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korina_gw

Sinningia tubiflora on eBay

korina
18 years ago

Looks weird, in a cool way.

Korina (or is that cool, in a weird way?)

Here is a link that might be useful: auction

Comments (7)

  • greenelbows1
    18 years ago

    It doesn't let you know how wonderfully fragrant it is, or how pretty the long white tubular flowers are, or that it's one of the hardy ones. Of course things that are hardy here may not be hardy where you are, but I left some outdoors in a smallish pot with no protection as a test and it came through fine. Mine is getting ready to bloom right now. Wish I had a digicam. And it wants Full sun to bloom well. But you can get it from a number of vendors for less than that--I got mine from Lauray of Salisbury.

  • jon_d
    18 years ago

    Tubiflora is the potato of sinningias. Unlike the other 65+ species it makes tuber offsets with great ability. So, that a single tuber, in a few years ends up being a pot full of little tubers. So, it is a great little propating fool. It is not the easiest to bring to flower--at least for me. I grow it in a big pot in lots of light and I did get a couple of flower stems last year. But, I should have had a lot more, considering the size of the plant. Yet, others get lots of spikes on smaller plants. Maybe its me? Anyway, it likes lots of light that is for sure. It makes growths that do not bolt into flower and then some that do. Last year, Ben Paternoster's plant won best in show at the AGGS convention. I think a photo is still on the AGGS web site home page (www.aggs.org). It is the most fragrant of all gesneriads, with a very nice lemony scent. BTW, to get frost tolerance the tubers need to be buried. Exposed tops of tubers will freeze the exposed portions of the tubers at temps below about 30 degrees in ny experience. Otherwise it is hardy to at least the teens.

    Jon

  • greenelbows1
    18 years ago

    The first one I'd seen was grown by Margaret Waguespack, of blessed memory, and when mine blooms I always think of her. She told me it needs full sun to bloom well, so that's what I give mine, and it scares me every year. Full sun here is HOT! But it just keeps going. Last year something nearby grew more than I'd anticipated, and while it kept growing happily it didn't bloom any more. Of course, it could have been its blooming season was over, but I really thought it was the lack of full sun. Still got lots of light.

  • calla_lady
    18 years ago

    Fragrant indeed, mine bloomed all through last summer - I had no idea that it was difficult to bloom.

    Jon, have to laugh over your reference to these being the "potato of sinningias" - I recently picked up a gallon container at a nursery. I noticed that there appeared to be a few nice tubers and thought that there might be a couple more hiding - what an understatement! I seperated 50 tubers that were marble size to small egg size. As I was undwinding and seperating these things it begin to feel like the never ending story - took forever. I had lots of broken stem pieces with a bit of roots attached which I stuck into a flower bed. They pouted a bit, then got over it and now appear to be forming flower buds. Amazing!

    I can't believe that auction ended at 41.00!

  • ooojen
    18 years ago

    Yeah, wasn't that something?! I paid under $10, so I feel ever so frugal (tongue-in-cheek, of course!)
    Now, I've been keeping away from ebay plants for a while, but at the bottom of the page, I saw an interesting Aloe the Sinningia seller had, so I had to check out what else was there... I clicked on a pretty interesting cactus, and darned if I didn't see a familiar name as bidder!
    You've got good taste!

  • jon_d
    18 years ago

    Alicia I didn't see your post until today, Sunday, but I got the preview yesterday when we were talking under the shade of the Brugsmansia 'Charles Grimaldi' at the arboretum. That was a fun visit. My big outdoor pot of tubiflora just doesn't thrive. Every year it puts up lots of non-blooming stalks but only one or two flowering stems--or none at all. This year it looks like foliage only again. I think I will have to move that pot to another location and hit it with lots of fertilizer. I suspect it is starving. Either that, or plant it out, or try it in lots of different locations until I figure it out. I am sure there is a place where this species will flower well for me. I have had nice flowering plants in the past--years ago though. Once, I had it flowering away in a two gallon plastic pot that the tubers had burst through. It wa hard to keep it watered as the pot was practically ripped in half. Eventually I repotted it.

    For those who don't know--this is the best of the fragrant gesneriads. It has a strong and very pleasant lemony scent. In a warm room or garden the scent can travel 20 feet and be a pleasant surprise.

  • calla_lady
    18 years ago

    LOL,,,, ah Jen you and I do have such similar taste! 9 times out of ten I am outbid (I determine how much I am willing to bid then walk away), every once in awhile I actually win an auction! I have bid on a Neochilena occulta at least a half dozen times!

    Yes Jon, that was nice. A gorgeous day in San Francisco, two plant sales and getting to visit with a good friend and you have the makings of a very good day :~). Since I was supposed to be laying a flagstone patio (that my hubby was already on working on) I have to admit that I felt a bit guilty though.

    Last year I came across a large pot (24" across) of Sinningia tubiflora and it was loaded with bloom - and in full sun. The 1 gallon pot that I picked up was in a nursery, being sold as a full sun plant and also forming buds. The container was actually twisted, contorted and splitting from the tubers inside - I found little soil between them. It took forever to carefully cut the pot away to reveal a mass of tubers shaped like the gallon container! (I knew I should have taken a picture) I think this one really needs either sun or heat to bloom (or both). Or perhaps being underpotted. Interesting.

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