Strep. 'Cherry Pie' - blooms and seedlings

Streptocarpus 'Cherry Pie' is coming back into bloom! :o) I absolutely *adore* these huge, deep red flowers!

I sowed some Cherry Pie x self seeds a few weeks ago and here's what I've got showing so far. Some people like to sow their seeds on chopped long fiber sphagnum moss, so I put the potting mix in like I usually do and sprinkled chopped LFS on top of half of it, then sowed the seeds. It seems that I have a slight bit better germination on the regular mix, but both have done quite well. I'm going to have a LOT of Streps soon! LOL

More blooming Streps

And one more because I love Streps so much! :o)

This is a fun Sunday morning with new pictures of all the successes!!!

You sure have had good success in germination with your strep seed from Cherry Pie. Luscious red blossom. All the plants look so pretty in bloom. Enjoyed seeing them and keep posting the seedling progress.

How pretty! I'm liking these plants so much more than AV's.What a wonderful way to start a sunday morning.

Thank you Snow! Cherry Pie's bloom isn't fully open yet, but I couldn't resist taking a picture anyway. I'm sure it's sheer dumb luck that the seeds have germinated so well, but whatever it is, it makes me happy because I love Streps so. I really hope some of these will have pretty red blooms like Cherry Pie. What do you do with your seedlings that have bloomed, but you decide you don't care for them?

Thank you, too, Jan! I'm liking the other gessies better than AVs, too. They just grow and bloom so much better for me. I've got a few AVs I'm going to keep, but in the end, I don't see me keeping a lot of them. I'm going to try MsC's experiment in growing a large standard as large as I can, but if I only have a few AVs that I'm tending to, it will be much easier to grow them well, I think. I'd really rather have 12 or 15 AVs that grow and bloom beautifully than a hundred that barely survive. Once I get them whittled down to the ones I want to grow, I expect to have much better luck. :o)

Beautiful pics & great growing rain.

MsC

Your streps are just beautiful Rain.
I am doing the same thing When I get way too many little plants they get less attention an suffer for it,and also I need the room. I don't want to feel overwhelmed or it becomes a chore. I am only trying to get the plants I really want.
Patti

This message was edited Jun 24, 2007 11:53 AM

Rain, just found this thread where you were thinking about sowing your Cherry Pie seeds.

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/711439/

i am not to this point of expertise yet, but i have read this and now bookmarked it.........what a perfect description for me!!! I never understood until I read this..........good luck to everyone trying to hybridize streps!!

Thank you, MsC and rose. :o) rose, I'm trying to do the same, have only the plants that I love and care for properly. Problem is that I love so many... LOL I'm beginning to get it figured out, though. :o)

Snowrose, I didn't sow those seeds anywhere near when I planned to. LOL I didn't write down the date, because, you see, I was going to remember...ROFL As if! It was around the first of June, I'm sure of that. Seems like I dmailed someone about it, so I'll see if I can find the date in my dmails.

I understand, raingazer. I did the same thing with mine. Took me the longest time to get around to it. Now that you have, you sure got a lot to show for it.

I'm having a lot of fun with the seeds. Streps are nice because they bloom so quickly from seed. Others like the Sinn. leucotricha will be quite a while before they bloom, but it is lovely even when not blooming, and having the quick bloomers in the meantime makes it easier to wait. I want to get some Chirita tamiana seeds since they're supposed to go from seed to bloom so quickly.

I had chirita tamiana a while back but no longer do. It was so pretty in bloom and formed seedpods readily. I renewed my membership in the Gesneriad Society on April 22nd and haven't heard anything more from them. Hopefully I will soon since it has been two months. There must be tamiana seed in the seed fund I would assume.

There is. I started making a list of what I wanted to order. By the time I got through just the species list, I was up to $60. So much for saving money by ordering seeds instead of plants. I think I will have to pare it down a bit.

It should't have been nearly this long that you haven't heard from them. It was only a day or two after I joined that I got my username and password. Perhaps you should email them.

Yeah, I will email them....

$60.00 is a lot but you CAN justify it by saying, "look at all these rare plants I will have and so many of them." Does that help any?

Well, it helps me, but I'm not the one who needed the help in the first place. My husband on the other hand... LOL Can you imagine the look on his face if I held up a bubble envelope and told him I paid $60 for the contents? Can't help but laugh just thinking about it.

Some of them were the rarer, almost certainly more difficult to grow ones. It was more of a wish list than an order list, I guess. Whatever I decide, C. tamiana will certainly be on the order list. It's too cute not to grow! :o)

um, *cough* I have tamiana seeds from march 06 - a bit old for sending to the fund but I tested germination a couple of months ago and they are fine. I can send some to anyone who wants, but give me a bit of time to recover from my trip....

My my!!
I did not know that if you joined the gesneriad society, you could order seeds from them........someone tell me where to go when you have time so I can join just to get to order seeds!! (LOL)
There is simply not such a thing as too many plants...

http://www.gesneriadsociety.org/

Can someone tell me what the stunning plant on their homeppage is???

Which one?

The one right under the "Welcome to the Gesnariad Society" banner

That is a beauty!! Big green leaves with a reddish stripe on the vein and little orange flowers. At least that's what it all comes together like to me! Awesome!

~Brenda

Thanks, Snow, for the link............will join in the morning...

that's a red veined Chirita micromusa (some have plain green leaves). It's an annual.

Thanks Keyring! I knew you would be the one to know!

Amy your streps are so pretty and so full of bloom - you do a good job. I love that red on Cherry Pie.

Thank you, Susan. :o) I love the Streps! They're so easy! :o) Tropical Twister is about to bloom, too, and it's a pretty red as well. :o)

Gail, did you join the Ges. Society?

Snow, did you ever hear from them about your renewal?

Yeah well, look at those AVs you grow!! Have you seen any of mine lookin' like that??? NO!! LOL But, watch out...now that you've given me some help with them, I might just grow some worthy of being posted in the same thread as yours! :o)

Haha... well you go grow em TEXAS style!
you can post your streps on my threads anytime.

MsC

I've potted some of them up Texas style, so I'm already on the way to growing them Texas size! LOL

The only thing bad I can say about growing them BIG is that it does limit the available space on the shelf...
I just think they are so amazing grown that way.

MsC

That Cherry Pie gets prettier each time i see it!!!!!!!!!!!