Rekindling an old love...

Rekindling an old love...

Posted on 1 Aug, 2008 5 comments

a few decades ago, when I was in my teens/early twenties I bought my first African Violet. I had the usual successes and failures…but having access to a university library…I decided to get to know the flowers better. It started out as just a “how to” kind of interest and developed into a full blown obsession….
There were some who said “they’re too easy”...there were some who said “they’re too finicky”... and they always had a suggestion contrary to my interest. Having a house full of plants from University plant sales had given me lots of experience with plants that (at that time) were not common houseplants…like the furry Australian Tradescantia and the colourful Maranta (prayer plant) and an exotic looking cane begonia and, not least, my favourite Dracaena sanderiana…who grew so tall he loomed over the living room like a beneficent winged presence. (Called him Charlemange). But foremost were the african violets which I learned to call Saintpaulia…
Once I had learned about the saintpaulia I became aquainted with gloxinias… and bought a few of those as they were in the same family as the SP, and then I found an Episcia and Achimenes and Streptocarpus…Gesneriads…. and my obsession windened to include the whole lovely family….
One day after a plant propagation practical our instructor took a group of us “keeners” on a tour of the U’s Victorian tropical greenhouse which was being set up ….In the centre of the greenhouse was a pond with goldfish…and arrayed around the walls where Bouganveillia, Citrus trees, (Lime, Lemon and Orange)
and Passion Flower Vines…and on and on… Palms and lianas…with orchids soon to come ..we were told…I was entranced. We came home from that impromptu tour with cuttings ….and the one I came to treasure was a lovely Achimenes…the latin nomenclature I’ve long since forgotten and cannot bring to mind today…but the flower leaves were small and the blossom was a trumpet with a white five petalled frilled flare and a beautiful purple throat!... The parent plant was hung from the ceiling of the greenhouse and the ball of foliage in the pot was easily two feet in diameter. It looked like a chandelier and I decided “I want to know more about these…I want to grow them”...
It was not the most practical of ideas but I had determination…eventhough I didn’t have greenhouse access I dreamt of hanging such a lovely plant in my kitchen…!
I learned all the practical lessons…and my dream was always just a dream. But today…while surfing around the many sites on the web I found pictures of Episcia ‘Moss Agate’, and ‘Seafoam’ and Cleopatra., and a yellow called ‘Suomi’ also the ornate Pink Panther…lol….and I was reminded of the Alpine Gesneria and the fact that there are Gesneria who will survive in the temperate zones… (Haberlea for one)...
This all started when I saw pictures of Streptocarpus posted by a fellow goY member… and in the mode of “How many flowers can you recite” I gave Gesneria a quick google and was impressed to find that there are plenty of sites with lists that go on for days…
The first I knew…were Saintpaulias, then Episcia, Streptocarpus, Sinningia, Aeschynanthus, Achimenes, and now I’m learning of Alsobia ‘Cygnet’, Besleria lutea, Paliavana, Chirita (Strepto?) Columnea, Kohleria and Petrocosmia and Pearcea….WoW!!
I think what I have now is motivation to start really seriously keeping and perhaps breeding plants that I adore…and maybe one day a solarium to house them in comfort year round…Whoever said “you’re never too old”... must have been a gardener… with an obsession.
I have hatched another dream… and perhaps it will remain just that…pie in the sky…but…

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Tags: Alsobia Episcia Kohleria agate gesneriads moss panther pink seafoam