I've done very little in the way of growing episcias from leaves; but I have done it. It really doesn't make sense unless you are propagating from a plant so small that it doesn't have anything else to take cuttings from, or if you get them like you did from someone else. In any case, there is no need to toss the unproductive leaves as long as they are healthy. It can take episcias a long time to send up a new shoot from a rooted leaf. One way to get them going is to give the leaves a light feeding. The one time I sucessfully rooted a leaf was in a terrarium. The leaf was put in there to catch a larva that was eating holes in the plants. I removed the other plants, left the leaf, and then caught the miscreant, left the leaf and forgot about the little container on my light stand. I forgot about it because I put other pots on top of it. Then, one day I looked under the other pots and saw that the leaf was still going after many months. I fed it and not long afterwards a new shoot came up.

When you see a tiny version of the plant coming up, it rarely looks like the parent. That is because it is tiny and episcias are chameleons. Watch your little plant grow up and you will see it turn into the parent variety. Each new set of 2 leaves will be different from the previous ones. This is especially frustrating when hybridizing and growing up seedlings. You never really know what you have until you grow on your mature plants for a while. When you plant a packet of episcia seeds, all the germinating seedlings will be plain green. They only start to slowly show color and pattern as the new leaves start to grow out.

Jon

I suppose the chameleon-like changes are frustrating for hybridizers, but for me, they're part of Episcias' magic!

Thank you!

The chameleon character can be most frustrating when you get a nice selection of episcias from different sources and then grow them together under lights only to see them slowly evolve into identical looking plants. This seems to happen with a bunch of the pink leaved hybrids like 'Strawberry Patch, Strawberry Shortcake', 'Temptation' and I am forgetting what else. I think I lost my 'Strawberry Patch' but I have a pink leaved hybrid that lost its label. I am waiting for it to flower as 'Strawberry Patch' has a uniquely colored flower--the yellow in the throat comes out onto the lower petals--just enough to be distinct. It is otherwise the typical red-orange with yellow throat.

I am finding I keep getting dissatisfied with the growth on my episcias so I keep taking stem cuttings. So far, I like the results. I root the crowns with just a few sets of leaves and end up with nice flat crowns with little stem, above the pots. I am imagining taking the same plant and rerooting its crown everytime it grows two new sets of opposite leaves (Arrrghh--except that it is fun). I have been rooting the crowns under my domes. This winter the episcias have done well on the light stands. Now with warm weather coming I imagine they will take off.

Jon

Advice please! A co-worker asked me to revive his episcia plant. The plant was once very hardy and quite beautiful. It's the chocolate soldier which blooms red flowers. He's quite a novice with plants and he repotted the plant and brushed all the dirt from the roots. When I received it yesterday it was all wilted. I took what was left of it from the dirt. Only two pieces still had roots on it. I cut off the remaining healthy leaves, what few there were and put those stems in water to root. Is this okay? Or is there something else that I should do to revive this once beautiful plant? About how long will it take to root and get hardy again? Thanks for any suggestions.

I would pot them in a soilless mix and keep them in either Ziploc bags or under a dome and under lights. I just bought some of those cake domes from my Kroger store for my baby episcias.

Good Luck,
Linda

Its too bad that you took off the remaining healthy leaves as that was exactly the wrong thing to do. Oh well. What you could have done to save the plant was take stem cuttings of the tip growths, with about 2 to 4 leaves (one or two sets of two leaves). Since the stems and leaves were wilted you could take the limp cuttings and put them in a bowl of water. By soaking them for up to 24 hours, the cuttings should turge up and be ready for planting. Then you would put them down in a mix of perlite and vermiculite, enclose in a ziplock bag or put under a dome and root them under lights.

With just leaves you can put them in the same mix and do the rest that was suggested. They will root under lights but then it takes anywhere from four months to a year before a new tiny plant will emerge from the roots. If the rooted leaves are dried out or taken out from the enclosure they will most likely fail to produce plants.

Jon

Hi, do you knw where I might find a photo of pearl passion? Thanks

Here are a couple I found on internet:

http://groups.msn.com/TheVioletVoice/monasothergessiesandplants.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=2331
http://www.dollyyeh.idv.tw/Episcia_Pearl_Passion_2004aggs.jpg

Here is a link that might be useful:

When you doctor plants from friends you could be dealing with big problems--bug problems. In the case of the wilted plant, first thing I think of is soil mealy bugs. You could get those into your own collection.

I would take the healthy tissue off and put it in a plastic sack for at least two weeks. Roots will develop if you have blown into the bag before sealing it. Then you can look for soil mealies and plant or throw away after seeing the results. Throw away soil and pot incase live bugs are there.

Nancy