What would you do if you had the best Streptocar[us in the world?

Streptocarpus 'Harlequin Blue' by Dibley's Greenhouse, U. K.

Story # 15, Part II

            In 2010 the Royal Horticulture Society at the Chelsea Flower Show selected a Streptocarpus as Plant of the Year.  Dibley’s Greenhouse won this award for ‘Harlequin Blue’, a blue and yellow bicolor which is very striking.

            This is like winning the Super Bowl in the English plant world.

            Since Dibley’s do not ship into the United States, this great plant is mostly unavailable.  Fortunately, ‘Harlequin Blue’ has been bootlegged into the collections of hobbyist and has shown up on eBay occasionally.

            I have eight plants. From these stock plants, plants can be propagated to sell through selected retail outlets.  By simple supply and demand, they will be expensive.

            I’ve been told that a well grown plant of ‘Harlequin Blue’ looks like Easter-----yellow and egg shell blue.

Where are the professional plant breeders when you need one?



Streptocarpus 'Myfanwy' by Dibley's Greenhouse, U. K.



Story # 15, Part I

            I consider myself to be an amateur plant hybridizer.  Amateur----- because no one ever paid me to do it.  I am self-taught.  I have friends who are university trained and work as professional plant breeders.  They work on whatever plant category the company requires.  None in the U.S.  are working on Streptocarpus that I know of.  The last paid plant breeder was at Oglevee/Ecke Greenhouses but they dropped production, apparently because the numbers were too low.

            I came from the other direction.  I learned about Gesneriads first and the fun of hybridizing second.

            The leading Streptocarpus hybridizing specialist is at Dibley’s in the U. K.  They are a wholesale and retail mail-order greenhouse serving Europe.  Creating new varieties can be fed into their own production to help subsidize the cost of the research & development (2 – 5 years to evaluate a new variety)

Half of the Strretocarpus are no good!

Streptocarpus 'Blue Halo'



Story # 2 Part II

            But we don’t know which half!

            The Ladyslipper brand of Streptocarpus has good varieties.  They were selected from existing named hybrids produced by Dibley’s Greenhouses in the U. K.

            They are capable of getting many hang-on-tight bright flowers.  With many durable smaller flowers, they are more likely to survive the commercial system of sleeving and shipping to retail stores.

            It’s hard to say which variety is the best.  ‘Blue Ice’ flowered the most when I first trialed them, but ‘White Ice’ is very similar.  You must have a red so ‘Pinot’ is showy.

            ‘Blue Halo’ has flowers slightly larger than the others and has a crisp form.  ‘Pink Halo’ apparently was meant to duplicate ‘Blue Halo’s style, but the flowers are smaller.

            All have been selling out quickly at the Longwood Garden Plant Shop.

            Since Ladyslipper is a nationally distributed Streptocarpus, you may find them at your local garden center.