Propagation pictures & such, Part II

I love that Pride of Barbados. Got some seeds last spring from another DG'er here in Florida .... sowed them, they sprouted and were looking good and then we left for vacation and when I came home, they were dead. :( It sure is one beautiful tree!

Lin, go to tropicals....................someone identified properly all these tropicals.............I was misspelling the G...... tree............

Snowrose... that 'Lemon Lime' is beautiful! Very different color!

Guess what people.................jannich just told me that she has a Tibochina in her yard in zone 8b and it comes back faithfully every year..............i am wrong...........

Propagation. I planted 2 cuttings of Pearcea hypocyrtiflora today and a 5" pan pot of rhizomes which are so cool looking with red swellings. This plant will bloom with orangey red flowers like balloons.

Here is a cutting -

These are the rhizomes...

Snowrose, you always find the 'coolest' plants of all!!!!!!!!!!!!! That coloring in the leaves is fantastic..................

I have never heard of that plant but I love those leaves! Wow ... sounds like the blooms will be interesting too!

I just had to go google it: http://www.gesneriads.ca/pearc2.htm



More pic's of it:

http://www.gesneriads.ca/genpearcea.htm


Oops .... sorry abou that last link ... it's a different one!


I'm really liking this plant: http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?query_src=&where-taxon=Pearcea+hypocyrtiflora&where-lifeform=specimen_tag&rel-lifeform=ne&rel-taxon=begins+with



This message was edited Aug 16, 2007 9:10 PM

This message was edited Aug 16, 2007 9:11 PM

This message was edited Aug 16, 2007 9:12 PM

good for you, Plantladylin.......................more pics....................
back to "So You Think You CAn Dance" finales!!!!!!!!!!!! (LOL)

OK...

I have strep 'Daniel x self' seedlings that I grew up from seed Jan sent me. I've given a few away now, but I just took my biggest seedling out of the group "nursery" about two weeks ago, and potted it up on it's own. It has a place in my east window with the episcias... and it does not appear happy at all! The tips of the leaves are dry like it wants extra humidity, and it just sort of flops. I've been very careful with the water. I live in an pat, and I keep the thermostat set at 76 degrees. I thought they weren't supposed to be as picky as some other gessies. Help! I have more of these seedlings to pot up, plus I just got 'Spiritual Corridor' from eBay. I want to do right by them. Gail, I remember you saying something somewhere about the temp in the room. Do you think the 76 degrees is too warm? I really can't afford to turn down the AC, and it won't start cooling off good here for another month.

Thanks in advance, as always, for any advice...

Karen

BTW... the batteries for my camera are charging. When they are finished, I will post a picture...

My Strep seedlings don't look so great, either, Karen, nor do my bigger ones, really. I do think the heat has something to do with it and there's not a thing I can do to make it cooler. I keep the air set on 74, but last night, it was still 81 in here, with the AC running as hard as it could.

You could put them in a terrarium-type atmosphere, which would make it more humid, but it's going to be even warmer, so I don't know if that would help or not. The best thing I know to suggest is put them on a large pebble tray and maybe point a fan toward them. This heat is just too much for everyone and everything...

Ok ... now I know why I can't keep Strep's alive! They don't like the heat!

Here are my Strep babies. They look like I imagine yours do, Karen. Am I right?

And a few of my larger Streps. Notice almost all of them have leaves that have been trimmed way back. They just let out a big sigh and droop!

At least your leaves stand up, away from the pot. Mine, the leaves lay down, against the pot... like the plant is half-dead. Again, I'll take a photo when the camera batteries finish charging.

Be sure you're watering them enough. I know you don't want to overwater them, and rightly so, but just like we need to drink more when it's so hot, so do they. I have one that had inadvertently gotten pushed behind a larger plant and I couldn't see it, so it missed TWO waterings. I don't know if it will make it or not, but all the leaves are laying down and droopy like a hound dog's ears!

I'm confused, Amy why do you cut the leaves?

Let me take a picture and I'll show you. Be right back.

ooo I have some streps blooming now too.I will try and get pics later and post some of them.I just love streps!!
Lin,I don't know about anyone else..but...I usually need to trim my leaves just so they all can fit together on my stand.LOL some of the leaves can get pretty huge! : ))

I have fans on everything but the streps in big pots..............think I will pick up another 12.00 fan at Wally World this weekend.............I am having trouble keeping the house cool, too............

I try and keep my house at 72 degrees with lots of air moving..The streps seem to like that temp but the episcias I have to keep covered in domes or they seem to go downhill.

Here's why I trim the leaves sometimes. Keep in mind, this is a very extreme example and the first time I've ever had one in a condition as bad as this.

This is the one I mentioned above that missed two waterings. 'Cherry Pie' I found it yesterday and watered it well. See how the leaves have completely wilted?

Sometimes they'll wilt a little like that at the tip, or turn a bit brown at the tip, and I trim them back, just to keep them looking nice.

In this particular instance, I'm just hoping trimming them back will allow the plant to absorb enough water to help the leaves stand up a little. I have no hope for the outer half or so of these leaves.

I trimmed them back. See how much shorter they are? With some luck, it will be able to rehydrate the leaves now that they're cut back. I'll keep you posted on how it does, if you're interested.

Please let us know Amy if it perks back up.I have a feeling it will.Keeping my fingers crossed.Thats a lovely large plant!

Thanks, Nancy! I sure hope it survives. I'm just sick over it. It *was* a lovely large plant and had 3 big seed pods on it, too. I trimmed those off, as there's no hope for those now and I was afraid it would stress the plant too much trying to continue to support them.

So, they flop because of lack of water? I thought I remembered someone a few months ago saying that if they drooped and got floppy they would perk back up as soon as they were watered. Is the crispy brown edges from lack of water? Mine got crispy edges and drooped but then when I was gone for 8 days they didn't get watered and all died. I don't think the location they were in was cool enough either. Maybe I will try another Strep when the temp's cool down a bit.


edited to say: Your Cherry Pie Strep still looks good to me! I'm sure with your great care it will be fine!

This message was edited Aug 24, 2007 12:10 PM

It's because of a lack of water or humidity. They will perk right back up after a watering if they've just wilted, but this one went over a week with no water, so it was a lot worse off than one that had just been wilted a few hours.

Sometimes in the winter when it's so very dry in the house (think 20% humidity, with our gas heat), the tips of mine will brown because of lack of humidity, even when they're on a pebble tray, so I trim that little bit of brown off and all is well.

Thanks, Lin! You're sweet to still see the potential in it! I think I'll put it in a gallon ziploc bag, but leave it unzipped. Maybe that will hold in some humidity for it right around the leaves, but not hold too much heat. It's worth a shot, because I really don't want to lose this one. It's a beauty (usually)!

Heh, I'm on lunch break for 4 more mins.... I'm typing on my phone again...

Streps are good at rehydrating' so I wouldn't worry.

Karen - did you acclimatize yours gradually to the lower humidity? If you went straight from a dome to room humidity, that might be the reason for the droop. An open top container/bag might be a good compromise on heat v humidity. I wouldn't use fans on it unless your humidity is high.

I also find streps to be relatively sensitive to fertilizer, and a bit too much results in brown tips.

My streps also suffer from heat, but I am talking 80s and 90s....

Thanks, Ki! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for it.

I'm sure happy to see you popping in here! We need your plant-smarts. :o) See, I was gonna have her blasting them with a fan!

I know that they say it doesn't hurt streps to get dried out, but no plant ever benefits from being stressed out..................I keep my streps moist all the time............and try never to let them dry out enough so that they droop..............I have never lost a strep to overwatering..........even though I have read that they can die from too much water, i haven't found that to be the case............i have mine wicked with very large string..............a few I have in bowls but still don't let them dry out................
How could good air circulation hurt a plant...........I don't think it can..............

Good air circulation is great, but dry air blowing at a plant that is used to high humidity is more likely to do harm. Also, seedlings that have just been potted up do not have extensive root systems, so watering the soil is sometimes not the solution.

Totally agree on these things needing more water than we are led to believe. My kentaniensis is a water hog! It's supposed to be fairly arid growing!

Ok, really back to work now.

I don't ever *let* mine get this dry. It was hidden behind a big velvet leaf Philo and I simply didn't see it. :o( I agree about drying out stressing them, Gail, and try not to let them, even though I know they'll bounce right back. I wonder about the long-term effects...

So, is it good to sit them in a tray with pebbles and water for the extra humidity? I could do that easily. And, it's a good idea to wick them?

I sure would like to get everything down pat before ordering and trying a Strep again.

I certainly think the pebble tray couldn't hurt, Lin. It's worth a try. As I've said so many times about my AVs, "I can't grow them anyway, so if trying this kills them, it's really no worse than what I *was* doing."

Gail wicks her Streps, and I think Snowrose might, too. I don't wick anything, and am in the process of moving everything to the Texas Potting method. That's where the bottom 1/3 is perlite, the pots have some extra holes for root-ventilation, and they sit in a tray of water all the time, as they only absorb as much water from the Perlite as they need. That tray of water accomplishes basically the same thing a pebble tray does. :o)

OK... lots of great information, as always.

I had fertilized it, so now I have flushed the container with water and I am letting it drain well.
I did not acclimate it from the nursery to the window (blushing)... I know better than that, don't I???
It will go back into some sort of humidity aid... either the baggie or a dome.
I have a fan in my bedroom for air movement, but I never point it directly at my plants.

Thanks again... keep the info coming, and the pictures too!

Amy: With the Texas potting method .... how do you keep the perlite from washing out the bottom of the pot? On all my potted plants on my deck I use coffee filters in the bottom of pots to keep the soil from washing out, do you think it would be alright to do that with Gessie's too? It is time consuming to wick everything.

I don't have the energy to wick all the gessies I have... but I have been cond=sidering the Texas method too...

wicking is time consuming but saves so much time after it is done and the reservoir is full...............I don't know if we can say something is right for everyone, but I know these fans do wonders for my plants and they oscillate day and night in different positions of height.............