Well, it is June 1st ... can you believe it? Seems like last week we were all complaining about cold weather and here it is summer. Come share your blooms with us and join in on the chat!
Ok, this isn't a Gessie photo but an area in my backyard with a conglomeration of stuff! Kim: You can see my little Garden Fairy sitting by the tree in this photo.
Now for a Gessie I did find blooming!
Micro Mini Sinningia 'rio das pedras'
And, my gessie seedlings from the seed pack I got from joining the Gesneriad Society last fall. Still haven't divided and potted these up! I noticed that "weird" plantlet is gone, must have been a weed.
Lin
What great pictures. I see that maybe are those begonia and a croton out side in the shade I was wondering if I should do that cause my look like they need some new Life not doing much. I would ,ike to put them out do you think that will be ok
Dimmer
Thanks Kim! Yes, I have a couple of Begonia's out there in the shade and that colorful plant isn't a Croton, but rather a Cordyline (Hawaiian Ti Plant): http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=images+of+cordyline&um=1&ie=UTF-8
I do have a few Croton's too but they are in containers in the front of the house and also on the pool deck. Crotons take full sun: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=images+of+croton&um=1&ie=UTF-8 I love Crotons because they are so colorful!
Absolutely beautiful Lin!
I see your little girl watching over your pretty flowers :)
Kim
Love the shot from a corner of your yard Lin, the Garden Fairy is precious. Ki sent me a rio das padras and it has some little buds forming, I hope it looks like yours soon!
I grew rio das padras "Dark" from seed. Several of them came up but one out grew it's siblings and has sent up a bloom stalk. The others are still little that are surrounding it.
~Brenda
Oh, that is soo pretty! I didn't even know there was dark and light ... love the color of that dark one you have growing Brenda. The leaf color is so vivid. Can't wait to see that bloom. My rio das pedras came from Jannich and I have the micro mini S. pusilla that I got from Raingazer. Aren't these micro mini's just the cutest little things! I really love them.
I put a stolen of Episcia Teddy Bear down into a glass bowl and it is happy...
~Brenda
I do really like the micro mini sinningias Lin, I have a sinningia pusilla from Raingazer also. The lavender flowers are so cute!
I'm anxious to see if the bloom on Rio Das Padras "Dark" is different from the "regular" one. The darker foliage is really pretty but the lime green in the "regular" foliage has it's own appeal. I just really like everyone I've seen!
I have "White Sprite growing (slowly!) and I'm going to try a couple of new ones from seed that Ki sent me, I'm excited...
Jan sent me a Dark Walnut Kohleria cutting last fall and it's going to bloom soon!
~Brenda
The little co-op order we did from Out of Africa came with a strep labeled Bristol's Seedling. It is still little but trying to send up all these blooms!! It is the only one that has blooms on it for me. They are pretty ones with a bit of a ruffle to them.
~Brenda
This message was edited Jun 1, 2008 1:42 PM
Has anyone ever had a seed pod spontaneously form on an African Violet before?? It seems to happen easily with the streps but I've never seen one on an AV before.
At least I think a seed pod forming is what is happening to my Victorian Ribbons bloom ..... too bad the chimeras don't come true from seed!
~Brenda
This message was edited Jun 1, 2008 1:46 PM
Oh, how cool! I've never, ever seen a seed pod on an AV ... ever! That sure looks like a seed pod to me. I hope you catch the seeds and sow them, just to see what comes out of it! Even if Chimeras don't come true from seed it would be interesting to see what they do produce!
I just am so amazed with you all who have the patience to play with seeds and pollen and do the hybridizing of all these Gessies!
Hi,
Wow I have never seen a seed pod... Brenda all your plants look so good. Your babies that in the solo cups on the other thread .. I have never grown a Chirita from a leaf... KimC did you grow them from seeds? I just got seeds from the Gesneriad Society.... They are a mixed Gesneriad species and hybrids... I am afraid to plant them... Any help on growing seeds?
I am going to post a few pictures from this morning that bloomed... Dig the one with the petals in the middle..LOL
Hope you are all having a great weekend...
Hugs,
Susan
I don't know the names of most of these but here are the purple group.
Susan
table shot...
Sue
next
Next Ruby today
Sue
Next.
Sue
Wow Susan, those look GREAT!
No, I didn't grow the chiritas from seeds, I grew them from leaves :)
In fact, here are the next batch of upcoming babies :)
Brenda, congratulations on your AV seed pod. From what I have read, AV's don't usually self themselves. Thrips live on AV pollen and if thrips are around, they will normally pollinate the stigma. This is why they recommend disbudding all flowers if thrips are spotted. BUT, as I'm sure you probably don't have thrips, I don't see why a May fly, fly, or possibly a mosquito couldn't accidentally pollinate one either :) From what I understand, it takes 6 months for the pod to ripen. Hope this helps :)
Happy June Everyone!
Kim
Wow Susan ... You have gone Gung Ho Gessie! Look at all those Strep's ... do I detect that you have chosen a favorite Gesneriad? LOL. They are all Beautiful! I sure do wish I could figure out how to get Strep's to survive in Florida!
Kim: Great Job! Look at all those Chirita babies! You, my friend are a a great gessie mom!
Yup I got the bug... I love Streps and I do have a few Chirita's and a couple different ones but I really like the streps... Kim do you have a dome over them? Great job Kim on growing... I will have to try a Chirita soon...LOL I got another set of bulbs tonight so I am hoping tomorrow to getting the other shelf usable.. I am hoping when Gail sends me some leaves to try to grow the streps again from babies as I forgot about putting them in a dome and when I did I rotted that batch... How I grew the Roulette for Kim I will never know as it never had a dome on it... I guess it was luck...
Hugs,
Susan
Beautiful streps Susan!! Your "table streps" picture shows such a pretty variety of colors
The streps have become my favorite too!! I like several of the others, Kohlerias - chiritas - sinningia but the streps have won my heart. LOL I'm moving all but a few of my AV's down the road so I can have room for the strep babies I hope to have growing soon.
Kim your abundance of chirita babies are amazing!! Look at that! I'm going to put a leaf of my Blue Moon down soon, do you have yours in the 50 50 perlite vermeculite mixture?
I went and got my magnifying glasses out to make sure there weren't some little nasties on my AV that pollinated it, and there aren't ... I can not even imagine how it got pollinated if it is a difficult thing to happen?? There are two blooms on the plant and both of them have the little seed pod forming .... very weird!!
I have bought two "Streaker" fantasy streps and had both of them die on me before blooming. I snatched a leaf from the last one before it died (last summer) and I finally have my very first Streaker bloom on one of the babies I grew.
~Brenda
One more from me tonight. These are my two original episcias. I've killed off several! ^_^ These two looked like junk all winter, barely surviving but with the arrival of spring they have been putting on a show with both blooms and foliage. Pink Panther on the right and Aloha Mauna Loa on the left.
~Brenda
Oh how cool is that episcia ??? I have that one on the left... I was wondering if I should cut the stolens off or let them hang, now I know...LOL
Ok stupid question... I have a Chirita Silver Surfer that use to be in perfect form... Now I have babies coming up all under it and also pushing out on the sides... Do I cut this up? or do I take the plant out of the dirt and then separate them? I never did a chirita before and this has at least 4 other plants now growing with it... I love this plant and don't want to kill it..LOL
Thanks for any help.
Susan
I'd say you have suckers growing from your main stem, be it at the bottom or everywhere. They need to be carefully cut away from the stem. You could then root each one of them and have lots of Silver Surfers!
Depending on how big they are you can use tweezers or carefully use a xacto knife to loosen them and pull them off. I did a search looking for some step by step pictures of how to do it but didn't find any.....
I'm sure others are more proficient at this than I am so hopefully they will give their advice too!!
~Brenda
Thanks for all the wonderful pictures from everyone. Every time I read a thread I learn something new. Don't you just love Gary's seedlings? That purple one with the ruffles is a real keeper, Brenda. Give her a name as she deserves one I think.
Some are growing out of the soil and others are right near the stem of the other so I do believe it is a sucker... Little suckers...LOLOL Ok I cut tomorrow... This was one of the first Chirita's given to me and I believe KimD gave it to me with the others...
Thanks for the help...
Susan
I just posted on some thread ........dingy.........I thought it was the new thread. Good luck, Susan.
I don't have time to read all the posts right now..later I need to play catch up..LOL..I am sure loving everyones pics tho..You are all such great growers!
I will keep all posted tomorrow... LOL I will show pictures of those little suckers...LOL
Hugs,
Susan
Brenda, you have a green thumb too!
Look at those episcias! Man I couldn't get them to do ANYTHING for me! You just let them grow out in the open like that, no dome? Not even in winter? Amazing!
Yes, for the chirita I also start them in a mix of perlite/vermiculite as for me it just seems to work better. I have tried lots of different ways but have come back to just perlite/vermiculite. I have STARTED to learn to be a little more patient and even if it takes longer, I think I get nice stocky babies for the most part. I will have to post my very first babies from leaves that I am growing which are the siblings to all the ones I sent to everyone :)
I'm still really learning with chirita though as they are still quite new to me.
I just love learning about different species of gessies and trying to do my best with each species but everyone's growing conditions are so different that sometimes it's play around until you figure it out. Sometimes this works and sometimes there are deaths. I'm trying not to mourn the deaths as much as I used to as Lin has encouraged me to just "move on" there are more plants down the road *lol* It's getting easier now when there are deaths *lol* I enjoy what I have today and don't look back :)
XO
Kim
Here are the siblings to the chiritas that I sent everyone.
I look at them and still can't believe I grew them from a leaf! It still amazes me daily *lol*
As you can see, Dreamtime is certainly the fastest grower *lol*
This AV is blooming this morning (only because I don't think it wants to go on the cut list *lol*) and I am trying to decide if it's a keeper or not *lol*
It's Ness's Jesse and Jessie is my daughters name so I may just have to keep it. Maybe I can give it to Jess one day.
Kim
This message was edited Jun 2, 2008 11:27 AM
I have never seen an unattractive Ness' av yet! THat is great looking!
I'd have to keep that one Kim! A unique bloom that is so pretty and so close to your daughters name!!
This one will be a keeper for me because I started it from a leaf of my grandmothers plant, I have three different AV's that were my grandmothers and I'll try to always have them.....
~Brenda
I Am a bad Girl I know that this is a AV fourm But I am being Bad I have to show this I just got done making it and the floweres are blooming so I had to tell someone so you guys are the lucky ones and can you see my Pink Flamingo on the side she has a new home for the summer
Dimmer
I just might go out and take another picture thats not to good
Hi Kim - your chirita skillz still amaze me! (worthy of the "z" spelling ! ^_^ )
Try measuring growth rate in terms of the number of leaves and not the size of the leaves - you might find a different "fastest" grower. .. ?
Well I got Mail from Susan its so nice she sent me a nice box of Syreps that I didn't have. And all the one that she has taken pictures of the Salmon Sunset Vampire Kiss
Spin Art a Chirita I think that the spelling is Tamisra I could be wrong and a few others Thanks so much I hope that mine will take after there Mothers
Huggs
Kim
I just have to show my new Pink Flamingo also Kimsk. sent me a Strep called Pink flamingo this is so cool can you tell I like Pink Flamingo I better stop talking about it before you all get sick of them
Hugs
Kim
