Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Whoops

Whoops..... well, this is what happens when you leave the straw ON the winter hardy banana like they tell you to. "Don't uncover the banana till the last chance of frost is over."... "Don't freeze the crown of the banana in the spring."... blah, blah, blah.....



I guess the tulips thought they were planted extra deep. The are not planted in the straw.


Well, you may as well comment.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

A "Crown" fit for a King.

How about these two lovely violets??? The bright coral pink of Kate's Rendezvous is highlighted by the pink variegation in the center of the plant. The purple fantasy, called Festival on Ice, also shows the dark outer leaves and the nicely contrasting inner leaves. This type of plant patterning, generously allowed to be photographed from Sharon's collection, is called "crown variegation".


According to the fine folks at Optimara, the crown variegation is defined as:
Crown Variegation: Characteristic of African Violets which develop variegated leaves on the crown. While all variegated cultivars will normally have crown variegation, the term most often applies to those African Violets which have crown variegation only, while the rest of the leaves remain completely green.

Variegated plants usually show the coloration better when grown in a cooler than average environment. Do you find this to be true? What about variegation do you like? Leave a comment.