How Cool Is That?

This violet decided to try something new and novel. If you look closely at the photos, the leaf produced the "baby" plants NOT from the end of the petiole (stem) but from right in the middle of the leaf. In one photo you can see the small roots from the babies starting out up on the "mother" leaf, not down at the bottom part of the stem that would be buried in the soil. (You can click on the photos to enlarge the view.)

This was sent in for us by Patty. We'll ask her to send in another photo as these new plants progress through their growth. I'm very interested to see what the babies will look like when they are ready to be separated and put in their own individual pots. I'm also curious to know if, like other "mother" leaves, will it continue to grow on even after the "babies" are separated from it.

Please comment on whether you have ever seen this happen when starting leaves before. The violet is called Persian Lace.

The Strep Results!

Last year at the February meeting, strep seeds of some self-pollinated pods were passed out. It was a club experiment to see if we could grow streps from seed and to see if there was anything interesting with the offspring... if they all would look like their parents or if with the hybrids there would be quite a bit of variation in the offspring. Sandy kindly sent a couple of photos of a few of the babies. You can see that there are not only some really, really pretty flowers from this planting, there are really quite striking differences in the various blooms.

I am especially fond of the light color one with the yellow middles. The yellow color is being bred for in streps like it was for in the African violets about 10 years ago. There are now a couple of (mostly) all yellow strep flowers like Alisa on the market.

Thanks Sandy for the photos!!

Just an update.

Thought it would be nice to show the terrarium after it started to fill out a little more. The violets in here are a bit of a nice surprise. "Why?" You ask. Well, let me tell you.... Violets in terrariums are a bit hard to grow long term because they stay much too wet usually. Or at least for me they do. I think I found a small trick that seems to be working to keep the African violets watered but not too wet.

I have been using an all long-fiber sphagnum moss in the bottom of the terrarium as the "dirt" part. In other words I didn't put in soil this time, just the moss. It holds many times its weight in water and looks nice from the outside too. Then I wicked the little violets before putting them in the terrarium. That's putting in a small string into the soil and letting the end of the string hang out of the end of the pot. IF the violets start out moist, the wick will "wick" (or pull up) water to the soil in the violet pot when it starts to be less moist than the surroundings.

The Roulette Azure Streptocarpus has a rather interesting pistal. All the rest of the middle of the flower is white. The stamens are white, the throat of the flower is white, but the end of the pistal is a lovely shade of purple. I would suppose that a pollinator would find the flower more enticing this way. The blooms have a rather interesting color pattern also.

Guttation

Here is MY Cymbidium orchid with the drops of liquid on the bloom stem.  This is called guttation. I'll copy and paste the Wikipedia definition and a couple of their photos to explain what this phenomena is all about.

I am actually very excited about the orchid because it's the first time I've gotten it to rebloom. This type likes a cooler growing area and a distinct drop in the temp at night. So, I'm actually very pleased and surprised that it's going to bloom for me!

Guttation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Guttation on Equisetum

Guttation on a strawberry leaf

Guttation is the appearance of drops of xylem sap on the tips or edges of leaves of some vascular plants, such as grasses. Guttation is not to be confused with dew, which condenses from the atmosphere onto the plant surface.Process

At night, transpiration usually does not occur because most plants have their stomata closed. When there is a high soil moisture level, water will enter plant roots, because the water potential of the roots is lower than in the soil solution. The water will accumulate in the plant, creating a slight root pressure. The root pressure forces some water to exude through special leaf tip or edge structures, hydathodes, forming drops. Root pressure provides the impetus for this flow, rather than transpirational pull.

What's In My Toolbox?

Funny you should ask, or maybe it is not funny. Having grown violets for many years I now have quite a few things that seem to work well for me.  When I first started growing and showing violets I used a #2 pencil and frankly that does work nicely removing blossoms that are just starting to form.

Then I discovered the sucker plucker.  It can be purchased through many of the AVSA commercial businesses.  As you can see it has a scooped pointed end and a sharp end. I use the scooped end to remove suckers and blossoms and the sharp end to dig out suckers, cut leaves, trimming and a variety of things that need to be removed.  The sharp end can easily cut a hole in a leaf so I am very careful using it.

My grooming tools took quite awhile to find them.  They are brushes I found in stores and make-up cabinet.  Q-tips are really great grooming minis and semiminis because they will remove dust but not leave any residue. I always take the brushes and small scissors to groom the plants before the show begins. 

At the far right of the picture is a knife that Jung Seed Company sent me.  It has a nice thing blade and not too big. I also found one at a Coast to Coast store.  I use it to trim the roots off a plant. Scrapbooking companies sell serrated scissors that I use to trim strep leaves.  It leaves a leaf with a similar design that is natural looking.

And last, but not least, are electrical tape and a permanent maker that I use to label plants.  The tape does NOT leave any residue on the pot.   I always use permanent markers because any other pens will fade with time being exposed to water. Thanks Sharon J. for the scoop!

"I'm a doctor, not a horticulturist, Jim!"

For all those Star Trek fans out there.... What? Am I the only one who watched? This is a question of diagnosis. Just what is going on in this photo?

There are a few things to notice in the picture. First, what are the enlarged green objects in the middle of the flower?

These are pollinated blossoms that are making seeds for this plant. The green pod starts swelling and getting large. These will get just a bit larger and turn a nice shade of tan. The bloom stem won't wither and die back like it usually would after the flowers fade. It will continue to remain upright and not shriveled even though all that's left is a stem with little brown pods.

A violet keeps it's seed head ON the plant and continues ripening for as much as 6 months till the seed is mature and viable. Sometimes it's hard to not accidentally groom off the seed pods, or knock into them when watering or caring for the plant. But, if you want to try to plant the seed it has to be ripened on the mother plant.

Another thing you'll notice about the photo is the damage to the petals of the flower. What's all this about??  It's thrip damage and perhaps a bit of a watering issue with the plant. Thrips are hard to see on light colored blossoms when they are moving about but the damage that they do shows up more readily on the light blossoms. Disbudding and continuing to keep the plant flower-free for a period of months will take care of the problem, as well as the use of some pesticides.

The flowers on this plant were likely pollinated by the insects. Usually a violet doesn't self pollinate. One more interesting thing about this particular plant is that it's a chimera. Will chimera seeds produce baby chimeras???? WHAT DO YOU THINK??? Leave a comment please.

A Big Violet Flower!

This is Arctic Frost growing in it's "baby" pot.... the flowers are in some cases fully three inches across.... I can't wait to see if most of the flowers cover the top in a big white puff of flower fabulousness.

Also.... if this plant were hybridized or crossed back with itself, would the flowers still be as large? My guess is that it would produce the majority of young with normal size flowers.... comment on this!

What is Wrong With My Strep?

I got a small Neil's "Canada" last summer.  It was planted in a very light mostly perlite mix. I repotted it immediately scraping off some of the perlite. I use a 3 parts milled sphagnum peat moss, 2 parts vermiculite, and 2 parts perlite for my streps. 

The plant seemed happy at first and then the burned leaves appeared. More leaves formed and the burning continued on the old and new leaves.  I finally sent Dale Martens a picture and asked her what she thought the problem could be.  She said "It looks like necrotic tissue from drying out once too often.  But if that were not the case, if it were mine, I'd get rid of it.  Sometimes due to the genetics of a strep, it doesn't cooperate in whatever conditions are ok for the other streps that grow near it."

I really like the plant and would hate to throw it out so I wicked it and now new leaves are forming and only one tip of a leaf has any burned tip.  Apparently, that particular plant doesn't like to dry out.

Article and photo done by Sharon J. Thanks and please comment on the post!

Refresh that Terrarium! HOW TO DO IT.

Winter getting a little boring? How about getting some of the violets that are blooming on display? A terrarium is a nice way to give the plants a little more humidity in the middle of the heating season when house moisture is usually very low.

Take a glass enclosure (which are very popular currently and can be found at places like Pottery Barn etc.) and line the edges with some long fiber sphagnum moss. The main interior space may be filled with a light weight soil mix or more sphagnum moss.

Make sure the potting medium in the container is nicely moist. It is very easy to over-water a terrarium, so use some good judgment on this. No standing water in the bottom of the bowl, no musty odor coming from the soil mix.....

Get some miniature or semi-miniature violets and put in a yarn/string wick. We are leaving the violets in the pots and not "planting" them directly in the bowl's medium. This way we can remove them quickly to freshen them and get them groomed and looking lovely.

Continue planting the potted violets and any other plants that fit nicely into your "landscape plan". The planting should look like a small scene from nature, not just a bunch of plants stuck hastily into a bowl.

Finish off with some accessories. Remember to think "in scale" when choosing accessories, rocks, pieces of wood and decorations. Don't go for huge when  small will do nicely.