I have Petrocosmea seeds

At last I have found a seed pod on my Petrocosmea nervosa. I thought all hope of getting any this season had gone. I was watering this morning and there it was, a little pod. I have had little pods before, but they had nothing in. I expected the same with this one, but on getting some paper towel out of the cupboard and gently opening the pod there they were. I will sow the seeds today and now the next puzzle is what to sow them on. Shall I use the normal seed mix of one part compost one part vermiculite and one part perlite? Or shall I sow them on damp NZ Sphagnum moss. Maybe I will hedge my bets and put some on each. Having got this far I don't want to fall at this hurdle and use the wrong method. 2011 is turning out to be a great year in the Gessie dept already, long may it continue...Good growing everyone...

A New Growing Year

Well here it is 2011 and a brand New Year to look forward to. One of my New Year's resolutions is to look after my plants better. I have made steps to do this during the last few months of 2010. I now do not keep weak plants in the hope that they might recover. I now compost them and although I still hate doing this it is the only way.
I have plenty of new to me Streptocarpus coming along in the propagation department. Petrocosmeas that I have received from friends all over the globe, Sinningia seeds are coming along nicely. I am not usually very good with the seeds I sow apart from a batch of Streptocarpus seeds I planted a couple of years back. I gently nurtured these seeds expecting Crystal Ice and when they bloomed I had big disappointment with the flowers. They were split and distorted nothing like i was expecting. I think in a way that put me off of growing from seed. I and a few others in our forum  recently acquired some Sinningia seed from a friend in the U.S.A. Well that has aroused my interest in seed sowing again as we are all eager to see these little beauties develop. The rate at which these seeds are sprouting may mean that the whole globe may be covered with beautiful Sinningias by the end of the summer.
Petrocosmea are now starting to again look very nice, especially P.minor after her long spell covered in blooms. She started looking a bit tatty with all the flowers going over but now I have removed the stems...no, no seeds pods were found, drat and double drat!!! She is looking top notch. I have tried to pollinate all of the Petrocosmea I had in flower but no luck with seed pods at all.  I will try again this year when hopefully nature will give me another shot.
My African Violets have continued to bloom away in this horrible winter we have had in the South West of England. We had below freezing temperatures for weeks on end and had a couple of weeks with snow on the ground. It was awful walking on the icy pavements and was safer walking in the road. I have a lovely AV Starstruck that is so beautiful. Wranglers Swinging Blues is so impressive I am delighted with the length of time that the blooms have been on the plant. AV Storm's Eye is another brilliant performer and will try and propagate some more this year.
I have no Streptocarpus in flower at all at the moment. I find it difficult to keep their conditions just right, a fine balance between too much water and not enough. Luckily they don't seem to mind too much when they go limp and I give them a little drink again to perk them up.
Well to all the Gesneriad growers out there......Happy New Year and good growing x

Looking Good

Well all were looking good when I went around watering earlier. I wish I could wave a magic wand and make Spring come. My African Violets that are under lights which were borrowed from my daughter are certainly looking better. It was very cold here last night -2C. The Av's in the conservatory under a large grow light that lights up the whole street are looking good too. I have a few Petrocosmea leaves in that grow stand too. Also have Sinningia seeds growing well in an old ice cream container. Streptocarpus leaves that were put down also in ice cream tub are starting to show bunny ears and are lovely and green. A couple were lost I think I let them dry out too much. It is a very fine line between keeping them just moist and too wet. I always start off by just putting them in the soil mix and enclosing them I never add any water until about 3 or 4 weeks from putting them down. I am still trying to get some seed pods on my Av's. I think I will stop looking so often then perhaps one day I may get a nice surprise :) Streptocarpus seem so easy to get seed pods from I have a lovely Cape Baby that has about 5 pods on without even doing anything. I love that Streptocarpus as the flowers change colour as they mature so you get several different shades on the same plant at the same time.

Well it certainly looks like I have missed the boat with the seed pods on Wrangler's Swinging Blues. I don't think I am very good at this creating a new hybrid lark:(  I do however hold out more hope with the Petrocosmea. HT-2 had so many flowers on them that I felt sure they would produce. I took a seed pod off of one of the plants yesterday but after much poking and prodding no seeds could be seen. Petrocosmea nervosa though is also showing signs of producing seed pods. With this Pet I put it in a seed tray with a propagating lid on. In the bottom of the seed tray I laid a towel that had been soaked in water then rung out so it was just damp. I think little nervosa looks very happy in there and I think the flowers are turning their heads up which I am told they do when pollination has taken place. Fingers crossed for me. I AM VERY DETERMINED! Other Gesneriads take no intervention on my part to produce seeds. Chirta Stardust, Dreaming Pearl and Tamiana seem to produce pods like crazy. Same with my Streptocarpus the ones I really want to produce seeds seem very reluctant yet others that I am not really bothered about have pods 3 inches long on them. I think someone out there is teasing me...Come on give me a  break LOL!!!!

My Gesneriads

Well here I am at last with a blog! This morning I checked on my African Violets to see if there is any sign of a seed pod on Wrangler's Swinging Blues which I pollinated a few weeks ago. I can't see anything after a quick inspection will have another look later when I return from work.The sun is out here today after a very cold night. I have tried on several occasions to get some seeds from my special Violets but no luck yet. Well it is off to work now and I must wrap up very warm as although lovely sunny day is still very cold about 4C.