Asian Violets --- Like an African Violet, but better!

Primulina 'Loki' - The easy houseplant

            This Primulina ‘Loki’ has been growing at the West kitchen window for three years.  It’s in a 2 ½” pot, has never had fertilizer and has wilted many times.  Yes, the foliage is perfect.

            This flowering randomly occurs two or three times a year.  Most casual houseplant growers would consider this one of their easiest flowering houseplants.

           

            Why doesn’t everyone have one?

            A Golden Oldie repeat.  This story from last year could not be more true today.  This Asian Violet is budded again.

            Its care is occasional water.

            Primulina ‘Loki’ is the best Asian Violet.

           Asian Violets, like an African Violet, but better, are much easier to produce and survive as houseplants.

            Why doesn’t everyone have one?

Why can't I decide to buy that $0.99 cent book?

Indecision

              I’m an impulse buyer of Kindle books on Amazon.  The Kindle is one of the greatest inventions of all time.  eBooks have driven down the cost of books such that $0.99 is a common price.

            But why is the decision so hard to order a .99 cent book? --- less than a drink at your favorite fast food.

            If the book’s topic is of no interest, then it’s no bargain.  If the topic is exactly what you want to learn about, then why are they selling it so cheap?

           I think the issue is time.  I don’t want to waste my time reading a trivial book.  The .99 cents makes the value suspect.

            The mind has trouble evaluating plants, also.  We try to make plants low cost so there will be no resistance to buy.  But customers hesitate ---- ‘I don’t want to kill it”.  Sometimes you can’t even give a plant to people who think this way.

            If I find a plant that I want, I don’t care what it costs ---within reason, of course.

Buy American, if..., O. T.

Buy American, if...

                 Buy American, IF, it is the best value !

            I buy plants from Florida or Mexico---- depending which is the best value.

            If you think that garden plants and houseplants are expensive, you should consider their cost if we did not have Free Trade around the World.  International sharing of new plants and production has improved the quality and lowered the cost of Horticultural Products.

            Every Economist knows that “Free” World Trade is obvious.  Most every politician yells for tariffs (taxes) on imports, thinking that is what Americans want.  Clearly, that is wrong since isolationism has never worked and is simply stupid.  There is no tariff on plants shipped from Florida to Pennsylvania.  Why should it be any different shipping from Mexico?  

            Free market Capitalism will bring you high quality, reasonably priced plants.

            Continue to Buy American, but only if it’s the best value !

What's Possible with Codonanthe carnosa 'Libby'?

Codonanthe carnosa 'Libby' with multi-buds

          What is the genetic potential for Codonanthe carnosa 'Libby'?

          Nobody knows until hybrids are made and the results are evaluated.

          Here is the species with a few leaves removed to show the flowering potential.  There can be One, Two, Three or Four flowers per leaf axil.

          If that trait transfers, the hybrid would be exceptional !

It ain't bragging if ...

'Mini' Plants with Custom  Blue Tags

For years, my tag line was:

            “Nobody does what I do with plants.  They could, but they don’t!”

It always seemed like bragging, but six years of developing the ‘Mini’ plants program has proven it true.

"It ain’t bragging, if you can do it."

My ‘Mini’ plants for Miniature Gardens and your Windowsill have substance---they are full pots of unique varieties that indoor gardeners want.  Serious collectors recognize my custom blue tags when seen at one of my 30 retail outlets.

A Specialist beats a Generalists every time.

      Gary K. Hunter, Grower

   Gary’s Specialty Plants

‘Mini’ Plants for Miniature Gardens and your Windowsill !

          1610 Fern Glen Drive         

            Drumore PA 17518

   (717) 951-4507 – Cell (Voice Mail)

Gary@GarysSpecialtyPlants.com (Best way)

http://GarysSpecialtyPlants.blogspot.com/  --- Blog

A Modern Day Codonanthe 'Gina'

Codonanthe gracilis 'Joinville'

            Forty years ago, I made a cross between Codonanthe carnosa (small white flowers) and Codonanthe gracilis (bigger white flowers).  I only got a few seeds but the resulting hybrid was a trailing plant with bronze narrow pointy leaves.

            At least that is what I think happened. 

            I took my hybrid, Codonanthe ‘Gina’ ---- named for my second greenhouse employee, to the National Gesneriad Convention in Silver Springs, MD.  Hans Wiehler took notice immediately and told me I had the first known Codonanthe hybrid.

            Over the years, the finer points have been lost.  Codonanthe ‘Gina’ has been lost to cultivation.  The pictures I had cannot be found.  The original parents are uncertain due to name changes.  Codonanthe ‘Gina’ can not be duplicated.

            However, something better may be possible.  If we cross C. carnosa ‘Libby’ with C. gracilis ‘Joinville’, we should get a large white flower on interesting foliage.

            An improved ‘Gina’ cross will deserve a new name.  If successful, it will be exciting to see ---- Same concept, different parents.

Codonanthe gracilis 'Joinville' (top) and Codonanthe carnosa 'Libby' (bottom)

Codonanthe carnosa 'Libby, Part II

Codonanthe carnosa 'Libby'

          From the wisdom of the crowd, I'll start with the conclusion from Ron:

     "It's just as Gary suspected, this large-flowered Codonanthe appears to be the "original" C. carnosa distributed by Hans Wiehler many years ago.

Good to see it in production, and hopefully widely distributed. Thanks to Gary!"

          If you hate details, you can stop reading .  If you are always looking for historical clues read further:

Mauro, Brazilian Seed Fund comments:

     "Alain is the best one to “give the verdict” and he will correct me  if I’m wrong, but it seems that the name confusion came from long ago when Wiehler described C. digna and C. paula that are in fact Codonanthe devosiana.
Codonanthe carnosa has the biggest flower among the four species with small leaves from Southeast Atlantic forest: (devosiana, serrulata, gibbosa and carnosa) and Gary’s plant fits on C. carnosa flower size.

Probably some plants labeled as C. carnosa are in fact C. devosiana…"


Alain answers:

     "I fully agree with Mauro, the material posted as Codoannthe "Libby" matches exactly the clone I got from Hans Wiehler in the early 980's, it pertains doubtless to C. carnosa."


Then Mauro says:


     "Yes, to me, it is a standard sized C. carnosa flower. It “should” have at least twice of the size of C. devosiana ‘Paula’ since the later has one of the smallest flower from all clones of C. devosiana that I’ve seen.
The attached picture is C. carnosa  (not fully open) that I grow from seeds of the Seed Fund since 1995, it looks to be the same as Gary’s plant. The ones that I collected don´t have the red on the back of the leaves."


          And so it goes----The clone I have designated as 'Libby' is the species carnosa which somehow got to Libby years ago.  It has red on the back of the leaves which is different from those collected in Brazil by Mauro.