Ugh, this sounds like what happens often to me; and, one reason why I am frustrated with streps these days. Sorry to say, but this sounds like crown rot. What I think you are describing is the condition when the plant is still salvagable, but, not without drastic action. I could be wrong--since I am going by nothing more than your description, and not seeing the actual plant. At this stage, if I'm right, the rot is affecting the wilted portions while the rest of the plant is still OK; but, for me, the rot usually spreads to the entire plant. It has lost its roots or the connection to the roots, so, it stays wilted when the soil is moist. The only thing you can do is take cuttings and root new plants. If you wait until most of the plant is gone, then the rot will kill the cuttings too, after you have taken them and put them down. But it sounds like it is in a fairly early stage so the rot may not spread to the cuttings. With the limp leaves, cut them off with scissors and place in a bowl of water. Make sure there is no dark basal stem or tissue--this usually is the rotten portion. After a few hours to overnight, the limp leaves will turge up, and then can be planted in perlite/vermiculite as leaf cuttings.

Unpot the rest of the plant, cut off the flowers, wash off the soil and inspect for that dark tissue. It may be mushy but usually is just dark or black. Then, after cutting awy the bad portions, I would plant what's left in the rooting mix, enclose in a baggie and put under lights.

I know this is drastic action for a plant that mostly looks OK. That is why I started with all these provisos--i.e. I could be wrong. At least, once the plants have re-established, you will have more plants to grow on. This is also a reason I find that with streps it is important to always be restarting new ones.

The cause is hard to diagnose. It could be in overly heavy soil, or overpotted. It could happen from going dry to wilting and then being watered and brought back. This process seems to weaken plants. Or, it could be that I just don't know, after all these years, why this happens. It wasn't much of a problem when I lived in a cool foggy maritime climate. It seems to happen more in this more pleasant warmer and dryer San Francisco Bay Area climate.

Jon

You know, Jon, I noticed (I'm noticing there's something sticky in my keyboard as I type this - pesky kids. -Just kidding, I love them). As I was saying, I noticed a bunch of dark lines on the leaves too - I thought it was sunburn in an unprotected West window, so I closed the blinds a bit. (In case you were wondering, the sticky keyboard is loosening up, thank goodness.) I put it in a 3" pot per Rob's instructions (via the website) when it began to bloom, but since Snow White is so small, I wonder if overpotting could have precipitated it?

So the dark lines on the leaves kind of remind me of when you cut into a peach and it's kind of mealy, and has those dark lines in the middle. Hopefully you know what I'm talking about...

I put down a section of leaf several days ago - soaked it in warm water but it didn't really turge up. So now, I'm going to cut off a section and make sure there are no brown things in it. The section hasn't gotten stiff, even though it's in a baggie. (I have some other leaves that I put down in an enclosed easter egg candy box (see, the kids are good for something!) that I thought was too wet based on the condensation, so I left it open one day and whoops! forgot it, so all the sections were limp, but I carefully watered them back up and they seem to be fine now. Anyway, the possibly-infected-with-crown-rot section is not looking all that fine.)

You really said, "wash the roots". So I'm going to give it a try... Goes against the grain though...

Thanks for the answer Jon. I'll keep you posted.

-Mo (WV -& glad there's someone out there :) )

Ok, I did it. There's really nothing left of the leaves, to speak of. And I couldn't slice off ALL the brown stuff - it goes straight down the center of the midrib. I got most of it, and myself in the process. Lucky I just had that painful tetanus shot! heh heh...

I couldn't bring myself to wash the roots though. They seemed OK, and there were no mushy parts.

Do you know if this is contagious? I noticed brown lines running down two flowers (same stalk, other stalk OK) on my Bristol's Red Lava, which is quarantined about 15 feet away. I clipped them off, but left the other one. There are some brown-ey spots on the leaves, but I attributed it to sunburn. They've been there since I got the plants (about 15 days ago). Do I need to put down a leaf of that too?

-Mo (WV, where the cuttings are taking over the place!)

Mo, I'm so sorry! Sounds like I should stick mostly to AVs. And yes, I am glad you sent Pegasus instead. :-)

Korina

I don't know if the lines are a problem or not. I was more or less thinking of basal rot, hence the term "crown rot". The crown being the base of the plant where all the action is, so to speak. The rot starts just at the base where the "leaf stalks" come off of the central point. Usually the first sign is that the stems in this area turn dark maroonish and then wilt and then the leaves with their stalk just break away. Usually any leaf, even with rotted portions will turge up when soaked over night in a bowl of water. (Note: I don't actually think "turge" is a word, but we use it all the time--I'm still looking for the correct word for this). The only danger in soaking leaves is when one, ahem, leaves them for too long--like days. Eventually they again turn soft and rot in the water. Yes, I have on occasion done this. I admit it--the "too many projects" syndrome.

I usually have very good luck rooting strep leaves. But, when I find a plant that has crown rot that is advanced I usually have problems with the cuttings. The other day I found a pot of dead strep leaves that had come from such a plant. The leaves that I tried to save were pretty small and not in good shape, but I gave it the ole college try and they flunked.

Now, for a grower like Korina who lives in the fabulous and just darn cold Sunset Zone 17, streps should do wonderfully. I had friends, now deceased who grew the most incredible streps in and outside their cold foggy San Francisco apartment. They did best with them outside in the fog. In the middle of summer the late afternoon brings in the fog with a strong breeze. It feels like the 30's but actually is in the mid to upper 50's (I'm talking about August, for darn sakes!). The streps just loved this climate. They didn't get crown rot, they grew and flowered all season long, and they could put up clouds of flowers with just a little care. In winter they would just rest the pots on their sides to keep the rain off them, as despite the cool foggy summers, all the rainfall comes in fall, winter and spring, the seasons where streps in nature, have their dry period. Up North where Korina lives the coast may get colder in winter and streps don't like temperatures below 32 degrees F. In the coastal belt of the Bay Area they do very well outdoors if protected from excess rain and frost, but they come into flower later in the spring--more like June, rather than April or all winter even, if grown indoors. So, people who grow streps for spring shows as late as early June won't have streps if they grow them outdoors. But, for shows in August, the outdoor streps are at their peak.

Jon, who likes to post a lot more info than anyone was looking for.

Jon, TMI is relative. I had no idea I could even think about growing streps outdoors. Cold. It's hard to say how cold it's going to be. This winter was extremely warm and dry, with many sunny days (a rarity here at any time of year), and very little frost; we will usually have several days into the mid-20's. And then we can have frost into May; we just had some *very* cold days last week. Today it's in the 60's. Very confusing. I'll have to study your post more closely (I'm having a little trouble focusing today). Thanks again.

Korina

My first streps all languished in summer heat and tended to die off from crown rot until I made one important change: I potted them in clay. Now I have a gigantic Streptocarpus 'Falling Stars' in an eight inch pot that has been a spectacular mass of bloom for the past month and a half now. And it keeps getting larger. I had to pot it up from a six inch pot last month since it was begging for more room. I had never seen a denser, more solid root mass on any gesneriad in my life.

All the other varieties I have in clay are doing wonderfully as well. I find I have to water a little more often, but the plants respond to the extra soil aeration by growing at an accelerated pace, which ultimately means more foliage and more blooms.

I left what's left of Snow White in the window in a bag today, but fortunately, it was overcast.

I haven't yet thought of a good "heat" plan for the summer. I've got a couple of east facing windows in the basement, but they're not all gonna fit there... Maybe it's time for hubby to act on his wish for a ceiling fan in our room. It probably sounds crazy to the rest of you that I don't have air conditioning, but it is West-by-God-Virginia, you know.

A (so-called) "friend" brought me some outdoor garden plants yesterday and I stuck them on the rack with the others - didn't even THINK about isolating them. Noticed tonight that they have sooooo many aphids. They didn't have them yesterday in such quantity, I guarantee that. So they went straight outside (so what if it's going to freeze tonight - serves 'em right). And now I can be paranoid for a week or so... :)

-Mo (loving my streps and meaning it in WV)

Clay, aka terra cotta, pots sounds like a good idea. I haven't used them on streps in a long time. The reason for this is very simple--I forgot about this practice. Hmmmm, I am using terra cotta pots a lot more now than I formerly did--mostly though with succulents. I agree they do well for streps as long as one remembers to water before the plants wilt. Clay does help in hot humid weather too, from all that I have heard.

When my mom grew streps in hot humid Chicago, she kept her streps in the basement under lights. But, it got pretty sticky down there without A/C, so she grew them in plastic bulb pans. Around the ball of soil in the center of the pot she wrapped a skirt of long fiber sphagnum moss. She found that the streps handled the heat much better this way. The moss kept the roots from rotting and the plants did well. She wasn't growing for show, so, to keep her plants close to each other she trimmed the long leaves to save space. It worked--that was in the 70's.

Jon

Update:

The former Snow White has long since passed away. But, one of the leaf sections I put down is still sitting there. At the end of May I noticed it was rotting (although the mix was almost dry), so I sliced it up and gave it another go. Then there was the little accident where she fell off the ledge... So now, it's still sitting there, not dead, not reproducing. Very strange. That must have been some old leaf!

-Mo (WV)