"I asked the witch doctor, he told me what to do, He said ooo Eee ooo Ahah, Wolla Wolla bing bang..."

Sue,

To be blunt, 'Witch Doctor' is a variety not worth growing. It is difficult to root, as you have seen, and, for most, never grows well. It is one of the varieties that takes up space on your shelves not doing much, never blooming, and then will decline and die.

That said, try the baggie trick. It may help but if you lose this one don't be disappointed. There are too many other lovelies out there just thrilled to grow well for you!

Linda

That witch doctor song always pops into my head too whenever I hear the name. I have a fairly young one that seems to be doing ok, but it's still young, so who knows what it will be like come spring or if it will even be around. It's just starting to get old enough to consider trying to put leaves down - we'll see. Hopefully your rooted leaf will put out at least one baby before it passes on.

Thank you so much! I wont keep blaming myself for this then. I love the color of the flower, so now I'm wondering if there's a more robust variety of a variegated with a similar colored flower. Do you know of any?

Su
I think the hybridizer is Lyndon Lyon company. You could
contact them and ask them if they have a similar one.
They have a FaceBook page or you could email them.
Just give them a few days to respond. Joanne

I have one about the same age/size as Vikki's. I like it enough that I don't care if it blooms--the foliage makes it a keeper for me. So far it's doing well...

Does it grow symmetrically, as in some photos seen on the internet? LLG is only offering leaves of WD now, so
maybe they are phasing it out. As Linda says, making way for more cooperative plants.

I have a variegated variety that usually is not symmetrical.
It is lighter green with uneven heavy mosaic
variegation in cream. The bloom is a medium pink.
It is sensitive, grows very slowly and rarely drops
a leaf. I can't separate the crowns or it will die. I order
it often but have had only one grow somewhat symmetrically. It is also an LLG. It blooms rarely.
But worth the wait as the foliage looks nice.
J

This post was edited by fortyseven on Wed, Oct 29, 14 at 18:21

My leaves grew just fine. They made the prettiest babies (I love the mosaics). The plant is blooming now too although I let the poor thing dry out.

When I brought it out to repot it, it was sitting in the kitchen (instead of its usual window) and my husband said, "That's a pretty one."

Mine blooms fine too although it takes awhile for the blossoms to open.

http://images.yuku.com.s3.amazonaws.com/image/jpeg/979252660b7d7e4d799064a942014cb212ceebe.jpg

It's deep raspberry, the description says burgundy. I don't think it likes too much light. I suspect that may be why I see complaints about the flowers staying under the leaves. Mine are fine that way too. It coordinates with Fredette's Sweet Jenny :)

Lyon's tends to drop older varieties and just sell leaves. I don't think it has much to do with the quality. The hybridizer is J. Gehr, not Lyon's.

As to starting leaves, mine were kind of ratty because it had a big long stem and I hadn't restarted it. However, I just put them in my normal perlite/vermiculite and they took right off.

In fact, there are the babies on the ratty mother leaves in the center of this photo:

http://images.yuku.com.s3.amazonaws.com/image/jpeg/ff415e667aed77089cfd58d7019fe618d7fc1a5.jpg

Diana

Sue,

Don't blame yourself for this one. Lots of people have trouble growing it. Irina hasn't been on in a while but she and I agreed on this one. It's just not a good variety.

Linda

Sounds lovely, Diana

If you are getting your leaves from Lyon's, I have had mixed success with theirs. Some grow fine, others don't do so well.

As I've looked back, it seems like this is the way it's always been. Maybe try a different vendor? Of course, I think you always have better luck with perfectly fresh leaves.

I do think this plant came from Lyons. Of course you don't have to grow it. However I think the silver and dark green foliage is beautiful and the flowers aren't bad either.

Diana in PA

Helpful info! Glad to hear someone has good success with that variety.

(I think the leaves the posters were talking about
came from an exchange, not from a vendor.)
I have recently gotten leaves from Lyon's of other varieties. They seems to be doing ok. Lyon's seems to be offering more leaves now than in the past. The ones they sent are a good size.

I have also gotten leaves from Optimara, they also usually do well. How the leaves do seems to depend more on my growing conditions rather than the quality of the leaves because I have had leaves from O also not do well if I am not careful enough. However, they send two, so if one is lost, there is still a spare.

It takes some extra care and experience to be able to raise a plant from a leaf from a variegated plant. It took me a long while to succeed. That is one reason why I don't like to send leaves from variegated plants, I prefer to get a plant started and send that so it has a better chance to survive.

Witch Doctor's hybridizer is J. Gehr according to first class.

Linda

Does that hybridizer have other plants you know of that might be easier to grow? Joanne

Thank you to everyone for the input here. I will keep hoping for mouse ears, since I have the leaf already. Yes, it was an exchange, but not from anyone on this forum.

I have some other very lovely leaves, so I'm hoping for success. I can see that they variegated violets take much more patience! I'm glad that's not all that I have, so I can enjoy the others while I'm waiting!!!

Sue

Diana, for some reason I can't get your links to work so I can see you photos. I really want to! :)

Sue

Sue, the variegated are very, very slow to do much of
anything. It is also very hard to know which variegated leaf will produce. Linda has advised that the more green there is on a leaf, the better the chances are that it will propagate.
I find the variegated are not consistent. A couple of times, I
was disappointed in the plants I had, so I ordered again from
Lyon's. The new plants did much better. Joanne

The green in a leaf is the result of chlorophyll being present. The more chlorophyll, the more food to sustain the leaf while it is rooting. Variegated leaves are usually not as robust as all green leaves, but, again, it depends on variety, growing conditions, etc.

Linda

Thank you, Sue, for pointing out that the links don't work. When I get time, I will move them to another site.

I remembered why those leaves looked so rough ... I'd neglected my plants and Witch Doctor was just a small tuft at the top of a big bare stem. I didn't know if it would make it in the window so I didn't reroot it with the rest. After it had bloomed, I followed Violet Barn's directions for rerooting a plant with a "trunk" but set a couple of those little bleached leaves. They took right off. When I get a chance I'll show the photos but I just stuck 3 leaves in the solo cup.

I'm not sure if it's the leaf or the variety that makes some of them slower/harder to root. I've had some mosaics pop up just fine. I managed to lose Wrangler's Dixie Celebration but maybe that was my fault. I've never tried very often but Feather doesn't seem to root very easily. Maybe I just never tried very often :).

Diana in PA