Now aren't you the nice ones, Lin and jannich..............be on tomorrow with some pics..........I am just baffled about this pink one.............going to call Ken tomorrow so I can be sure of the color......................
September Blooms, Part 2
Morning! Can't wait to see the real pictures Gail.
Hi there Lin,I can spend hours at that web site just looking at pictures and making a 'wish' list.I have that picture of Gail in my mind, propagating in her 'lab'..LOL.
http://www.gesneriads.ca/alphabet.htm
good morning, jannich......................have already packed two boxes and you and Rain are next.............................then I will have time to show a lot of pictures.....................
LOL Jan ... I love that website! I also can spend quite a bit of time just browsing those photo's! I find myself going back to some of the same ones over and over again! And, the wish list gets longer and longer.
I called Ken Froesbe from Beorne to ask him about the Tia pink...........he said he found it in Florida with no name........but loved it and named it Tia pink...........it is not a baby pink at all...........but a quite dark pink............he just keeps propagating it because people love it........but there is no cited reference to it anywhere....................
Wow! I wonder where in Florida he found it? There area some pretty darker pink ones shown at the gesneriads.ca website and then the one real pretty pale pink one. Pink is Pink and I love all shades of Pink! LOL.
Now I can really justify my wanderings in all these nurseries............I don't have many pics as I was just trying to identify all these with the camera.
I have come to the conclusion that I bought two big baskets of Nematanthus Tropicana..............they were at just different stages in blooming.
another close look at this basket.......
I bought this one at the second nursery..........but still Tropicana
I got this one at the first nursery.. See how much more orange shows at this point of the blooming cycle. She is always an upright grower as opposed to all the lipstick plants.
Same plant........lots of orange but always the shiny leaves.
Really great baskets you found Gail! I think I still have a little pot of Nematanthus out in the back yard, may be Tropicana ... I don't remember. It's what's left of a plant I bought many years ago and had no idea what it was. It has woody type stems when it gets older. I need to go look for that little pot and see if it's still out there and if there's any live plant left. LOL. I know I traded rooted cuttings of it last year and the name 'Tropicana' rings a bell.
Lin, they get real woody if you don't cut them back on a yearly basis................
Gail, the Tropicana is georgious. Now I see why the call it the goldfish plant. They look like little goldifish. I've not seen them down here in Fl. All I see are the regular Lipstick plants. The nearby nursery doesn't carry them either.
Well, another few to add to my list of wants. Keep posting those beautiful plants and I'll just keep adding to the list. LOL
Lin. I lost myself on that website. What a great place. As soon as I finish dinner, I'm going back to take another look.
Jannich, those pics of Coral Flame and Tropicana are 'to die'for'. Thanks.
Lin, the website wasn't from you. Sorry. It was a link posted by Jannich. I'm getting addled in my old age.
I'm going to have to keep notes as I read these posts. LOL
This message was edited Sep 21, 2008 4:13 PM
This message was edited Sep 21, 2008 6:18 PM
you know I just cant get mine to bloom,wonder if I have them in too much light
can anyone give me advice on thesee
thanks
JIM
My nematanthus and my lipstick require cool periods in the winter outside on the porch to set buds...............I don't let it get below 50 degrees..............
On the other hand, my columnea want it warm and 14 hours of light on the gro light stand.........I am going to try to get a nematanthus to bloom under the lights..............let you know if it will bloom without a cooling period.
I found the same thing re: Columneas Gail. I had two to bloom this year that had NEVER bloomed before. a little longer under the lights(and closer) and warm, humid temps was all it took. oh, and a good bloom boost fertilizer.
I put my Nem. Tropicana outside this summer on the balcony and it now has buds. So, it must also like strong light(not sun) and warm humid weather, huh? First time this one bloomed under my care.
Now, my lipstick plant is a mystery. I don't know what's up with that plant. Last summer it was full of blooms and this summer I may have gotten two? Not sure what was different this year.
What I found with the lipstick plant is that it likes that cooler period........the reason I know is that our AVSA show and sale is the first week of February. I wasn't even planning on taking lipstick and nematanthus to the show (by the way.........my nematanthus baskets bloomed this summer also.......but my lipsticks didn't) Anyway.......The first part of December I looked out one day on the front porch wrapped in 6 ml poly and my lipstick and nematanthus were covered in buds.........I ended up entering them in the show because they were gorgeous in bloom.
Hmm .. I had no idea the Aeschynanthus and Nematanthus preferred cooler temperatures. My Lipstick plants are out on the back deck and there's one on the front porch, it's very hot and humid outside so maybe I will bring them in to the air conditioned house. The Lipstick 'Rasta' is just about totally dead, just a couple of long string vines hanging over the edge of the pot. I really should cut it up and root pieces to see if I can save it.
Lin............you don't have to bring them in the house................just wait and cooler weather takes care of the cooling period in the fall.................I just allow them to survive the summers........looking horrible...........then cut them back a bit about August and off they go with the cooler falls.............
We rarely have a fall season and when we do, it might only last a couple of days to a week. I guess what we consider winter here is probably what some folks up north would consider spring or fall. Oh, how I would love to live in an area where we could open up the house, have every window open for breezes ... the breezes we get here are unfortunately warm. I can't remember the last time we were able to open the windows for more than an hour or two! :( Our air conditioning stays on until usually December or January and then the heat automatically kicks on for a few days and then the air kicks back on again. I think it would be so nice to live somewhere that had four seasons, well ... at least 3 seasons, I don't think I could handle snow and ice for longer than a couple of days! LOL.
Sorry to hear about your 'Rasta' Lin. I lost my cutting too this summer. It bloomed one time since getting it last Fall and then just shriveled up and died on me. I think my watering habits were too erratic. What do you think your downfall was?
GrowHappy: The downfall with my beautiful 'rasta' was neglect ... complete, total neglect! It has been hanging out on my back deck for a couple of years and I should have repotted it at some point and should have pruned it a bit once or twice ... I am a bad plant mommy ... I almost said care taker, which would not describe me with that plant since I didn't take very good care of it! I'm heading outside to play right now and I think I will cut up what's left of it and see if I can root some of the cuttings!
I am looking at all my hoyas which got sunburned badly when I took them out of the house (thinking we were getting the hurricane) and put them in the direct sun............now I am facing the fact that every one of them needs to be repotted............I don't have the time but must make the time in the next few weeks to take them out of the basket........then take the sharpest knife in the kitchen and cut off the bottom 1/3 of the root system and put in fresh Miracle grow soil................it makes new plants out of them..............
Gail, I have a couple of the carnosa's that got sunburned just because I had them hanging in too much sun and I've learned recently on the hoya forum that the carnosa's do not like sun. Why do you have to repot them? I have one Hoya krimson princess that I've had since the mid 1970's and just repotted it for the first time in many years but didn't chop off any roots since hoya's prefer to be root bound. I'd be too afraid of sending the plant into shock to cut the roots off. LOL. You are a brave, brave lady! Oh, do you use straight MG soil for potting your hoyas, any additives?
I hate to admit this............but when I think of it, I mix STEM (the trace elements) and water it through them..........or I add 1/2 cup of epsom salts and water through..........so I just use straight lazy Miracle Grow (they dry out fast enough as it is) I am not adding turface or anything like that to make them drain better.
Gail, what is STEM?? I use the same mix for everything except Gessie's. My mixture is Miracle Grow Potting Soil (because it's all I find locally), lots of Orchid Bark Mix and lots of Perlite. It is a chunky, fast draining mixture so my plants dry out quickly too but that's a good thing during rainy season here and also because I water everything with the garden hose. As you have heard me say in the past, I am very bad about not fertilizing regularly. I do sometimes use the hose end sprayer and foliar feed with MG or VF-11 but I'm lazy and don't usually remember it.
STEM is that powder remember that man talked about on the perfect soil mix????? I bought it in HOuston at Southwest Fertilizer and just bought a pound of it. You could get it in large quantities but it doesn't take that much and most people only use about every 6 or 8 weeks at the most. It just is a mixture of all the trace elements and I have no idea what else. They put it in a baggie for me so I don't know........I have long lost the directons, etc. I need to add what we call soil conditioner which I am going to do this time. It is nothing but bark..........and is only 16.00 for a giant bag.........It is made by Pride....I think Texas Pride........
Check out some of these Gessie's at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens site: http://www.selby.org/index.php?src=gendocs&link=GIC_living_coll&category=Research
Man, my wish list is getting ever so long! Some real beauties on that page!
Lin, thanks so much............I have bookmarked this page............can't wake up to see them right now.........haven't finished first cup of coffee...
Gail, I know you will be excited when you see some of the columnea and aeschynanthus ... there are some really gorgeous plants that I've never heard of too.
I love Selby Botanical Gardens. We used to vacation over in that area every summer and I loved going there, it's been awhile though. Hope to make a trip over that way next summer!
Don't have time to look now.......but I WILL FOR SURE.
Cuttings rooting in water on the kitchen window sill ... found it blooming today! This is the one I thought was Black Pagoda Lipstick but has been discovered it is A. longicaulis because of the flower color.
That picture is awfully dark, don't know why the flash didn't go off or something.
I took it out back to bright light ... here's a close up of the flowers:
cool blooms. I hope my plant is what your plant is. I love the bloom. Mine won't bloom. I think I am going to really feed it...........My basket is a giant. Maybe I will take cuttings and put in water like you have done!
I need some opinions.............This actually started from one plant and they were all connected through these fat stems running from one to another. The plant just got too big. I separated all the crowns...........but is she even worth repotting the crowns????? Look how large the crowns are. Or...........do you cut them up close to the crown and only keep maybe 5 leaves and start all over? Thanks
She is a standard trailer.
Oh my goodness ... that's a lot of babies of that trailer Gail. Why not sell them in the Marketplace? I'm curious though, why couldn't they all stay in the same pot? I thought someone said that was okay for trailers to have numerous crowns? Or maybe I'm thinking of another one.
Lin, they were beautiful for over a year...........but now the plants had stems that were falling over the sides...........I had to do something. I think I may take a very small crown of each one and root under a dome. Sometimes african violets get just too big.......
LOL, I would have tried to find a wide, shallow container and potted them all together.
Oh, wait ... I just went back to re-read your first post, you said it was a standard! Duh! I was thinking miniature! I'm still seeing with only one eye and blurry vision.
Hi All,
Gail I say put one in a box and send my way...LOLOL I agree with Lin to put them on the Marketplace...
Hugs,
Susan