Hi David, I've been growing A. garrettii longer than anyone around here; but I've always had it in a pot. It is quite hardy though. It survives normal winters pretty well, taking upper 20's for brief periods. It survived with a lot of damage when it got down to 18 in 1990. But, I found with nematanthus, as an example, that they don't really do well in the ground. Being epiphytes they really like a very light potting mix. I use my standard mixes, such as peat, perlite, and vermiculite. So, I couldn't say if you will have luck with it in a mix that contains our California clay. It might be OK though. But I am surmising that being similar in growth habit to nematanthus that it might sulk if the soil is too heavy. But, you can always plant it out and grow it in a pot from cuttings. It roots easily. It is a very tough easy potted plant for bright shade. It grows up into about an 8-10 inch pot specimen, and gets covered with bright red flowers in around August and September. It is actually a good show plant for gesneriad society shows at that time of year. The SF show will be in late August--I should put down cuttings of garrettii for our acompaning plant sale.

How I got my garrettii is a mildly interesting story. Back in the late 70's my friend Bart had a commercial greenhouse out in Concord, growing gesneriads to sell wholesale to plant shops. He had garrettii in the greenhouse, but it got a bad case of mealie bugs and he became frustrated with it. So, he tossed it out--literally. He would get mad at a plant and do things like this. In this case, it was late summer or fall, and he just took the hanging pot, wire hanger and all, and tossed it from the door of the greenhouse onto a pile of discarded plants, many still in their pots. I was visiting many months later, at the end of winter and he mentioned that this plant was on the pile and it looked like it was still alive. I went over and found this very healthy and very clean plant. It had survived on winter rains, and the cool weather took care of the mealies. I took it home and have had it ever since. That was how I found out it was hardy. I am fairly certain that the plants you saw for sale, came originally from cuttings I passed around. I saw it too, last week at Hortica Gardens, coming from Monterey Bay Nursery (wholesale). In outdoor conditions it makes more of an upright bushy plant for a hanging basket. It can also be grown without hanging. When Bart grew it in greenhouse conditions it hung down quite a bit. I have a few other somewhat hardy aeschynanthus, all growing in bright shade outdoors--gracilis and parasiticus. I grow them along side my nematanthus (goldfish plants). By the way, I also rescued a pot of Nematanthus wettsteinii from Bart's pile, which is how I discovered that nematanthus were cold hardy in our sub-tropical climate. To this day, even the venerable Sunset Western Garden Book still describes nematanthus as being houseplant/greenhouse subjects. They need to update their info. They make the best outdoor basket plants here.

Jon, thanks so much for the information and the great story of how you came about this plant. And yes, indeed, it was at Hortica that I came across this plant, sourced from MBN. He has very good taste in plants there!

I haven't an ounce of clay in my garden--it's nearly all rock and decomposed granite, with a smattering of leaf humus on top, so drainage is not a problem. I was planning to prepare a mix as I did for the in-ground bromeliads I have to plant the Aeschynanthus in. But since cuttings take so easily, I will take your advice as well and start some for pots. I'll let you know how it does this summer and winter.

Thanks again

David