Bristol's Party Boy finally *bloomed*!!!

Yay!!! I've been waiting to see this Strep bloom! :o) I love it so much! Check out those streaks!

Here's the whole plant. :o) I'm not disappointed in this one in the least. :o)

Wow!! That's beauty!
I HAD one but ...you know me...mine wasn't as pertty as yours. You must have that special touch???


A reall beauty!

MsC

Huge beautiful flowers, wow!

Joseph

Hiya Joseph!
Good to see you here.

MsC

Well, MsC, if it will ever grow up to be a *big* Party Boy, I'll just have to grow you one and send it to you so you can try again. I really am looking forward to being able to propagate this one. It's such a young plant, I hate to stress it by pollenating it, but I'm awfully tempted...

Thank you both for the compliments on it! Of all the Streps I've had to bloom, this is definitely my favorite. I tried to get a better picture of the bottom bloom, as the fantasy on it is much better. Now that it's dark outside, the color doesn't photograph as well with just artifical light, but here's one more centered on the bottom bloom.

Oh, I think that is just amzingly beautiful ! The pics is very nice!
And I do plan on trying again with them...Key made some good suggestions to help me find a way to grow them.
I know for certain they don't like to be ovre watered..my big problem with plants...

I'm waiting for the blooms on the survivor to open...I've babies that plant so much it's just ridiculous...lol
I might try to wick a few, mount a few on apiece of lava rock and another one in my specialty :self watering pots..

How do you grow yours???

You probably don't want to try my method. LOL They're on the light stand, crowded together, they get watered when they wilt, and only rarely get fertilizer. But, hey, it works for me! ;o) It's not quite as bad as it sounds, but they definitely don't get babied.

Here's a group shot of most of them.

I meant to tell you... That's Cassandra blooming in the back left, front left are the seedlings from seeds that Ki sent me, as well as the purple one in the middle, Bristol's Party Boy toward the right middle, Kitten Face in the front right, Jealous Heart in front, second from left that's full of buds, Midas just to the right of that.

Wonderful!
I love to see other folks over crowded shelves... makes me feel sooo much better.
I recently sent my DD our loveseat so i could make room to use the window for another shelf..lol
Geez, where will this addiction stop????

. RG Love your crowded shelves with all the streps ready to burst with blooms. Do you have a close up of Kitten Face? I keep hearing about it but haven't seen it up close.

I have Bristol's Surprise Party and I love it. It is one of the leaves I have down. It's three weeks today and they have not rotted yet, it all still looks good so far!! I'm getting hopeful??

The veining in Party Boy is really beautiful. I want to try Party Girl as it has some yellow in the throat and I have a thing for yellow flowers.

Here's Surprise Party
~Brenda

I don't have any light stands (YET!) I use my big eastern facing window for most of my streps. The table does get crowded, I need more room. This is a picture from earlier this spring I have more streps now : ) there is a second shelf under this top one that I now have the smaller ones on.

I'm so impressed with ya'lls streps!
Brenda, your streps are huge! What are you doing to those guys??
I need your help.lol
I looked back at some of my shelves from whne I started growing them...now I have 2 full size w/lights and love them. It's still not enough room so I think I must be growing too many??

I hope my leaves put up a baby or two...I'll give em another try.

Joseph, don't you have one of the Bristol's Party ones? Seems like I recall you having maybe Party Girl? I'd love to see a bloomin' picture, if you've got one. ;o)

MsC, I've only got the one shelf, so it *has* to be crowded to fit everyone on there! LOL And I'm pretty sure this addiction won't stop... I tried to convince my husband we didn't really need the couch, but he vetoed that idea right quick, fast, and in a hurry! LOL

Brenda, I love that Surprise Party! We need to work out a trade...LOL This fantasy is the type of thing I was telling you on the other thread that I like about Strep blooms. Something that really catches your eye. How can colors like these Party ones have *not* catch your eye? LOL Your Streps are gorgeous! So full of blooms! :o)

Here's Kitten Face. This was her last bloom, but she's coming into bloom again, so hopefully she'll have even more than this soon.

Here's an updated shot of Party Boy, now that the second flower has opened fully. :o)

Well MsC I don't know what I am doing with these guys :)) and I mean that literally!!! I've said it before and I'll say it again, if I had hooked up with DG earlier there are a lot of things I would not have tried as I would have thought them beyond me. But my own trial and error learning experience this past winter was good for me and now I'm on an upward curve learning wise with the addition to DG and I'm loving it!

I saw some streps when I was bidding on some AV's on eBay and so I ordered some thinking the blooms would be pretty in winter. I drowned half of the first batch of little ones I got from Rob's but I then got some bigger ones from Brennan's Orchids. I found that spending a bit more money on good healthy sized plants in three inch pots helped my success rate big time! Then it was just the nice big windows with the sun reflecting off three feet of snow all winter. Oh and the more recent addition of Eleanor's VF 11 has given me some nice results on a variety of plants.

And see here I've learned something new this morning already. I didn't even know that Surprise Party was a fantasy until RG mentioned it. This is one that I managed not to drown from my first order with Rob's and it came as sellers choice so I didn't pay enough attention to the details I guess. But I do love the "Party" series and I'll be looking into more of them. I have a baby strep that came with an auction awhile back and it is called Streaker and I looked it up a few days ago and it is going to be a real beauty and would definitely be a Fantasy!

Kitten Face matches her name, so cute and soft looking, I really like her. RG I am definitely up for some trades when I learn to propagate well enough. Or I'll just send you leaves and you can give them a go!! I still haven't had time to try that excellent pure peratlie way that was shown a week or two ago!! I did get impatient enough to go tug (well gently loosen!) up some of the leaves I have down in potting soil. I looked at three (which were the Surprise party leaves) and nothing. I was ready to chuck the whole thing and then I pulled up a long leaf of Inky Fingers and at one end of it there was the smallest of a little root ball forming!!! I quickly tucked it back in and shut up my container and will now try once again to patiently wait another few weeks!

Boy aren't I in a chatty mood this morning? Sorry to yak your ears off!
~Brenda

I enjoy your yakkin' Brenda! ;o)

I'm just lovin' the Streps! They keep blooming no matter what I do to them. LOL I could really see myself collecting a *lot* of them. I think overwatering them is about the worst thing you could do to them. Otherwise, they seem to be so forgiving.

Have you seen Franken Dainty Lady? Scrumptious!!! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250129052116 It's not fantasy, but has netting (I think that's what they call it) on the flowers. It's a bunch of speckles, anyway. I like it because it's different. :o)

I'd love to trade with you! I'm still perfecting growing them from leaf, too, so maybe a bit later, toward fall, but before it gets too cold for you, and once we both have some idea of what we're doing. How's that sound? I love trading! :o)

Don't ever throw anything away til you're completely sure, beyond a doubt that it's dead and has no hope. Remember me saying I had killed my Episcia 'KeeWee'? Well, I didn't... You're gonna laugh, but I didn't throw the pot away, and just kept watering it like there was something there, and look what I found this morning! LOL

Here is Episcia 'KeeWee' (Yes, that's a real dime!!)

I've been running around taking some pictures this morning, inside and out. Of flowers or flower beds of course! I have a strep called Tractor Beam from Rob's that has what they call "leopard spotting" but it is a dark purple and it's harder to see the spots. But on that Franken Dainty Lady they are gorgeous! I'll get my pictures re sized and send Tractor Beam after while. We'll see if I picked up the leopard spots on it. My camera isn't good at close ups.

Trading in the fall sounds good! I'm going to make some time for that perlite (looks like I've got it spelled right in this post!) method soon and I'll see what I can do with that! Hopefully in a couple more months we'll both have the hang of this strep propagating!

That little bitty KeeWee is just too cute, Ok no giving up!
~Brenda

PS. While over at Robs double checking what they call those spots I read up on Party Girl and my memory had failed me as it doesn't have yellow in the throat, still a pretty one though. Hmm, now to read up again and find out which one that was......

Ok I'm back with Tractor Beam, I think I got some pretty good shots. The dark purple makes the leopard spots harder to see as I had said but they are still noticeable if you look close.

I managed a pretty decent close up too.

~Brenda

MsC I ordered from Brennan's again as I wanted to give my aunt streps for her anniversary, well of course I had to get a couple for me too. I received these about 10 days ago and you can see what I mean by a nice healthy sized plant, I better be able to keep something this big alive. LOL
~Brenda

One that I had gotten for my aunt arrived in full bloom! The trip had been a bit hard on the blooms but still it was a beauty. This is Bristol's Very Berry...
~Brenda

Brenda those are lovely!
Oh yes, I love Brenhan's Orchids & the streps, too. That's where I bought all mine from last year ....the ones I killed!!! Just about $100.00 worth . I cried!!
Now I have one leaf down of the one left & if that goes well & I can keep this one alive I might try again. One thing I found for me was I can't do "babies"... I have to grow them here then they do fine. Key gave me some new suggestions for giving them another try so of course I will...lol

Rain, Glad you saved that Kee Wee.. it gets huge!!!! Very pretty.
I lost most of my Episcia collection in the move but I'm getting a few more so we will see how they do. I do Have one in a terrarium about to bloom.

MsC

I loved my Bristol's Very Berry.. it was one of the best bloomers for me...until it's untimely death...lol


We have very similar taste in streps...perhaps we should set up a Fall trade after I'm done shopping all summer???

MsC

Sounds good to me MsC, gives me the summer to learn more and to grow more leaves or propagate more if I get the hang of it! I'm going to try gessiegails method of removing all stolons from my episcias to see if I can get more blooms so I should have several of them started too (although I only have a variety of three at this point) I did some divisions on a couple of my bigger streps and two of them worked out good and one of them is still in the recovery unit in iffy condition :( It has finally warmed up enough outside for me to go and finish my planting out there. We started out at 35 degrees this morning, brrrr!!!
~Brenda

Good grief girl...35* in June???
Way too cold for me!

We'll see how things go...

MsC

Here's Bristol's Party Girl, she flowers non-stop.

Joseph

Oh my! There is yellow in Party Girl!! Gotta Have!! Thank you Joesph for sharing that beautiful picture!
Rob's does not mention the yellow in his description so I must have read about the yellow elsewhere. Nice to know I'm not losing my mind after all!! :))

Sad but true MsC, 35 degrees in June!! Nothing unusual about it either. We go up and down temperature wise a lot here in the mountains. Our elevation here is exactly one mile up, 5200 feet. It never did make it out of the 50's today, made me mad and I never did go out and work in the yard! : 0 ((

~Brenda

Oh my, Joseph, that is beautiful! I didn't realize it had that much yellow in it. :o) Brennan's is the only place I find that mentions the yellow in it: http://store.brennansorchids.com/servlet/Detail?no=331 Wonder why that's not in the description? Seems like that would create more desire for it, as it's certainly a noticeable color in the bloom...

I bought it from Brennan's Orchids; Molly has some cool plants to tempt us all.

I went to the site, and boy are there some beauties there! Looks like they send nice, big plants, too, which is always great. :o)

I'm really enjoying the beautiful streps this morning, thanks y'all. I see I need to make room for some more of these lovelies. I have one that was sent in a trade and have managed to keep it alive and actually blooming. But 'Party Girl' I think needs to come live with me.

We'd love to see a picture of yours, Susan! Didn't you send me a Strep? I'm almost positive you sent me the one I'm thinking of, and it's about to burst into bloom! :o) I need to take pictures of the plants you shared with me and send them to you. They're all doing great (except those begonias we already discussed ;oP I'm not giving up on them yet - I'm already thinking about finding some more! LOL). I'll try to remember to snap some today. :o) If you've got the chance, please post some pictures of what all you're growing. Gessie or not, I'd like to see them. :o)

Hey Amy,
I may have sent you a strep, and that probably saved its life - every one I had, I killed. The only one surviving is one that Snowrose sent me that was full grown, which I have managed to keep alive and sometimes blooming. Brenda may be onto something, maybe the fact that the plant was mature gave it a better chance of survival. I do have some very small strep babies from seed that Keyring sent. I'm keeping them under the lights with the AV's and being very stingy with the water and so far no fatalities.

So - I know not to water until they are very dry, but what's wrong when the tips of the leaves look burned and go all brown? Sometimes the leaves just look like they dried up and that's when I think maybe I went a little too far on withholding the water. And what makes the leaf turn yellow? The streps are in a window - are they getting too much sunlight maybe?

Pretty much everything I've read says Streps can and do get brown leaf tips for whatever reason. They all say to just cut off the ugly tips and it will be fine. I'm thinking I've read that even for shows Strep leaves can be trimmed and it's alright. I'm sure it's going dry that contributes to the browning tips, but if letting them go dry is how I can keep them alive and blooming, then I don't worry about a brown or trimmed leaf. Oftentimes, I don't water mine til they've completely wilted. Not on purpose of course, it just progresses to that point before I realize it, but they spring right back to health with water.

Here's a thread on another site that discusses yellow leaves a little bit:
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/gesneriad/msg0300321727864.html

And on this page, http://www.robsviolet.com/streptocarpus1.htm , Rob of Violet Barn says,
"4. "Browned or yellowed" leaf tips or margins. This can be caused by many kinds of stress, but the most common causes are infrequent or improper repotting and/or lack of grooming. Sometimes that leaf is yellow simply because it's old and should be removed! These symptoms may also appear if the strep is very rootbound."
That whole page is about growing Streps, so you might like to read it. :o)

I hope that helps you. I don't baby my Streps at all. Everyone says they're tough plants, so I treat them like they're tough plants and they don't disappoint me.

This is the one I think you sent me. It has three trimmed leaves.

And here's the whole shelf of them. There are trimmed leaves all over the place and at least a couple with brown tips. LOL But look at them blooming! I couldn't be happier with them, so I assume I'm doing something right since they'll perform this well for me. :o) Don't fret yourself to pieces over them. Think about what you learned from killing the others, and I bet you'll do fine with a new crop of them! :o)

Hmmmmm..........Amy I see yours are on the light table and your soil mix looks like it has a lot of vermiculite in it. That may be part of my problem, I potted my streps in regular potting mix, not the AV mix. What's your soil recipe? I also put them in clay pots to keep me from overwatering. You're using plastic and ceramic pots. Thanks for all of the advice. I had to learn to not baby the orchids and so it will go with the streps.

The strep I probably sent you was 'Midas' an Oglevee hybrid.

I almost missed this entire thread.............awesome pics......I feed mine everytime I water the reservoir ......don't know that I should, but i do!!

Susan, they're on the light stand now. I did have some in my kitchen window, which faces south, but I moved them a month or so ago. They had grown a lot in the window, and the foliage was a bit "gangly" for my husband's taste. LOL So, they moved to the light stand and lots of smaller less gangly plants moved to the window. Some of them are potted in 50/50 MG potting mix and perlite, and some are in equal parts potting mix, perlite, and vermiculite. They pretty much get the potting mix special of the day whenever I repot. You know how I'm always tweaking the recipe, and it's rarely the same twice. LOL They're all in plastic pots. Only that one Episcia back there is in clay. It dries out to fast for me, and I'm a chronic underwaterer anyway, so I don't need the extra help. ;o)

Speaking of the orchids, those Jewel Orchids have thoroughly kicked my tail. LOL I think I babied them way too much to begin with. They still look pretty much the same, but one of them has thrown up a baby. About three months ago, I potted them all up in a pan pot in regular ole potting mix, stuck them in an east window, and that's when the baby one popped up. Apparently there's something horribly wrong with the special care I try to give some of these plants. LOL

Gail, you probably should fertilize just like you are. I usually just run them under the faucet when I see that they need water and don't think til a day or two later that I should have fertilized them. I've got some Osmocote pellets...maybe I should try those in one of them.

Anyone use Osmocote on any of their Gessies?

I mix up two gallons of fertilizer, water and Physan each time I think of it......keep it in old milk jars......then I know I won't forget to use the fertilizer......I would never use Osmocote on gessies......they often release at one time too much fertilizer and I have never seen osmocote in the right numbers........that is, I most often use a second higher number like 12-36-10....to force blooms.....or just use 20-20-20 Schultz when they are getting too much phosphorous.......