Well.. Nice foliage! :-p

Hope to see pics when they start showing off the pretty flowers :-)

Since my last posting I had a little accident w/ the strep. the biggest leaf fell of. Should I just treat it normally...? Thanks.

I don't "know" streps, so maybe I have NFI--but I *think* it'd be Ok.

You can try to propagate using the broken strep leaf. There are two ways to try. One is to cut the leaf from the tip to the stem right next to the maine vein, or stem if you will, on each side of the main stem/vein. Take the pieces without the stem and put it in potting mix 1/4" deep, the long way, standing up. Wrap in saran wrap to keep it humid. Or, you can cut across side to side, and again place in soil, standing up. Depending on the size of the leaf, you can get multiple pieces out of it. Make sure the correct end gets buried in the soil; the veins should look like the bottom of a chevron.

Barbara

Your strep will be fine. If you do want to propagate another strep, Barbara has given you good instructions.

Larry

trust me....I wasn't going to waste a leaf when I could have all those plantlets. lol. Yes, that's the first thing i did with the leaf. Thanks guys.

I have one more question...when you order from rob's, do you immediately repot do to the heavy soil? I was just thinking I'd take out the plant, get as much soil as possible off and replace it with my perlite vermiculite peat moss mix. Thanks for the help!

Hi,
I generally repot any plant I get into my mix because I wick water and I need a lighter soil, however, more important than repotting is to ISOLATE any new plants for at least a month just to make sure there are no bugs.
If you are into gesneriads I would suggest you check out Out of Africa. A few clubs in my area buy their sale plants from Gary because his plants are well developed and most of the time are in bloom. Follow the link below.
Fred in NJ

Here is a link that might be useful: Out of Africa

I'm really interested in getting some Kohleria and Espicia. Could someone tell me some good varieties with which to start? thanks!

Drew

You may wanna ask that on the Gesneriad Forum to get the best answer... (I know some here on the A/V forum also do gessies, but you prolly increase chances of better answers on the actual Gessie forum where non-A/Vs are the "focus")

Drew - if we use Fred's advice - and order from Out of Africa (I love this guy):

Kohleria Red Rider and Dark Velvet. Both are easy and spectacular.

Episcias Suomi, Kee Wee, Karlyn - should be different and easy, Blue Nile - a bit more challenging.

Kohleria needs more light than AVs, episcias need more humidity and they cannot take cold temperatures. Even 65F is not really comfortable for them. 55 - they die on a spot.

Good Luck

Irina

Thanks so much...the reason i was hesitant to post in the gesneriad forum is cuz not as many people go there. But thanks. I'll take your advice.

Drew

Well, nothing wrong with asking both places & then you'll get even more answers :-)

Hi Drew,

I have kohleria Red Rider. Irina is right, Red Rider is very easy to grow. I don't know a lot about Episcias. Some need quite high humidity. I will deferred to Irina for instructions on those, but I do have one Episcia named Strawberry Patch. Even in our Colorado low humidity, Strawberry Patch does very well for me. It has nice pinkish red leaves that are quite attractive even if it doesn't flower and mind flowers quite readily.

Larry

Nice plants! Would you share the Nancy Reagan leaves with me? We can trade if you want. Please, let me know. Thank.

eBay vendor offers it occasionally. It was also Listed at: African violets a la carte (might be John of Cape Cod Violetry.)

I've seen it listed at Bluebird Greenhouses.