Photo's and Chat continued ...

I am on overload tonight as I just returned from the African Violet Club Christmas party. We exchanged gifts by the number you drew. These ladies know so much more than I do. I am just frantically trying to absorb every word they speak.

Several of them are coming over during the holidays to show me how to groom a plant and show me why my african violets stay too wet when I wick. They think I shouldn't be using vermiculite in the mix at all (our humidity was 94 percent yesterday).

Anyway............here is my gift............what a gift! A bone china violet pattern on a cup and saucer with an av trailer and other goodies to go with it.

One lady gave boxes of epicias to everyone. I didn't take any as I would just kill them. She is about 75 years old and says she only puts her episcias on the outer edge of lights. One thing she said that I really heard was that if you start your episcias in terrariums you can never take them out. Therefore, start growing them in the conditions you want them to live.

Gail that is beautiful! I bet you were tickled pink to get that! :)

Can you believe that! I was thrilled to death. I got so excited I have already forgotten her name. It is _______Trails.

I have never felt so inadequate (not socially) but knowledge wise about the gesneriad family. These ladies are good at what they do!!

Well, I feel that way about you all! You all know way more about ALL plants than I do, and so appreciate the help I receive! :)

It sure is a beauty and I know I would have been tickled with it! :)

Kim! I'm familiar with your Codonatanthus vista! I had a cutting of one for several years that someone in OR had sent me and I've wanted to replace it because it was one of my favorite plants ever- love the bloom! Finally found someone who offers it recently and am waiting for spring!

Gail- what a nice gift! Very beautiful. Those ladies know how to party!

Kim, I can't believe i got so self absorbed in my gift tonight that i didn't comment on that fantastic codanatanthus vista. She is even prettier than you described to me on the phone. You better start propagating and i will get the pink one from the man in Boerne called Tia Pink. (although I think that both the Tia Pink and the Coral one are aeschytanthus (sp?)

I know, I want to propagate her so bad but quite honestly, I don't think she's big enough to cut yet :(
I DID take 4 leaves and kind of just stick them down a while ago. They haven't rotted yet and I kind of see some small swelling so I'm hoping? I don't know. I also did try to pollinate the flowers but I had such a hard time finding the pistal on her. They are WAAAAY up there *lol*
I can't wait for her to get big enough to try to propagate her though.
Sounds like you had a WONDERFUL time with the ladies last night Gail :)
What a beautiful gift! Such a nice display :)

Gail: I LOVE your Beautiful gift from the AV Club party! That is really awesome, even without the little trailer :) ... but, the little AV does make it look even prettier!

Uh oh ... come spring I guess I better think about getting my Episcia's into soil huh? Well, they are all in glass containers, some with straight long fiber spaghnum, some with soil and the moist spagh around the base. The only one that is in a regular pot with soil and wicked is the E. fimbriata blue heaven. They all seem to be doing great but come spring when I begin repotting a lot of things I will have to decide how I want to pot them. They aren't in terrariums conditions since I took the lids and plastic off awhile back but some do probably need to be transplanted to soil. The blue heaven has bloomed well a couple of times. The only other one I've had bloom is E. 'Pink Panther' and she only had one flower but has another bud as we speak! I just took this pic and I think you can see the bud. This one is planted in a glass container with soil and the moist spagh on top of the soil. I think I need to start feeding it and maybe I would get more than one bloom at a time! LOL

Well, you can't even see the plant that well in that pic. Let me try again.


This should be a bit clearer, one little bud:

SO cute Lin!
Don't you just love them? You grow so nicely also :)
Can't wait to see her flower when it opens.
Anticipation.......don't you just love it? *lol*

Seems I make it over here once a week anymore!! Lin your Chirita Stardust is just gorgeous!! As are your beautifully grown AV's! Rain told me that algae and the mini Sininngias go hand in had, can't have one without the other!

Gail I had never seen a Crown of Thorn's bloom before, very pretty. And your streps, ohh, ahh!! :)))

Jannich both yours and msbonnies sinningias are keeping the bug going in me!!

Bigred you do an awesome job with those episcias! And growing from seed too, wow!

Kim your Condonanthus Vista is so beautiful, those pink blooms are so pretty! I just learned what the difference is between the codonanthe (which I have some of) and the codonatanthus is. Been reading my gessie handbook again. LOL

Also learned that if you go far enough back in the gessie family tree that even the carnivorous butterwort plants such as the Pings are related too......I have a Ping that just started to bloom and it is so pretty. Purple edges, lavender center down to the yellow throat with some dark purple lines in it....

~Brenda

Lin you do the episcias so well with the moss and all and they look so happy and healthy! My Blue Heaven has been living in a terrarium ever since I received her and although she is growing and happy never one bloom! I'd love to see the bloom on your if you took pictures of them.

Kim here's a picture of my codonanthe Paula that is blooming this morning. It's a pretty bloom that is hard to capture the real colors of, it's a dark picture as I have to take it with no flash to even begin to the bloom picture........ it is not as pretty as your Pink bloom on Vista!

~Brenda

I miss Raingazer/Amy in the Garden! I haven't seen her post since back in August. I think she showed a photo of the Ping awhile back ... really neat plant! I did some research too and found out they are in the butterwort family which are related to gessies.

Brenda, that little guy is so cute! I love it. I have the website bookmarked for a carnivorous plant company - was thinking about ordering one or two of those in spring!

This is my little pride and joy right now as there are just so many blooms with more yet to come. From what I've read these petrocosmeas are hard to get to bloom................. I can't take credit as it came from Lyon's with buds over a month ago.

The blooms are a beautiful lavender with yellow throats, another hard one for my inexpensive camera to catch.

P Forrestii

~Brenda

Brenda: This is Episcia fimbriata Blue Heaven on 9/13/07. I haven't had it bloom since but I am really bad about feeding my plants!

A close up from the same day:

Lin I too miss Amy so much! She was full of knowledge and so fun with her quick wit. And that girl can GROW!!!

I ordered my pings from a site recommended here on DG called Cascade Carnivores, there are as many of them with different names and growth habits as there are AV's! Well maybe not quite :0) but there are a lot of them! Be sure and look in Lowes and HD as after I had ordered mine and paid the shipping I saw a huge variety of them at half the price at both of those places late this summer. They were in little plastic boxes where they usually just have a bunch of venus fly traps but there was a whole bunch of different butterworts too! They were 4.97 a piece, a bargain.....

Grandson is heading through the door so one last picture from me this morning.......My Sliverglade Oysters is starting to bloom again after taking most of the summer and the fall off.........

~Brenda

Oh that Petrocosmea is adorable! Look at all those flowers! I have one Pet. 'Barbata' that I got from Rob's Violets last spring. It has grown a lot but has not bloomed yet. I just last week took it out of the little glass jar it was in because it was very crowded ... I broke off a few leaves in moving it but I think it will be okay. I hope to someday see some blooms on this baby.

Thank you for those pictures Lin....I don't know if it was good or bad though, now I REALLY want my Blue Heaven to bloom. LOL

You bring up a good point though.....because I have it growing in the terrarium and do not have to water often it does not get fertilized....I'll have to fix that!!

~Brenda

edited to say..... Vary Cute pet Lin....did you plant the leaves you broke off? I guess they produce just like an AV does.....

This message was edited Dec 11, 2007 9:20 AM

LOL ... I meant to plant the leaves and totally forgot and left them out on the back deck. Too late now!



By the way, I just checked Raingazer's home page and it looks like her subscription expired and she did not renew. Gosh, I sure will miss her expertise!

You ladies have introduced SO many beautiful plants to me :)
Brenda, I LOVE that Codanthe so much!
I am really enjoying my Alsobia's. Although they aren't big enough to bloom, I love watching the foliage fill out.
I can't wait until my kids are big enough to put out flowers. Hubby says if I would just leave them alone they would grow.

OK, so I don't have any pictures today but I DO have a story. We went and cut the Christmas tree Saturday. Sunday morning I put the lights on. I kept getting the lights tangled over and over again. Then we were going to my inlaws. I decided to make a light ball at the last minute. Got the whole thing put together, plugged it in.....1 out of 2 strands of lights lit up. Picked up the light ball, went out to the porch, lit a cigarette and threw the light ball in the trash. So much for day 7 :( Started all over again with day 1 on Monday. Today is day 2....watered the tree this morning and noticed how much water the tree was needing. Felt the rug.........yep.........you guessed it! Hole in the tree stand (now the tree is completely decorated) and I have been watering the rug since Saturday. So in tears wanting to smoke but REFUSING to give in I went through every bath towel in the house trying to sop up as much water as I could. I'm finding the hardest thing about quitting is my lack of coordination and how everything I touch turns to crap and dealing with how easily I get frustrated and yet I'm being tested over and over again. Thank God I have my plants and my friends here, I don't know what I would do without either!

Simply love all your pictures ladies, really brightening my day!

Oh Kim, I am laughing about the tree because I have had that happen so many times before, not just with water from the Christmas tree stand either. We used to have problems years ago with one of the cats playing in the water in the stand and it getting everywhere - that same cat used to actually climb the Christmas tree too but that's another story!

One time I found myself sloshing through the carpet in the living room ... something happened to hubby's 150 gal aquarium ... sprung a leak or something and I mean we had SALT water all over! Luckily it was actually not the tank itself but something underneath that got plugged in the filtration system or whatever all the stuff is underneath the cabinet ... but a few gallons of water spilled out all over the floor. Hubby has one of those shop vac's and was able to suck up all the excess water and we were able to dry things out, shampoo the carpet, and dry it out again. And, the most important thing ... his fish didn't die!

hmmm ... How exactly do you make a light ball? Oh wait, was it you who posted a pic on another thread awhile back with that neat light that was made of the plastic cups? That was really cool! I'm sorry you had to throw it in the trash.

Now, just hang in regarding the smoking! It is so hard to stop when that nicotine has taken hold of you! You have the will, but nicotine is a strong drug. You have been smoking for years, so it take awhile for the system to not need it. I don't understand how someone can quit cold turkey ... maybe if they haven't been smoking for a long time. But, I don't think it's wise to try to just stop all at once ... the temptation is just too much, the body's "need" for the nicotine is too great. You must go slowly. I know it's hard but just think about the future. A year or so from now, you may be thinking back on these times and can say: "I used to smoke." Try not to beat yourself up so much. Remember it's not you, it's the withdrawal from all those chemical's in the cigarettes that is making you nervous, uncoordinated, cranky and depressed. It will get better in time. Just trying to cut back on the number of cigarettes you smoke is something. Hang in there! And, you know we are here for you anytime you want to "vent"! LOL.

I know I'm mean Kim but I can't help but laugh at your story, I can see your frustration and your stomping out with that light ball and throwing it in the trash.......as I'm sure you can relate to my feeling like I'm ready to pull my hair out with a two year old running about here. I no more came in here to check in on DG and he has the toilet brush (which he first did a few swishes in the toilet with) and is dragging it across the laundry room and shoving it out the doggie door (one of his favorite things to do, if I can't find something I go and look out the little doggie door and usually find it at the bottom of the ramp, things like my cheese grater for one!) where it slides down the ramp the dogs use to go in and out....it is 2 below zero here today and the toilet brush was starting to freeze before I could clean up the mess and go drag it back in!! This is my life on a constant basis with him here. Last week he pried the lid of my bucket of oxy clean and had spread it like confetti around my laundry room while I was trying to cook, what a mess!! I have to be chasing him every other minute if he is not sitting in here with me! Good thing I have never smoked huh??? ROTFLOL

~Brenda

You ladies are EXACTLY what I need!
Sure makes me feel so much better. I am actually sitting here at work bored to death and laughing at both your stories while my eyes well up and tears streak down my face. I feel like I am just going nuts half the time lately. The only place I find serenity is in my pajamas playing with my plants. Everything else seems like such work for me. I am truly looking forward to the day when these emotional days pass and I can be back to who I was before I came up with the bright idea to quit smoking in order to have a "plant budget" with my cigarette savings. Sometimes I look at my plants and say......is it really worth it? But then I see a new leaf or something and I once again say.......yeah it will be.
Thanks for cheering me up you 2 :) I have just been trying not to post as much as possible but maybe sharing my frustrations is the thing to do as I can imagine how frustrated each of you were in those situations. Laughing is good medicine and you two REALLY have made my day with your frustrations.....I just luv ya!

Yes, laughing is good medicine!!! I just told myself that as even here in my office with me Trey continues to wreck havoc. I am trying to get some audio tapes recorded into MP3 files so there is a tape player going on my desk recording into the computer......It takes an hour and 10 minutes for each tape to record and I was 25 minutes into the recording and he just walked over calm as could be and hit the stop button!!!! Argghhhhh!!!!! I just grabbed him and hugged him and laughed! I don't know why I try to do anything at all with him here, he's not bad but he is curious and he loves buttons!!! I can't tell you how many times he's turned my computer off in the middle of something! He's fast!!! LOL

Hang in there Kim, poor out the good and the bad!!

~Brenda

OK a picture to add to the thread... Victorian Ribbons is starting a new bloom cycle for me!

Oh My Goodness ... I am laughing so hard at that story Brenda! I can just picture it! I remember taking care of a few 2 year olds in my time and boy can they get into some stuff! LOL. We have close friends who are like family. We are Godparents to their daughter who will be 28 tomorrow and they have a son who is 31. When their son was 2 he was a REAL handful! Stubborn as all get out! He would throw some awful temper tantrums if he didn't get his way. I would ignore him and walk away. I remember one time he was with us when his parents were on a little cruise. He had a tantrum wanting Real Lemon Lemon Juice from the frig. We kept telling him no, he didn't want that stuff to drink it was really yucky! He threw himself on the floor screaming and kicking his feet. I told hubby to just walk away. If you would leave, he would stop, and peek to see if anyone was watching. He just would not stop ... he WANTED that lemon juice! So, finally hubby got tired of his screaming fit and opened the frig, took out the lemon juice, poured a tad bit in a sippy cup and gave it to him. The smile on that kids face was HUGE! He thought he had won the battle and well, he did ... he got what he wanted! Makes me laugh so hard right now just thinking of it ... You can just imagine the look on his face when he tasted that lemon juice! The pucker! Oh how I wish I had thought at the time to get the camera! He stopped dead in his tracks and got the funniest look on his face. I don't remember him ever throwing a tantrum again when we told him something was yucky! I will have to call him and remind him of that time!

WOW! 2 Below ZERO???!!! Are you serious? I don't mean to rub it in but it's 80 degrees here right now! We have been having glorious weather. Warm, sunny days with low humidity! So, why the heck am I sitting inside at the computer?!

:) I am going out to "play" with some plants on my deck now! Tomorrow morning I have a Dentist appointment and then will come home and mow the lawn.

Y'all have a good day, and don't forget to Laugh .... the best medicine!

Victorian Ribbons is GORGEOUS! That flower is beautiful but I love those leaves as well! Now, is that considered a Chimera bloom? Looks like a Pinwheel to me but I sometimes have a hard time telling what is and what isn't.

Hi All; Here is a pretty strep called neil's canada, really unusual, it has a petal in it's throat, & really a pretty purple.somehow the picture looks blue.
mrsbonnie

Oh that is Beautiful! It shows up very purple on my computer screen and I love it!

Not a Gessie but it's so warm here my big Gardenia Bush has flowers on it:

And, a huge area of Lantana in my neighbor's yard:

Bonnie, what a nice vivid color on that! Love the little pouting "lip" too :)

Lin, you are killin' me here as my fingers are numb with cold *lol*
Gardenia.....mmmmm Oh and did you notice the BEAUTIFUL hibiscus just popping into the picture to tease us too? Imagine....growing hibiscus OUTSIDE in December...AND in flower? OMG......I HATE MAINE!

Oh yeah Kim ... Hibiscus still blooming away down here!

Friends!
We have a new subscriber who I met last night at our Violet Christmas party.....great user ID Sallyblooms!

I just dmailed her to tell her I would be announcing her arrival! Hope she hops over here today or tomorrow.

All the pictures I missed until this afternoon are great. Pictures always speak so loudly and I love that new strep Mrs. Bonnie.

A different decision is made every day in my life about how to grow my plants a better way. So........now I am not going to leave my streps wicked into a grid. I will wick them but will just let them sit in trays and water as needed.

I took a few pics today ........will share
I hope Sallyblooms will come around and announce herself.......a real young cute new friend (she knows a lot more than I do!)

Look at tiny tiny Spiritual Corridor. I hope they all make it...

Here is Suzie who has more pink than it looks like in this pic. Zapped is trying to open next to her.

Moonlight blooming

Jealous Heart just getting started

Shy Blue
back to work.......if anyone knows how to start a new thread (sorry I have never learned), please do so as it is difficult for people using dial up. Thanks
gessiegail

Beautiful Strep's Gail! I absolutely adore that 'Spiritual Corridor'! That bloom would make an Awesome painting! I just love the vivid colors in that one.

I d-mailed your friend Sallyblooms to welcome her to the garden. I know she will love it here!

Gail, all I can say is that I'm speechless. Those are all SO BEAUTIFUL my friend.

Welcome to the family Sally, you will truly love it here. In my opinion this is the BEST forum around!

Please be sure to follow us to the new thread Gail requested by clicking here:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/796828/


See you all there :)

Kimber