What is the most important improvement in Streptocarpus?

Streptocarpus 'Azur Giant'

Story # 124, Part II,

            What is the most important improvement needed for Streptocarpus to make it a standard commercial crop?

            The last story concluded that Streptocarpus are just not tough enough.  What improvements need to be made?

            I view Streptocarpus to be in the same stage of development as African Violets were 60 years ago.  Why is African Violet the top selling flowering houseplant in the World?

            Step 1.  Hobbyist collected and traded the first violets.  Hobbyists hybridized new varieties and specialized small greenhouses started producing them.

            Step 2.  Someone championed the crop and invested in massive hybridizing and selection projects to improve the major faults.  Holtkamp’s Greenhouses toughened them up with hang-on-tight flowers and less breakable leaves.

            Step 3.  The champion (Holtkamp) mastered production techniques such that the quality went up and the price went down.  Distribution put beautiful flowering African Violets everywhere.

            Streptocarpus is at stage 1.  There are approximately 1,000 named varieties but nobody but hobbyists know about them.  Their main distinctive characteristic is flower color and size.

            All the other variable inherited traits are riding along without any critical culling.  We know what some of them are:

A.     Heat tolerance.

B.    Hang-on-tight flowers.

C.     Leaf length.

D.    Flush versus continuous flowering

E.     Rosette leaf pattern versus non-symmetrical

F.     Bud count

G.    Day neutral versus seasonal flowering.

It’s hard to say which weakness is the most in need of improvement but commercial growers will be cautious until the crop is more fool-proof.

Streptocarpus everywhere!

Assorted Streptocarpus for sale

Story # 124, Part I,

            What is the one thing that would make Streptocarpus ubiquitous? 

            Streptocarpus is such a minor crop that they are seldom seen in garden centers.  What is the problem?  --- Supply or demand?  I have a few customers that could sell Streptocarpus if they had them.  Everybody else is afraid of them because Streptocarpus don’t hold up in a retail environment.

            Why don’t they hold up?  The leaves can break, the flowers can fall off, the leaves watermark with cold water, they wilt in hot weather and flowering is sporadic. 

            I’ve tried to figure it out and will discuss hybridizing goals in future stories.  But what is the limiting factor in Streptocarpus success?

            Streptocarpus are just not tough enough.

Where do good ideas come from?

Story # 123, O T,

                    

            Where do good ideas come from?

            When a new product or service shows up, the common reaction is one of two things --- A.  Why didn’t I think of that? or  B. I had that idea years ago.

            I’ve said before that there are only two parts to work ---- deciding what to do and doing it.   But what to do?

            SethGodin has the answer to “Where do good ideas come from?”  They come from bad ideas.  Try many things and improve the ones that work.

            JamesAltucher gives out advice freely and you can latch on to anything you like.  One of his recommended tricks is to write down 20 ideas a day ---- Good or bad.  At the end of a year you would have thousands of ideas collected.  Maybe there are some good ones worth trying among them.

            SteveBlank teaches how to run a start-up business.  His simple revelation is that a start-up in not a small version of a big business.  He preaches that you must get out of the building and ask customers about your product to see if it is what they really want.

            Humans are very poor at predicting the future.  That’s why nobody can pick the business ideas that will work.  Apparently, smart venture capitalists bet on losing ideas every day and hope the few winners compensate for the losses.

            The only thing that we know for sure is that ideas are a ‘dime a dozen’ and only execution can prove them right or wrong.

Replicas that you care about.

Story # 122,

Replicas that you care about.

            Miniature Gardens are a segment of Garden Centers that are struggling to find their way.  Workshops are highly successful for the few people that want to find out about this hobby.  But Miniature Gardening is trying to define itself.

           

            Will it be the up and down flash-in-the- pan like terrariums or can it become established similar to model railroading which is an enduring lifetime hobby for many.

            I see a phase of Miniature Gardening that could elevate it to ‘Art’ status.  If the display could be a replica of something that you care about, you might seek it out and be willing to pay a premium for it.

            The first example would be your house and property.  A scale model of your place could be very intriguing.

            Scaled down models of public buildings have always been sold in souvenir stores, but what if you had a Miniature Garden with all of the landscape.

            Expensive molds have been made to produce the most recognizable landmarks in big quantities.  The breakthrough now is 3-D printing which allows 1-of a kind to be made.

      3-D printing technology is rapidly becoming practical and affordable for any custom design.  You can order a model of your house and get an exact replica made for you.

            Put that in your Miniature Garden and impress your friends.

The milk factory

Cows are just as curious as cats

Story # 121, O. T.       

            I was very lucky to get an inside tour of a major dairy operation.  Katie works there to help milk 900 cows and feed hundreds of calves.  It is at a scale that no Farmer every imagined 50 years ago.  My Dad milked, at most, 24 cows twice a day.  Here, it’s 900 cows, three times a day, in continuous rotating shifts.

            Two workers manage the elaborate milking system which handles 40 cows at a time.  When they are milked and turned out, another 40 walk in for their turn.  Each cow is identified and production and health records are monitored by computer.

            The volume of milk requires that three milk tanker trucks are on standby with the on-site cooling system pumping milk directly into them. From there, a milk hauling service trucks them to milk processing plants.

            Calves are fed pasteurized milk which is produced on site at the farm.

            I support the right of Farmers to sell raw milk.  I drank it for my first 17 years.  But there is a clue here.  If the management of very valuable calves is to feed pasteurized milk, why would any human want to feed raw milk to their family?

            Milk is very cheap food.  Thank a Farmer for continuously getting it to your store and risking millions of dollars on a milk factory. 

                                                                           

All you can eat silage

40 cows milked at once

Why does my Streptocarpus wilt?

Streptocarpus from Polish hybridizer

Story # 120,

Why does my Streptocarpus wilt?

            There are three possibilities for Streptocarpus to show wilt.

Case 1,  Dry

            The plant is in good health and has dry soil that is causing the wilt down.  When the pot is watered enough to saturate the soil, the plant will recover without harm.

Case 2,   Heat

            The plant is in good health and watered but it is wilted.  If the temperature is above 85 degrees F, Streptocarpus will naturally wilt as a survival mechanism.  Watering does not help.  The plant needs cool and will recover once the temp goes below 85 degrees.

Case 3,  Rot

            The soil is watered and the temperature is below 85, but the plant is still wilted continuously.  This is usually a sign that the plant has root rot and, to the extreme, will rot off and dies.  This can be the result of overwatering or continuously sitting in water.  You can attempt to reestablish roots by carefully monitoring watering.  Run on the dry side until new roots form.  If the clone is important to you, propagate immediately from leaf cuttings, in case the root rot kills your plant.

            Streptocarpus grow better in smaller pots and less soil volume.  Being dry occasionally is better than too wet all the time.

            Heat tolerance in Streptocarpus may be improved someday, but for now, wilt is normal in high temperatures.

Coleus 'Vanessa' has a story.

Coleus 'Vanessa' grown on Vicky's deck.

Story # 119,

Vanessa always wanted to have a plant named for her.  Since she is not a hybridizer of plants, she can’t create one on her own.

I can help her with that.

Plant species, which are all ‘weeds’ somewhere in the World, follow a strict set of rules for naming.  The Genus, Species naming system is important to take the chaos out of plant identification.

Hybrid names or selections of certain clones are a little more free form.  Names are picked by the hybridizer or originator.   Selections that can be commercially grown are given names that fit the marketing program --- ‘Knockout’ Roses.  Commercial names used in Europe are often changed for the U.S. market --- ‘Ladyslipper’ Streptocarpus.

I looked for a plant that could be ‘Vanessa’ and decided on Coleus ‘Combat’.  It is a European variety listed by an Israeli propagator.  It has a wild and crazy foliage pattern which would match Vanessa’s personality.  It’s bright and vibrant --- Definitely worth promoting.

If you didn’t get one this year then watch for Coleus ‘Vanessa’ next Spring at Longwood Gardens’ Plant Shop.