I said I wasn't posting until after the holiday but you won't believe this picture! I suppose we may have to order out and bring home as plants just seem to keep happening.
Bmedel and I traded . I think I got the better end of the deal. Check out the size of this strep leaf from King of Kings. She is sitting in sugar water to rehydrate before I attempt to propagate her. Remember this is a big pyrex dish she is sitting in.
Do you rehydrate all cuttings in sugar water, or just streps? What is the proportion of sugar to water?
I rehydrate any leaves that come in the mail...yours included on that only one that was wilted. I hate to tell you but i grab the sugar bag and pour some in!!! I am embarrassed to tell you I never measure, but if I had to guess I would say a tablespoon to a pint of water . I think I dumped in the pyrex dish about 3 tablespoons. King of Kings just sat there for about an hour and then she got planted.
Now I have filled about 8 strep leaves with the same water in their zip locks so I don't lose the names..........
Oh my goodness.That is a big leaf.I would love to see a picture of a mature plant.It must be huge.
That's amazing ... never heard of doing it before. I'll have to try it. Plants are just like people. They need those carbs for energy. ; )
That's a huge leaf Gail!! Didn't ya cut it up into pieces to root? You could of got quite a few from that one.
Say a little prayer that this works! I cut three wedges and used a razor blade to cut a petiole or stem and then trimmed away the wedge leaf on either side of the petiole. i did this in case the leafy part starts to rot and then I will still have the petiole to give me one plant even if I have to cut the leafy part away.
Then I took the bottom part of the leaf, cut a little stem, and put her in pot by herself. We shall see what happens
this is the one I know we can get for sure........hope the others grow babies, too.
I won't be surprised if I lose the top part of the leaf on the first wedge from the top of the leaf......she just doesn't have enough "juice" to grow babies i don't think
I always though you are supposed to cut the leaf length wise and remove the centre vein altogether. That is the way I have done it.
I would think you would get less babies from your procedure. I could be wrong!
I promised I would stay off DG for at least six weeks, but this needs an answer. You are right, Ccino, but the babies are very tiny and not as strong ......but you do get many babies when you take the vein out.
I am just hoping for 1 2 or 3 good plants from each.
I kept meaning to come and add a picture to this thread. A picture of the mama plant that gave up that big leaf! So today it gets a bump up! LOL
I am holding the mother plant in front of me to give you some perspective of the size of the leaves. The big one that is left is the original leaf that came when the plant was a baby. It only had that one leaf forever and then it finally grew the one I sent to Gail. But now it has two more big ones developing.
King of Kings is also a scented strep and smells faintly of roses and gardenias when it blooms, beautiful!
~Brenda
Confession time, Brenda!
i still have the King of Kings trying to root...........that is because I only soaked it about 15 minutes to rehydrate and the others (all of them) i forgot all night long, Therefore I am waiting on an order from Brennan's but they didn't ship until Wednesday afternoon at 4:20 is what the usps says. I didn't get them today of course which means they will probably sit all weekend at some post office???????
I have never heard of a vendor taking a package to the post office at 4:30 on a Wed. afternoon. Our packages go out for the day at 3:00 and none after that until the next day.
I could have sworn that their web site says they only ship Monday's and Tuesdays! Maybe it is just their eBay sales that they do that with as that is where I first came in contact with them. How odd that they would break from that, especially at the busiest time of the year for the Post Office! They will make it right no matter what, I know that!
I received several leaves in trade from Rain in October and I hydrated their stem ends in the seaweed fertilizer concoction overnight. Not the whole leaf, just the stems standing up in the solution. They are starting to pop up babies now and I'm happy with the results...........
About two days later I recieved my order of Hi Fresh rooting compound so I took a lot of my own strep leaves (so no travel time involved) and I used the it on them. I must say that it has been a disappointment with the streps! Maybe it's good for violets but look at these two pictures........
This first picture are the leaves that traveled from TN to me and then hydrated in the seaweed solution.....
~Brenda
Now a picture of the fresh leaves of my own that I put down two days later with the Hi Fresh...
You can see why I was disappointed, they are a wreck. There are a couple with babies but most are just shriveling away to nothing?? I'll be sticking with the seaweed soak for strep leaves from now on!
~Brenda
Wow, those look good that I am looking at..................I just realized that the 11th was on Tuesday. So they essentially mailed them on Wednesday as it was late in the day on Tuesday.............
I have only used the Fresh Step stuff on av leaves so I don't know, Brenda............
This message was edited Dec 14, 2007 7:16 PM
Brenda.........i am so sorry about that second picture but that is what mine looked like that you went to all the trouble to send to me!!!! I left them overnight in a water mixture......bummer isn't it.
More where those came from!! I'll watch for a warm spell in another month or so!
My DH went to the Post Office for me today and he said there were at least 30 people in line, not a good time to be shipping!
~Brenda
Oh.........I am not asking you to send more........it was my mistake...........but when the weather gets better this spring, I will make a trade with you and have lots of new strep leaves to send you if you want to make a trade. That mistake was ALL MINE!
I am just grateful that King of Kings is still holding on.
I know you are not asking, I am offering!! But another trade would be fabulous too!! Something to look forward to when it warms up again! :0)
~Brenda
sounds great to me!
