Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Kohleria & Annual Plant Shuffle

Well its that time of year where I start to see some of my plants go into decline because the sun just is not around as much. This year I have more plants than I ever had, so I have been doing the houseplant shuffle. I only have so much window space, and some plants naturally need more light than others. This is the time of year I am happy with my various pothos around the house and my heart leaf philo's. They can go absolutely anywhere and still be happy enough to make it through the winter no problem. One of my poor hoyas hanging just off from my North window just went into instant decline when the day hours got shorter, it's vines shriveling up into nothing. Luckily for it, a pothos in a South window can take it's place. I have had to add a couple fluorescent lights around the house to accommodate these plants, but yesterday, finally I think I got it. Here is a couple pics of my house right now.
So a few months ago I ordered a few Kohleria rhizomes from eBay. Never having grown them, was a bit nervous. But soon after planting and watering the rhizomes I got growth. A couple have been pickier than the others in regards to the humidity, but other than that, they seen to be growing quite well. A couple are growing in clumps with a few crowns, one is quite large with only one crown, and the other couple are still small and single. I can't wait to see what these look like when they flower. I have seen pictures, and they resemble the flowers on my alsobia dianthiflora, except these have vivid colors unlike the alsobia that is more a plain white with a couple little pink flecks on the inside. Anyways, here is a couple pics of my growing Kohleria.As I was uploading pics for this thread, I realized I wanted to put this in as well. I have a large alsobia dianthiflora (gesneriad) and for a few months I have been trying to propagate it, and I have failed a couple times. Well I finally got it. In a little deli container, with the lid on the whole time until it was rooted. I would really like to be able to make more hanging baskets of this one, as the momma plant is beautiful, hanging down almost a full foot. It looks like a net of tiny rosettes cascading down from the pot. It is just gorgeous whether it is flowering or not. So here is pic of my successfully rooted alsobia dianthiflora.

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