Speaking of cut roses, the ones I rooted earlier this year have actually fared pretty well, health-wise. I know there’s a couple of conspicuously gross leaves here, but most of them are clean, and that’s what we want. The general fall rose bloom I was looking forward to was aborted by weeks of rain and the early freeze, so even this one flower feels worth celebrating.
‘Psychedelic Rose’; ‘Kristi’s Spunk’, ‘Esmeralda’, and a group shot.
The wild ancestors of cultivated African violets hail from montane and coastal forests in Tanzania and Kenya, usually in rocky crevices alongside streams. Cultivated hybrid varieties have retained a need for mild temperatures, filtered light, and relatively confined growing spaces. Luckily for them, this makes them ideal houseplants.
One thing that tends to surprise people who’ve never seen a well-grown African violet is how wide some of them can get, reaching 16" or more in diameter in the larger varieties. In practice, this can be difficult to achieve; my pets usually manage to knock my plants off the windowsill at least once a month, and of course, in less than ideal growing conditions, older leaves tend to acquire damage that makes them drop prematurely. There’s also a shape issue. AVs grow in flat rosettes, and will tend to tilt towards their light source. If you have them on a windowsill, they need to be regularly rotated to keep them symmetrical. If you really want a big, flat, show quality plant, your best bet is to grow them under lights.
Up until recently, I haven’t really had the opportunity to try AVs under lights. When we started the seedlings indoors, I decided to put a few on the shelves with them. These are the first round of blooms from this group. I can’t yet say there’s a huge difference between their growth and blooming and that of the windowsill guys, but they certainly do have nicer leaves, being well-insulated from heat, cold drafts, and excited dogs. I look forward to seeing them develop.
My sister gave me a starter plant of this little noid miniature violet a few years ago. She referred to it as the “survivor violet”, because back home it lived on a windowsill with an oriole feeder on the other side. The cats would see the orioles, take a flying leap off the dining room table, hit the window and slide down, taking out the plants below. This happened multiple times (not the brightest cats, alas). The violet was broken up every time, and suffered a few other indignities, but its pieces always rooted and grew vigourously.
Back when I was living at the apartment, I didn’t have a lot of window space, and I often forgot to water the indoor plants. Between that and an ill-advised repot into crappy soil, I finally killed my survivor violet. However, one leaf had fortuitously fallen off into a pot below it. The plant in that pot also eventually died, but the leaf rooted and hung on. When we moved to this house, I finally put it in its own pot, in good soil, in good light. This is the first time this particular iteration has bloomed.
Some blooming gesneriads.Primulina ‘Rachel’ is in the top two photos. It has pretty foliage but leans quite a bit on the bedroom windowsill. I decided to move all the primulinas here under the lights tonight to see if they like it more.
Streptocarpus ‘DS-Roxolana’ has opened a second flower. It’s noticeably bluer than the old one, which has faded to a straight pink.
Finally, ‘Allegro Peaches n Green’. This picture is not really true to color – it’s an unusual (for an AV) peach with green edges, less muddy in real life than it looks here.
The herp store had a variegated syngonium in, so of course I had to get it. I used to be an avid collector 6-7 years ago, albeit much more financially limited; it all came apart in a combination of mealybugs, depression, inadequate space and winter. Even my big ‘Neon Robusta’, which I had since 2009, bit the dust. It was very disheartening and put me off for a while.
What I did learn during that time is that pretty much any syngonium is stupid easy to grow, but if you want to branch out from the small numbers of cultivars available at big box stores, you’re going to spend a lot of time hunting them down online. Glasshouse Works has a decent variety, including ‘Jade’, which this may be. I don’t recall ‘Jade’ having such thin leaves, but it’s been a while. Google has pulled up a few similar plants under other names, but I’m not sure how many are legitimately different cultivars. (It did always annoy me that syngoniums seem to lack the pedantic, obsessive fan base that some other aroids have, at least in the U.S. Someone out there must be obsessively importing crazy cultivars from Thailand!)
In any case, the three big box plants I bought earlier this year survived without mealybug issues, so I think I’m ready to return. Syngoniums are very easy plants, and I’ve always wondered why you don’t see more of them, especially with all the colors and patterns available. More posts soon!
Bl. Yellow Bird. Another orchid that stands up well to growing outdoors in central Texas (protected from afternoon sun and brought in for freezes). The pinkish flower opened yesterday and the other is about a week old, faded to yellow.
Oxalis flava bloomed while indoors for the freeze! We’ve been moving plants back out all day. In spring everything gets arranged to protect it from summer’s heat and sun, but in winter it’s more about making it quick and easy to move the tender ones indoors.
It didn’t get too far below freezing, but it was enough to kill some stuff back. Some observations of plants left outside:
– The tomatoes are probably complete toast. Need to cut them back and see if there’s anything left. Some peppers suffered damage at the tips but might come back from lower down. The most frostproof? Trinidad Scorpion, suffering mild damage so far.
– All 3 of the florist mums I left out are fine. They might not survive an arctic blast, but for now they’re chugging along.
– I left my large citrus seedlings out, and only a few suffered damage. Very interested to see how the rest do as winter progresses. I only want trees that will be reliably hardy here in zone 8b.
I miiiiight have enough time this weekend to do a follow-up on the echeveria project. I’ve gotten the Amorphophallus corms lifted and stored; the summer-dormant bulbs (including O. flava) all sprang back to life with amazing vigor. I have dead and underperforming plants to get rid of, but at least we were able to sweep off the patio, finally. Fingers crossed that we don’t get too much rain next week! I might be able to get this all done by Thanksgiving.
Down in south Texas, the butterfly migrations are in full swing. Thousands of American snouts, red admirals, sulphurs, oranges, patches, hairstreaks, queens, monarchs and more are passing through. Huge clusters of goldeneye (Viguiera dentata) attracted them to this spot in Kinney County; more pictures to come after I’ve had a chance to ID them all.
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