Well everything Gesneriad wise is in full swing except for the Petrocosmea. I have so many Streptocarpus in bloom I cannot keep up with the dead heading. I have some lovely Russian ones coming along and they are certainly very different. The DS-Mirage and DS- Mysticism and Sashenka are stunning and I have attempted a couple of crosses with their pollen. I am not that brilliant with the seeds once they are produced so fingers crossed I can get something worth while with these. I have sown some seeds of a cross of Streptocarpus Very Nearly and Harlequin Blue but as yet nothing is appearing. I sent some seeds to a good friend in the States in the hope he can get something out of them. Only once have I ever got any Streptocarpus seeds I have sown to germinate and then they were very dissapointing and ended up on the compost. The seeds were bought from an auction site and were from Crystal Beauty x Self. When the plants produced flowers they were very weird and split open. It did put me off a bit but now with my friends all producing such wonderful crosses I must try and get to grips with it.
I made a terrarium on the 8th March this year and planted it with Sinningias and Petrocosmea. I made it from an aquarium which I bought especially for the project. It is now crammed full of flowering Sinningias and is a lovely feature of my lounge. It is a dark part of the room so the lights are on for 12 hours a day. The lights were in the aquarium when I bught it and one is blue and one is white and they certainly seem to make the plants grow.
Weather in the UK today has been very wet, after we had months of no rain it is really welcome. I do hope though it does stop at some point and we get back to some sunshine.
Happy Growing everyone and Happy Summer Solstice...XXXX
