Gesneriad Gallimaufry

I guess if I pronounced "gesneriad" with a soft G, having an alliterative post title would have been easier and I could have used a word I already knew ("Gesneriad Jumble"). But because I pronounce it with a hard G, it's harder to find a word that means "potpourri" but is alliterative. But I almost prefer that, because I learned an awesome word today that I hope to be able to use sometime in the future!

So I have random gesneriad-related updates today.

I didn't realize that I haven't mentioned that I'm a new coeditor of the National Capital Area Chapter of the Gesneriad Society's newsletter Petal Tones. The first issue I was heavily involved in just came out last weekend, and if you want, you can check it out. Some of the photos in this issue were used on the cover of Gleanings, a publication by the Gesneriad Society (the national society, not a chapter)--and I'm in one of the photos! That was pretty awesome!

Outside of new editorial and layout duties, I have new plants, too, mostly from the raffle table at the chapter meeting today! I bought two dozen tickets, and I swear, more than half of my numbers were called. I only claimed half of my tickets that were selected from the bag and let others claim the rest of my winning numbers, because I'm trying this thing called "self-restraint" that I've heard so much about. And when I already have five plants, a leaf to propagate, a container with sown seed, and five packets of more seeds to start, I really don't need to double that. At least, not until the raffle at next month's meeting.

So, what do I have here? On the top right, I have a Petrocosmea rosettifolia leaf that I'll stick in some soil to root, just as Saintpaulia. The seed packets below that baggie and to the left are Aeschynanthus longicaulis (which is old seed, so they may not germinate); Titanotrichum oldhamii; a mini Sinningia x self (Purple Crest F? x Little Venus); Sinningia tubiflora; and Streptocarpus 'Vampire's Kiss,' one of the first gesneriads I ever tried to grow. It struggled along for a year before my overwatering tendencies overcame its desire to live.

In the container, in the back, I have a miniature trailing Saintpaulia 'Tiny Wood Trail.' To its left is Petrocosmea rosettifolia. Huh. I guess I didn't realize I had picked this up when I grabbed the last leaf on the table (there were a lot of P. rosettifolia leaves on the raffle table, and the one I picked up wasn't a ticket-winning selection--it was just there after the raffle during the free-for-all, so I nabbed it). In the centre is Columnea microphylla, and it looks cute! I'm going to grow it in a terrarium. To its right are transplants of Sinningia muscicola seedlings. At the bottom right are transplants of Streptocarpus thompsonii seedlings, and at the bottom left is a cup with Streptocarpus 'Freja' seeds fresh-sown this afternoon.

I don't have hopes that any of these will be show plants at the chapter's September show and sale, but maybe in the future, I'll learn to grow plants well enough to enter! In the meantime, I'm hoping to learn how to photograph well enough to enter the photography competition. We'll see how all of that turns out.