Heartland's Peacock - coming soon to eBay

Dale Martens, the hybridizer of Heartland's Peacock, was kind enough to give me a start of this plant earlier this year.  I put down numerous leaf cuttings and I'm pleased to report I will have starter plants to offer in September/October.  Stay tuned!

 

I'm pregnant....sort of

I'm back at it making my annual early summer crosses which normally start to produce flowering sized plants around Christmas...what a great Christmas present to myself!  I'm far too picky about what I ultimately release which is why you don't see much in the way of new introductions from me.  I do have a few things showing great promise right now so look for something new from me in the spring.

This is Alan's Fallen Angel holding a few seed pods from various pollen donors.  If memory serves I put Baby Brian, Cirelda and Dancin' Trail onto it this year.  Time will tell.

Here's some general information on crossing.  Once you pollinate the seed parent it takes approximately four (4) months for the seed pods to mature.  After I harvest the seed pods from the parent I normally store them for about 10 days to fully dry/ripen.  I then sow them onto a dampened seedling starter mix with a tight, clear cover and place them about 8" below my florescent lights.  Germination normally occurs within 7-27 days.

So yes, it's almost a full year from initial cross to seeing if you've developed anything interesting.  Definitely not a hobby for the inpatient!

Chimera Streptocarpus?

I arrived back from Paris today to find this very interesting blossom on a plant of Streptocarpus 'Texas Hot Chili'.  It appears the blossom has sported into a chimera bloom.  I haven't see this before on a Streptocarpus so am finding it quite interesting.  Now the question is...can it be successfully propagated?  I don't know yet but I intend to find out!

Time to Pack the Violets

My least favorite activity associated with selling African Violets is the packing and shipping.  These 36 boxes have over 120 plants packed away.  It's no small feat packing orders so they arrive in perfect condition.

Finally! Shirl's Blue Passion

After patiently waiting for almost THREE YEARS I finally got a starter plant of Shirl's Blue Passion.  

I have already put leaves down and will have starter plants in 2012!  I know, you have to wait a year.  On the upside, you don't have to wait three!

Shirl's Pearl Pink - A great tribute to a great lady!

Shirl's Pearl Pink is one of the last varieties Shirley Sanders hybridized before her passing.  In fact, the seed pod that contained this gem had not been sown prior to her passing and was given to Steve Spachek by Shirley's husband Sandy.

Steve took great care with these final seed pods and made several seedlings available to a few of us at the Texas State Convention in 2009.

While you might look at this plant and remark, "Nice show plant", it's not a show plant at all.  It's one of my stock plants that I have growing and I just happened to notice the remarkable display it was putting on this past weekend.  No, I didn't groom it...disbud it...nothing.  It just did this with no persuasion on my part.

Try growing this variety for yourself.  I'm sure you'll enjoy growing it as much as I do.

 

Rainbow's Peewee Nocturne

It's funny how some varieties just seem to hang around my collection and Rainbow's Peewee Nocturne is one of those that continues to hang out.

I originally got this plant from Patricia Champagne (Hortense Pittman's hybrid, Pat Champagne is named after her) who always seemed to find little gems to grow for show.  Pardon my picture taking abilities...the year was probably 1987 and digital cameras didn't exist yet.  Fortunately, I took a lot of slides back then which seemed to hold up better than standard prints.

I do offer this variety for sale on eBay from time to time.  But you've just got to keep your eyes peeled!