A few more flowering Saintpaulia cvv. for you

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It's hard to be too excited about an African Violet flowering because they do it so much it's really not that big a deal. I'll try though, these are some of the more interesting.



"NOID 0020" - I lied, this one is not interesting. It is pretty though. Actually a bit part of the reason I like this one is not pictured here. The leaves are large, and round, and light green. The white flowers bring it all together but they've mostly been opening under the larger leaves above. So I was really only able to get a good shot of this one flower that's decided to make itself visible. I also had to do some serious photo-shopping to get any detail in the flower without having it horribly underexposed or with highlights blown. It worked well but what you can see of the leaves is way way darker than they actually are.


Saintpaulia 'Rebel's Splatter Kake' - I've posted this one several times before. I was happy to see a large head of flowers on it... But most of them do not have the same quality or amount of spotting on them, so another closeup it is. I think the colour's closer to the real thing in this picture, and the light is softer and maybe the focus is sharper so you get to see it again.


"NOID 0006" - I think this was ID'd as Saintpaulia 'Sergeant Pepper' but we did not (apparently) update the label. I like it.

Just for fun I'll throw in a bonus:



Streptocarpus 'Sultan's Ruby' first bloom. It's dark but red, not the purple you saw here.

Dark Flowered Gesneriads

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A couple of the darker flowered Gesneriads I have flowering right now.


Streptocarpus 'Ink Blot'


Saintpaulia 'Black Ace'


Streptocarpus 'Purple Pepper'

Saintpaulia picture, mobile blogging and trying to find the best Android Blogging App.

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I'm now testing Blogaway, it seems more polished than either of the apps I've already tried. Italics and bold are not as easy to use because you have to select the text first.The picture is of Saintpaulia "NOID0022".



Saintpaulia "NOID0022"

(I guess I mentioned in an earlier, now deleted post but basically new phone = blogging on the run, if I can find an Android app worth using. The phone's an Acer Liquid E, the picture above was taken with the built in camera which is really not the best but works well enough in bright lighting.)

I've since cleaned up this post after the fact which I think I'll have to do whichever of the apps i use to get formatting right, I'll probably either use BlogAway or Bloggeroid. I'll keep both for now and see how I like them after using them a bit.

More new plants - part 3

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A few oddballs in this group like this interesting succulent:



Faucaria tigrina

I picked this one out for its spotting and long "teeth" - others were in slightly better condition but there was variation in the batch and this was the most interesting, and with 3 shoots and fullest (1.5") pot. The flash picked up more blue colour in the spots than there really is.

While I was at it I couldn't ignore this Golden Barrel Cactus for only $4.



Echinocactus grusonii

My mom picked up this African Violet (NOID 0028)



Saintpaulia "NOID 0028"

While I got a new Sansevieria, probably S. cylindrica (no picture, it's small in a 4" pot and hardly exciting right now).

I think that's about all that followed me home over the last week. Going to have to go easy on any more plants for a little while now until everything gets sorted out and finds a new home.

Saintpaulia 'Sergeant Pepper' flowering

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Saintpaulia 'Sergeant Pepper'

Toronto Gesneriad Society Show, 2010

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I went to the Toronto Gesneriad Society Show earlier today. It was my first day off since I started working last Saturday so I told myself I would decide to go or not based on whether I slept though it or not. I didn't.

Here are some pictures:


Episcia 'Ember Lace' - If I could grow Episcia at all this cultivar would be at the top of my list.


Episcia 'Blue Nile'


Streptocarpus 'Purple Panda'


Streptocarpus dunnii


Saintpaulia 'Demer's Pixie Belle'


Saintpaulia ionantha subsp. orbicularis


Chirita liboensis - My favourite of the show. Large Dark leaves with huge numbers of flowers. The plant was pretty big as well compared to the Chirita cultivars I grow. Very striking.


Columnea pulchra 'Orange Crush'


Kohleria 'Pink Shadow'


Sinningia sp. Florianopolis

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, March 2010

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My second Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.

Spring is still not quite here in spite of some fantastically warm weather so once again I can only show you what's flowering inside my house right now. It's nice to be able to note that every single plant I posted last month is still flowering (with the exception of the Saintpaulia NOID which had already been flowering a pretty long time).


And this month you get more of the same - Orchids and African Violets. Enjoy!



Phalaenopsis NOID - I think there's a point where on orchid becomes so boring it becomes beautiful again.


Ludisia discolor - About all I'm going to get out of it. The bottom flowers are starting to close.


Saintpaulia "NOID 0022" - The flower's not in the greatest shape but this is the best focus I've gotten in an African Violet picture yet - Check it out at full size.


Saintpaulia "NOID 0010" - This one's nice.


Saintpaulia 'Ness' Orange Pekoe' - Interesting colour, doesn't do much for me otherwise though.


Saintpaulia "NOID 0011" - It took me a while to notice those blue spots on the petals. I think this could become one of my favourites if I can bring out those spots more in the future.


Saintpaulia "NOID 27"


Saintpaulia "NOID 0027"

African Violet pictures

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Spring feels as far away as ever now that we actually have some snow and while it's warm out it certainly looks like winter from where I'm sitting. Ok, until it started to rain anyway... Little is going on inside other than the usual.

Speaking of the usual here are some nice African Violet pictures for you.



Saintpaulia 'Champion Thriller' - On one plant this has single, semi-double and double flowers. Interesting. Thrilling, even.



Saintpaulia "NOID 0007" - I'll be using names like "NOID 0007" instead of just NOID so I can keep individual plants consistently labeled. You can ignore these names if you want.

I'm going to have to do up a post on African Violets I would grow for their leaves alone soon. I think after I document the plants on the plant stand I'll have pictures for that. That should be soon I hope, maybe Monday.

Other plant events to come:

The first new pitcher on either of my Nepenthes since I got it (yup, it's that tiny one in that picture) is about to open (The good news? It's bigger than the older one - which I'm pretty sure is a good sign). I also collected a bunch of "rainwater" (melted snow) yesterday and today to use for them (I live in a townhouse and I don't have a downspout on my property - boo).

My Haworthia flower spike is developing so fast. I don't know when it will actually flower but it gets noticeably larger each day. I'm too used to orchids which can take months to do anything so this progress is a big deal.

Toronto Gesneriad Society Meeting Pictures

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Went to the Toronto Gesneriad Society's meeting this afternoon at the Toronto Botanical Gardens. On the whole not the most exciting meeting - nothing for sale and only three plants shown. Talk was interesting enough though. Also shown were some flowers which had been shown somewhere on Friday that were brought in to the meeting to be shown as well. That will pretty much be this post - here were the highlights of those flowers.



Strep. 'Remembering John'



Strep. 'Victorian Valentine'



S. 'Fisher's Leone'



Left: S. 'Live Wire', Right: S. 'Kings Ransom'



S. 'Sara's Addison Rose'



Left: S. 'Buckeye Leprechaun Charm', Right: S. 'News'

Gesneriads in bloom

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NOID Saintpaulia



Saintpaulia 'Shy Blue'



Saintpaulia 'Rebel's Rose Bud'



Saintpaulia 'Merlot' ('Senk's Merlot' Maybe?, label on the pot reads "MERLOT Wasp Violet")



Saintpaulia 'Merlot' leaf



Streptocarpus 'Royal Grape Fizz'

Gesnerids in bloom

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Saintpaulia 'Rebel's Splatter Kake'



Streptocarpus 'Canterbury Surprise seedling'



Streptocarpus 'Silver Dust'



Chirita 'Stardust'



Chirita 'Stardust'



Chirita tamiana