Diastema vexans, Amalophyllon clarkii and other rhizomatous

I just started growing the, well, a little bit more unusual rhizomatous Gesneriads from both seed and rhizomes. I just want to use this thread to exchange information on growing them. What I'm talking about are Genera like Niphaea, Phinaea, Heppiella, Gloxinella, Gloxinia, Pearcea, Amalophyllon and so on. I love all rhizomatous Gesneriads equally but there already is plenty of information on growing Achimenes, Kohleria, Eucodonia and Smithiantha for example.

Since I don't want to start a thread without a picture, here are some of my Diastema vexans seedlings that struggled in the beginning but are now growing like weeds.

Hi. I grow a lot of those gesneriads. I don't grow from seed though, I don't have much luck with seeds. I talked with Nancy Kast recently and she made some suggestions that I am trying out...hoping to have a little better success.

Many of my plants are growing in containers, plastic and glass with clear lids...I travel out of town and this is the only way I can keep them growing and not drying out. They don't grow as robust and strong in containers but they still bloom. My spelling will be off here...but I have gloxenella lindenana and it was very poorly in its glass gallon jar...lots of air roots, grew leggy and was pale. I took a rhizome piece out a couple months ago and planted in an oyama pot and it is really doing well, it is growing compact, is a nice healthy color.

tish

Hey Tish!

I'm still getting the hang of growing rhizomatous Gessies from seed. I started different ones early December and they looked bad. Etiolated, anemic and bad. But they kept hanging on. Then as soon as the days started getting longer they perked right up and started growing like they are supposed to. My conclusion is that rhizomatous seedlings seem to need more light after germination than other Gessies.

I have some Gloxinella lindeniana seedlings that were doing the same thing. I have both Diastema vexans and Gloxinella lindeniana under lights and on wicks now and they are doing fine.

This morning I noticed that my Niphaea oblonga rhizomes have started breaking dormancy.

BTW: Nancy Kast's article on Primulina tabacum made me curious about this species and sure enough, it was the first plant that I grabbed from the sales table. I followed Nancy's advice, repotted the plant and keep it well watered and fed. It's growing like crazy and has 7 flowerstalks coming up. 2 leaves snapped on the way home and they immediately went into the propagator. Both leaves are still looking good and I guess, I'll have a good chance of babies soon.

Amalophyllon clarkii (Phinaea sp. nov. USBRG 96-336) sprouting rhizomes.

Gloxinia erinoides 'Red Satin'. Turns out to be a pretty vigorous grower. There are two more flower spikes and a few side shoots coming up. When I got the plant 3 weeks ago it only had its 6 leaves and no flower spike.

The other plant is xCodonatanthus 'Vista'

Pretty much the only fertilizer I use on all my plants is Miracle Grow Tomato fertilizer at 1/4 strength with every watering. If on wicks, I flush the soil once a month.

Gloxinella lindeniana seedlings. Too late to separate them now. I'll see how they'll do and take cuttings if need be. A lesson in what not to do with seedlings. It's much better to separate them early. removing the cotyledons and potting deeper at the same time will also promote growth.

This message was edited Apr 11, 2011 7:17 AM

Your seedlings look really good. Mine tend to bolt...how close to the lights do you put them to germinate? Nancy told me light is not as important as warmth until they germinate...at my house, heat = light, ha. I have read also that if some seeds don't do well for you to start them at a different time of the year.

My d. vexans is dormant right now.

My g. ernroides has been going dormant...still has a little place but I've stopped watering it. Not sure how long to leave it dormant, I guess I'll just keep looking for new growth. I think I have red satin...when I bought it the label said Polo Polo...I was told it was renamed so I wrote the new name on the other side of the label and also told it was probably red satin...I looked up the picture and it does look like red satin. Does your green leaves have little silver dots?


I tried to get amaphellon clarkii with no luck so far...the seeds didn't sprout and I finally got a rhizome that is all but gone....I'm still hoping it will sprout something. I do have a different one though, richii or something like that maybe. I'm not near the label.

I have started the tobacum from a leaf and was so excited when it grew a plant. Mine is in a large (very large) round glass bowl. Once it got old enough to start blooming, it hasn't stopped, I know its pretty much bloomed for at least a year now, not always a lot of bloom, sometimes just a few but other times its loaded. I just love that one. It is about to grow out of its home and I'm not sure I can get anything bigger for it, ha. I guess it's best to leave it grow there and just start another plant. I love the flowers, they have a little stripe in them like chimera.

I swap fertilizers around, but I don't use much either and if I have to water alot I use plain water sometimes. When I used tomato fertilizer I had some strange things happen to some of my blooms, they were different color, when I changed fertilizers again they went back to normal, ha. I asked around and it didn't happen to anyone else, so I don't know.

Sorry I'm taking liberty with spelling. Its been a long day.

take care. tish

I know that in Hydrangeas you can change the color of the blooms from pink to blue and back to pink with different types of fertilizers. Essentially what you do is altering the pH. Maybe that's what happened. I have very hard city water here and I would assume that that could be beneficial for Primulina tabacum since it is a relative of Chirita and many of them just can't get enough limescale. Anyway. I repot frequently. All of my plants. So I never had the problem of any fertilizer burning the roots. I used to use Schultz Bloom Plus and I am still using it sometimes. Less than 1/4 strength. It has an insanely high second number and everybody warned me about that. I never had any problems with it though.

And now to your other questions: My plants are under one 20W T5. I'll add another one to this tier as soon as I get around to going to Lowe's. One of these days... As for germination: I have a fish tank on a heating pad. I turn the pad off in Summer but it comes in very handy for germination. Over the past three decades I tried growing many tropical plants from seed and in my experience success/speed of germination increases greatly when you give the seeds a warm soil.

For the germination itself, light is not very important. But right after germination, the young plants need light. In my experience, rhizomatous Gesneriad seedlings do best when they get a certain amount of natural light. And you are right, the rhizomatous seeds that I put down in early December struggled along until mid January and were starting to do much better by mid February. Now they are happily growing. I just sowed a batch of Kohleria amabilis 'Panama Pink' and will see how they are doing being able to receive much more natural light from the start.

This message was edited Apr 11, 2011 3:28 PM

This message was edited Apr 11, 2011 3:29 PM

Does anyone have seeds/rhizomes/cuttings of Diastema comiferum and rhizomes/cuttings of xPhinastema 'California Dreaming'?

Sorry, don't have those. Thanks for the growing info.

t

Another great thread.. I have d. vexan that is dormant and huge bowl terrarium of Pearcea.
I'll have trades of it later on when I have time to ship, if anyone is interested.

MsC

Hey MsC!

What kind of Pearcea? P. hypocyrtiflora? If so, I'd be highly interested.

Olaf

Yes it's P. hypocyrtiflora. It's a nice specimin but I don't think it likes my care...lol
I have it in a huge terreraium and it's been a bit neglected since our move. It's getting a bit stragley. I do love the leaves.I thought I'd try it instead of Episcias but I still love the Episcias better.

MsC

Hey MsC!

Please keep me on you list for cuttings/rhizomes whenever you get a chance.

Thanks!

Olaf

I like this thread. I'm trying different gesneriads that were sown in November. I could use any info on cultural requirements. It's tough to find out there. Here's Gloxinella lindennani

Phinea pulchella

The next two are seeds sown as Phinea multiflora 'Tracery'. However, an adjacent seed's label was lost and there are 2 separate batches that got mixed up. I don't know which of these is the unknown and which is actually Tracery.

Tracery?

Amallophylon clarkii

Amallophyon equadoranas are just sprouting. Here's some Epithema species (blue) North Perak

X Glokohleria 'Goblin' is growing nicely and Smithiantha multifloras. Here is Smithiantha laui getting started.

This is Seemania nematanthodes 'Evita'. This pic is after the top was tip cut. There are also some Seemania gymnostomas coming along.

X Niphemens 'Lemonade' just wants to get tall.

Vanhouttea Bruegerrii here and there are also some lanatas growing. Sorry to hog so much space. If anyone wants to trade seeds or starts for any of these, D-mail me. Thanks for any info you can supply on how these should be grown. I'm fixin to sow another batch of seeds from the gessie seed fund too.

Hey Jamie!

I posted a have/want list in the thread on this forum. If you find anything, let me know and we'll arrange something. I'm generally interested in anything rhizomatous. I'll send you a Dmail later and I'm sure we can work something out.

As for the lost label: This can be very difficult. A lot of these small rhizomatous ones look so much alike. If you don't have it already, this is a link to a pdf containing a revision of Phinaea/Niphaea/Amalophyllon. Maybe this can help with further identification.

http://si-pddr.si.edu/jspui/bitstream/10088/7556/1/bot_selb-29-02-157-176-l.pdf

Good luck!

Olaf

BTW: Thanks for posting all those pics, Jamie! Much appreciated. Especially Phinaea pulchella.

Thanks for the link. I'll look at your list and D-mail you.

Jamie,
Great growing.It's fun to see so many other Gessies.

Lynn

Hiya Olaf, I will set aside a good cutting for you. Dmail me your addy please. Please understand they are kinda rangey looking but with good care they shape up.

Jamie love the pics of the gessies. Great growing!

MsC

Post all the pictures you want, that is what this forum is for. The more interest the better.

Exactly!

And while we're at it:

Sprouting Niphaea oblonga rhizomes:

Sprouting Eucodonia 'Tiny Tot' rhizomes:

Eucodonia 'Tiny Tot'. So cute and fuzzy.

Niphaea oblonga. I love the texture and color of the baby leaves.

I can't wait to see your pictures as they grow too.

I will keep everyone posted. They seem to be growing pretty fast now.

Diastema vexans. Can't wait for the flowers.

Amalophyllon clarkii (Phinaea sp. nov. USBRG 96-336):

One of the rhizomes has leaves in whorls of three: