, but eumorpha seems to be ok. This is a shelf of seedlings and orchids, and you may recall how light-stressed my episcias were - I think I took one or two to the swap in November. The episcias had been sitting on the edge of the same shelf. The micro and mini sinns are also on the same shelf, but as they are shorter they are an extra 4 or 5 inches further from the lights and shaded by the bigger plants.

How did I ever miss such an exciting thread!!!!! Keyring, you always have such interesting plants. Thanks, Lin, for giving us that site with the bloom.....keep posting all these beautiful and unusual plants!!!

One rainy afternoon or when I have some extra time to concentrate, I will sit and upload photos to flickr. Should be so nice.

You say nay on the cutting, but I still would try it on one if I had several stems just to see what would happen. Just curious.

I want to find out on your plant where the orange dots are now if that is where the flowers will form.

definitely use one of the flickr uploading tools to do batch uploading - so much faster.

The orange dots should indeed turn into flowers Looks like I only have 4 buds so far. I only have two stems so not a chance of trying cuttings....

For those of us who are computer challenged....I will have to wait until the next time I need a computer tech and he can show me how to use it.....my computer has so many files of pictures and I can never find what I am looking for at the time unless I just took the pc!!!!!!!
We are looking forward to both your shows, snowrose and Keyring....

Thanks for the tip. I'll do that, keyring.

Yeah, it sure would more convenient, gessiegail, to have your photos organized into a location where you can retrieve them easily. I use the Kodak Easy Share system so I save most of my pics in the file that says Kodak Pictures. But, I do save some in the computer file that's called My Pictures. The simpler it all is the better.

Mine are in my pictures and in Kodak easy Share, too....but other than emailing the Kodak share system, I wouldn't know how to access them for DG....

Here it is in our files : http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/117799/
Linda

Hi! Is that really what the leaves look like? Amazing! What is the name of it and where can I get one?

here's an update.

in case the fuzzy bud isn't obvious.....

the flower

the whole plant. You can see the top part of the tuber, and you might be able to see some green specks on it, which are potential new growths.

That is such a cool plant, very nice!!!

Amazing.Its pretty awesome growing something so beautiful from a tiny seed. Well worth the wait.

Keyring, don't ever leave us (LOL)....you have such wonderful pics to share and help us...
gail

I just harvested a seed pod from this. Sinn seed pods ripen quite quickly (about a month) so I usually don't find them until they split. Luckily, the seed was still in the pod and not scattered all over the pot.

As I mentioned above (or maybe I didn't - I'm too lazy to check), I am not 100% positive that this is a pure Sinn leucotricha. It is blooming out like one, but it still could have mixed genes. If so, then the seeds will probably show the mixed heritage.

If anyone would still like to try them, please dmail and I'll get some seeds in the mail to you.

And while we're talking seeds, if anyone has a tropical fern (a non-hardy fern for growing as a houseplant) that has ripe spores, one of my current "interests" is finding an easy way (easy for me) to grow ferns from spores. Well, you know what I'm asking..... :P

I should note that these take several years to bloom from seed....

I am so glad you bumped this up. Being new around here I had missed it and it is just so neat! It's an unusual and awesome little plant. I can't believe you waited years for it to bloom. How many years are we talking? Does it grow leaves up several times and die back and then finally grow leaves and then bloom? I enjoyed seeing all the progress in one one long thread!

maybe 3 or 4 years? I also grow orchids and a few succulents so I am very used to things taking time. I have orchids from flask which is a really stupid thing to do if time is a factor..... In comparison, these sinningias thrive on neglect so a few years go by very fast. And then this one I grow mostly for the foliage anyway.

Yes, it has been growing leaves every year. One winter I did not let it go dormant and probably should have - it might have bloomed a year earlier if I had.

Key... sent you a dmail on the S. leuc. seeds. I have always loved ferns, and I grow several tropical ferns... maidenhairs being my favorite (as I have 5 varieties). I also have a stag mounted on wood, and a nice hemionitis. I will watch for fertile fronds (usually come out towards end of summer when things are outside), and definitely keep you at the top of my list for spores if I can collect them.

I almost tried this one year with my stag, but chickened out... looked like it was going to be a very long and tedious venture.

Karen

You heard from me about the seeds, too. :o)

No fern spores here, but I do have a Kangaroo Paw fern that a DGer sent me. I looked it up and found this page about propagating ferns by spores and this is the one they're using. http://www.forestferns.co.uk/propagation.htm Who knows when, if ever, mine will have spores, but if it does, I'll send you all you want. :o)

Nice link! I think it leaves out a step, though, so I'm not sure how they manage it. Spores are not fertile, so you need to get some moving water in there after you have the equivalent of germination, so that they can be fertilized.....

I did get that far once, and managed to get fernlets, but then I lost them.... no big surprise there, because I generally can't grow ferns, LOL. But I do hope that the new orchid set up (when and if I get it set up) will make it easy.

You can see photos of my first ever spore experiment here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ki/sets/630297/

Right now, I have some in a baggie with LFS. I'm hoping this might be easier.... The last time, I took the lid off the plastic pot so the fernlets could grow (they were hitting the lid) and so I could spray them down with water to encourage fertilization. Then, some green non-fern stuff started growing and in the end I lost the batch.

Thanks for looking out for spores for me! Microsorum thailandicum is the only fern I have at the moment, and I noticed the other day that spores on one "leaf" are almost mature. A bit off-season.....

Keyring... Got my seeds today! Thank you as always! I look forward to giving them a try!

Karen

Keyring thank you so much for the seeds. It made my day yesterday to go to the Post Office and find them! Now to do my best to get them to sprout. It will be a first for me!
~Brenda