Sinningia 'Prudence Risley' needs to come back

          

            Sinningia ‘Prudence Risley’ is a flowering houseplant that deserves to be grown in commercial quantities.

 

            Like many Gesneriads, it has been hiding in the hobby world and shows up at Gesneriad Conventions and occasionally at the Philadelphia Flower Show to be judged.

 

            It’s always judged to be a cheery plant with its tubular red flowers.

 

            I know how to produce this amazing plant and have grown small quantities over the years.  Being sterile, seed propagation is not possible.  Tissue Culture can work, but who’s going to do it?  My method is side shoot, tip cuttings.

 

            The picture of ‘Prudence Risley’ in flower is at my West kitchen window in April 2025.

 

            No one is more surprised than I am that these flowers showed up with only window light.  It’s been growing there for a year or more, no fertilizer, just water.

 

            Celebrate!

Sinningia 'Prudence Risley' at Windowsill

 

Tolumnia with double spike

Tolumnia with double spike

 

                    Is the rare double spike on Tolumnia genetic or culture?

                    I've found 5-6 plants that have two flower spikes on the same fan.  That's 5-6 out of 11,000 plants.  If it is genetic, we need to select for this trait.  If it's just good growing health of the plant, we should learn how to do that.

                    If anybody out there knows the answer, please tell me.

The future of Tolumnia Orchids

Tolumnia 'Peppered Sunlight'

Is this the future of Tolumnia Orchids?

Eight flower bud count, two spikes per fan.

Will tissue culture mericlones duplicate this?

 

Tolumnia 'Peppered Sunlight' --- Is it good enough?

Tolumnia 'Peppered Sunlight'

                        The last story introduced a Tolumnia with potential for promotion. 

                         Now we have a name that could help ---  'Peppered Sunlight'.  The name came from Kerri.  I like it.  It describes speckled bright yellow.

                           This plant is a one-in-four thousand find.  It has good characteristics.  It has vigor and high bud count --- eight flowers per spike.

                            It is one of those rare double spikes per fan --- three in 11,000.  Nobody knows if this double spike is culture or genetic.  Nobody knows if the double spike would carry through in the tissue culture process?  The flower stem is strong and thick.  The flower stem is very tall, but acceptable.

                            Is this 'Peppered Sunlight' worth entering it into tissue culture?

                            If I had a thousand of these, would they be valuable?

                            

 

Is this pretty enough?

                 

                 This Tolumnia has several special traits, but is it pretty enough to be selected for tissue culture production?

                   Propagation by tissue culture is very expensive and time consuming so only the most promising clones should be selected for this effort.

                    If this were a named variety and promoted as a very special small flowering houseplant, would customers buy it because it is stunning?