Hi Ladies ... Just popping in for a second to check out all the gorgeous photo's that I KNEW would be here!
Brenda: Nope, I'm not on vacation. Hubby is not teaching Summer A term so he is off until the end of June. I've had him helping me with projects in the yard and we've just been hanging out. He went this morning to take the boat out for a test run since we haven't had it in the water since last summer. He wasn't gone long at all so I knew something was up ... he said the boat began taking on water before he even left the dock! He is not a happy camper ... trying to fix the problem himself but he said he may have to take it in and it will be a couple of thousand dollars to repair. Something to do with a leak near the out drive whatever that means! He's pretty knowledgeable about engines (teaches about aircraft engines) so he's hoping to be able to do it himself if he can get the parts or whatever it is he needs.
I've just been playing in the yard the past week or two. It's miserably hot here (92 right now) and humid ... I can't stand to be outside for very long. Had to get into the air conditioning for awhile! We've been having unusually high winds lately and wild fires in some areas. The nearest fire to us is about 4-5 miles away and last I heard it was 95% contained. Smelled smoke for a short while this morning but I'm glad it isn't like the wild fires of 98' where ash and smoke were so heavy I couldn't go outside even for 5 minutes! There's a county south of us that has multiple fires burning ... they arrested at least one young man for arson yesterday! Lots of homes were lost to the fires down there ... so sad.
Getting ready to run up to Home Depot with hubby - I ran up earlier to buy orchid bark and bloom booster plant food (which they are out of) and saw that they have some decent size (not huge but about 6') queen palms for $9.96. I didn't want to put them in my car - hubby said he would rather put them in the back of his pick up. We have three in the front yard that we planted after the hurricanes of 2004 took down a lot of other trees. They are really pretty palms and grow real fast so I want a couple for the back yard.
I will try to stop in later to see what's happening! Hope everyone has a great weekend!
More May Booms!!
Queen Palms are my favorite but they are so expensive here, Lin.
I wondered about the fires I kept hearing about in Florida and meant to ask you how close they were. 4 miles is very close as far I am concerned!
Hope your hubby can get the boat fixed. What is the old saying, "The difference between men and boys is the cost of their toys".
Glad you dropped in Lin, we missed you! But if I had DH around to do several projects I've been wanting done I'd take advantage of it too!!
OK Gail, I'm going to rat myself out here....LOL I can show pretty Kohleria blooms but boy are my plants ugly!! I "pose" my blooms to look their best and not give away their gangily dry looking foliage!!
Case in point, here is the the full plant of Emily Roberts.....
~Brenda
I'm going to have some fun here making my point about "posing" the blooms while hiding the ugly plant itself.....^_^
Here is K. Peridots Kitalope
And here is the full plant of Peridot's Kitalope .................
K Marqui de Sade side view
Marquis de Sade from the front............
And now the whole plant ......... yuck!
One more "posed" Kohleria and I'll leave you be. ^_^ Here is Snake Skin look at the forked tongue in the bloom. LOL
Now which of these photos do you think I'll be uploading to plant files when I figure it out?? LOL
~Brenda
Brenda, I can't even grow them long and leggy!! They look good to me. I can never even find my pictures as they are all over everywhere..........some by date........some by a name I would never remember and there are 50 pictures in it (LOL)
I am trying to get rid of all standards and large african violets (almost). That lady in Victoria called Jo's violets carries the cutest mini and semi mini that I am not ordering from anywhere else. With the cost of gas now I think I may just order and let her ship even though she is only 70 miles away.
Check out this Winner Green semi mini
****edited to say that I forgot to tell Brenda that your two Silverglade Oysters in bloom sold for 10.00 each at the very beginning of the sale. (I kept one at home which wasn't as big but is starting to bloom)
This message was edited May 16, 2008 2:28 PM
Look what came in on an AV shipment at work yesterday! For the first time in nearly 3 years there we received a green bloom AV. I don't really care for the green but had to get it just for the novelty! LOL Any ideas which one this is- because of course none of our AVs are named.
Also one of my little mini AVs is blooming again. Un-named as usual....
I adore green and white blooms. Several names come to mind............Heartland's Lime Sherbet is one of my favorites. Let me look around for images.
Be back........She is gorgeous
Heartland's LS is not variegated..........wish I knew how to search on my First Class
This message was edited May 16, 2008 3:43 PM
What is First Class? I seen it mentioned lots of times and have never asked- Don't want to sound like I don't know what's going on! LOL
And while I'm asking you questions-LOL-How big do my baby Chiritas need to be before I separate them? And mind you I don't mind waiting as long as possible cause I'm more than a little nervous. Also, if my leaves are still in good shape and I only got 1 baby, can I cut and try again for more? Now don't laugh at me!
Since she is not marked, check out the Optimara site and search through the different series
http://www.optimara.com/optimarafieldguide/violetsbyseries.html
Wow! I love that green AV, Diane! It is gorgeous! My first thought was "Frozen in Time" but it's too ruffly for that one. I know it must be one with an Irish name! LOL. I sure would love to know the name of that one ... really pretty with that variegated foliage!
I was just out back waiting on hubby to head to HD. Just looking around and found my Ric Rac Orchid Cactus with a bud! I have had this plant for years and never, ever had a bloom. I didn't even know it was considered an Orchid Cactus or that they bloomed until someone here on DG was posting about it last year. Mine had always been kept in full shade. I moved it last fall to more sun and now I see this bud. Oh, I can't wait for this baby to open!
Close up of the bud
I can't wait to see your bloom Lin! So exciting! Mine has never bloomed either! I have read that they're one that taked longer to bloom.
Funny about the irish name- I thought the same thing! LOL
Love that ric rac. I did not even know it bloomed! That is special looking.
I have Irish Flirt and she doesn't have variegated foliage. I will look on First class under the word Irish........First Class is a disc you buy from AVSA with every registered african violet there is. I think it is about 30.00 and then you can update it a year later for 10.00. They update the names every two months(which you need to do yourself with your program).
Chiritas rarely give more than 1 or 2.........usually 1 baby at at time. Ask Kimskreations as she seems to be chirita queen on propagating them, Diane.
OK Thanks Gail!
I still think you AND Kim could share the 'queen' crown!
LOL, SO much to catch up on!
All I can say is wow, wow, wow!
Brenda, your plants are beautiful no matter what!
I really think you should look for some of those fern poles. , They seem to like those and it really "keeps them under control".
I get nice looking foliage but NO BLOOMS *LOL* and I'm actually a zone higher than you AND using Ms. Gail's fertilizer so.......go figure? *lol*
Regardless of the foliage, I would DIE for blooms like that!
Oh Gail, chirita queen I am NOT *lol* You should see the poor plants I'm trying to save and the POOR chirita from Lin that I would be totally embarrassed to show :( I'm just really grateful I took a leaf. I'm still learning so much and one thing I have learned is just LEAVE THEM ALONE for a month or two after they have been shipped. BUT, with learning comes alot of mistakes :(
I have however, been seeing some success with getting babies from leaves :) My advice Diane would be this, leave them until you can safely see that each "baby" has about 4 leaves. Leave them for as long as you can. Give them a nice DILUTED (1/8 teas./gallon) of fertilizer OR if you have it 1 tablespoon of fish emulsion is even better :) I don't undome mine until I separate them only because I don't have to water them much if they are domed and they seem to really enjoy the extra humidity (OK, call it laziness *lol*) Even after I remove them from the mother leaf, I dome them for a few weeks and then off with the dome but that means keeping a close eye on watering (I don't wick.........YET). *lol*
I hope this helps :)
Always,
Kim
Ahhhhh I am Loving all these blooms today..Diane that green av is sweet!..Lin..I had no idea they ric rac bloomed either..mine is a bit smaller than yours..LOL..that is a Huge Plant! can't wait to see that bloom open! Brenda..beautiful pics!..your kohleria Blooms are great....I thought maybe I was doing something wrong with mine..hee hee they always flop like that too..I think I read on Robs site that you can do something called rolling the plant? You take the bottom leaves off and wrap the long stem around and around the rootball and repot it like that.I *think* thats what it said..LOL..I haven't gotten brave enough to try it yet..Woah Gail that sinningia bloom is going to be a huge one..hope you get to see it open....Kim..your hybrid seed streps are growing bigger every day..I keep telling them to hurry it along..want to see those blooms..so exciting! Hope you all have a great weekend!!/Weather is great here so I know wher I will be all weekend..yep in the Other Garden..LOL
OK I found it..LOL..I am not crazy after all...for those of us with Floppy Kohlerias..Rolling up the plant..heres what robs says to do :
http://violetbarn.com/kohlerias.htm
Yep, it does! Thanks!
Except for the 'dome' part....I 'un-domed' mine some time back! ACK They're doing good though. And one does have 3 larger leaves and 2 smaller ones. When the newest leaf gets larger I may try separating it....then again I might not LOL Still kinda scary! I do have the fish fert just don't use it very often because I always feel like I smell it for several days after I use it. Maybe it's just because I used it on ALL my plants- I do have ALOT probably in the hundreds I'm ashamed to admit. ANyway back to Chiritas, I will dome it after I separate and if the leaf is still good can I try for more or is it useless? Oh and I have been fert but with my usual gessie fert. When Gail told me to start fertilizing , a couple weeks later is when the babies showed up so it must be an OK one.
Next someone will have to tell me how to sow the seeds I got from the gessie society- I need more time to do the things I want to do!!!!
Yeah cedar I've seen the same thing suggested for EPiscias but I know that as soon as I try it on mine that stem will snap! I like your plants growing that way though!
Anyone that tries this let me know if it works- I don't have the courage!LOL
Diane.. Thats exactly what I am afraid will happen.I wonder who will step forward to be our Guinea Pig for this little experiment...LOL..I am too chicken!!
I'm back for a few minutes again. We went to HD, got two of the Queen Palms to plant in the backyard and picked up BBQ for dinner, so I didn't have to cook tonight ... Yay!
Hey Diane ... I planted my gessie seeds from the Gesneriad Society last fall. The left side of this container is what came up from them. Have no clue what anything is. The right side is some Strep seeds SnowRose sent me.
Anyone have a clue as to what this plant is in the front left corner? Sure doesn't look like a Gessie to me!
Ok, gotta go. We have a Mockingbirds that nested in a Hibiscus bush in the front yard. Two babies! One went missing this morning - hubby saw two Swallow Tail Kites hunting! :( I know they got one of the babies! There's one left ... not flying yet, but do get out on the branches. Another Kite is flying around now ... I know I shouldn't mess with nature but I'm going to try and scare it away!
WOW Lin, you sure have alot going on sweetie!
Looks like you have some beautiful sinningia growing there and maybe some "oregano"? *lol* Just kidding, I have NO idea what that other plant is.
You go save that baby bird! How cute, you out there shooing off predators, that's awesome :)
Sure hope hubby is able to fix the boat for you and that you won't have to have it done by someone else, sounds like quite the job!
Kim
Hi!
I have no earthly idea what is on the front left picture. Let it grow........this may get exciting.
Hi All,
I got six plants in the mail today and my very first roulette that had one half dead leaf is starting to bloom... I joined the Gesneriad Society and when I got my package it had books ripped no letter and no seeds.. It said on the BE that they had to repack it at some point of the jourany.. So I emailed them and they said the person who sent is away and they will get back to me... Of course that day I was doing the trash and took that with it... Oh well...
Wow about the Kohleria's I just got one in the mail and it looks like it wants to droop so who knows as it gets a little bigger I may try that... I also got a new stand today... A real one this time..LOL We went to Sam's and got it there.. I think it is 60 x 42
I love the flowers... All are just beautiful... I am going to post a few....
Hugs,
Susan
Here is the first bud on the Roulette cherry not fully open yet...
Sue
this is the Strawberry Patch fully open today... It is beautiful in person.
Susan
Not Av's but some of my poppies blooming....
Hugs,
Susan
VERY perdy Susan!
Congratulations on the new stand!
Isn't that just the BESTEST feeling in the whole world?
I cherish mine daily and don't know where I'd be without it :)
It is the love of my life *lol*.........well after hubby that is *lol*
Give your babies some time to adjust, they will perk right up for you :)
You are a great grower and I can't imagine what will happen now that you have a stand.
Congratulations!!!!
Kim
Thanks Kim,
I have stand but this one is a very big and fancy as my others are not... I don't care about the fancy just that this is bigger and will allow me more space... I hope to get it together tomorrow... Shoot Kim I have nothing on you... You grow girl...LOL Rain sent me some seeds and I am still waiting to see something..LOL time will tell...
I have to read up on some of these newer plants as I don't want to kill them..LOLOLOL Time will tell that also...
Thanks again Kim... ^_^
Hugs,
Susan
Susan, seriously.......in all serious, I have as many failures as I do successes and for whatever reason, my stuff seems to take FOREVER to grow *lol*
I am just now getting to the point where I can see SOME success, sometimes from seeds. It has been SUCH a learning process.
You figure, I've only been "turned on" to the gessie family since last October and there have been as many (if not more) casualties as they have been successes.
But I keep reading and keep experimenting and then do more reading and I THINK that some of it is starting to "stick".
I still am not comfortable with episcia and growing streps from leaves doesn't seem to be a good combination for me (although I will still try with my favorites) BUT there have been some surprises along the way that I didn't know would do well for me such as Kohleria and growing Chirita from leaf.
But truly it has been a real up and down experience thus far but I just LOVE it :)
I'm SO happy for you :)
Kim
Susan, the reason Cherry Roulette only has one leaf is because you so nice and shared all her leaves! CAn't wait for the bloom to open completely and please show us.
still trying to find Diane's name for her violet
I am growing Green Dragon and she has variegated foliage.
This pic is from AVSA
http://www.avsa.org/Photographs/GreenDragonLrg.jpg#http://../Photographs/GreenDragonLrg.jpg#