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A warning: These two beauties can be addictive
Journal Photo by David Rolfe
Stretocarpella's blossoms are pale violet-blue with white throats.
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Published: January 17, 2009
Winter is when we need flowers most. So it is with pleasure that I introduce two little tropicals that have a few things in common.
Both have fuzzy textured leaves and small and prolific flowers. And both belong to the same family of plants as African violets, the Gesneriaceae. Both also have names that sound like something you would treat with antibiotics -- Seemania and Stretocarpella.
Before you put down your newspaper thinking, here's another plant I can't pronounce much less grow, let me assure you that nothing could be further from the truth.
If you follow a couple of easy guidelines, these plants should bloom for you for most, if not all, of the year. They have identical cultural needs. The flowers are beautiful and unusual, and they are a nice color complement to each other.
Brilliant orange flowers
Seemannia has a mounding habit and brilliant orange flowers in the shape of an inflated tube. The opening of the flower flares into a four pointed star, and the interior is yellow spotted in orange. The flowers are only about an inch long, but many are produced from the upper leaf axils, and they just keep on coming. The brilliant flowers are a nice contrast to the dark, sandpaper-textured leaves.
The name Streptocarpella comes from the Greek streptos, meaning twisted, and karpos, a fruit, a reference to the spiral-shape seed pod. The plant was once considered a subspecies of the much-larger flowered Stretocarpus, another popular house plant subject, but recent DNA evidence has placed it closer to Saintpaulia, the group that includes African violets.
The flowers of Streptocarpella are usually a pale, violet-blue with white throats. The leaves are small, oval and gray-green. You can see the relation to African violets in these velvety textured plants that produce 1-inch flowers on 3-inch pedicels, or flower stems. Another tumbling mound, this plant makes for a great hanging basket or plant-stand subject from which the plant can cascade over its pot and show off its abundance of flowers.
The texture of both plants, like many in this family, is soft and succulent. They are at their best in bright, indirect light and lots of humidity. An east or west window, where the intensity of direct sunlight is limited to morning or evening, is ideal. Water the pots when they feel dry on the surface, but do not let them dry out completely.
Feed well
These plants respond well to fertilizer and should be given a shot of half-strength fertilizer every week or so, after thoroughly watering. Cold water left to stand on the foliage will cause circular marks on the leaves that are ugly and undesirable. Try to water with lukewarm water from the side of the pot or make sure leaves will dry off quickly if wet.
Average house temperatures are perfect for these plants with nights in the 60 to 65 range and an increase of 10 degrees during the day. Both plants will stand a hard going over with the pruning shears if they get a little lanky. In fact, it will encourage them to thicken up and become bushy. Any snippings that are a few inches long can be used to start new plants. They will readily root in a few weeks if stuck in a pot of sand that is kept warm and moist.
If success with these plants leads you to discover other members of this fascinating group of plants, then you will be all the happier for it. Serious obsession may lead you to join the Gesneriad Society (Membership Secretary Bob Clark, Dept KG, 1122 E. Pike St., PMB 637, Seattle, WA 98122-3916 or www.gesneriadsociety.org).
■ If you have a gardening question or story idea, write to David Bare in care of Features, Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27101-3159, or send e-mail to his attention to gardening@wsjournal.com.
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