There may be a gesneriad club in your area. There doesn't appear to be one in LA, but maybe you're close to one of the others?

For gesneriads, I have had good luck with kathystrep on eBay and consistent quality when mail ordering from Pat's Pets and Lyndon Lyon Nursery.

You could also contact the Gesneriad Society of America to see if the national club has members in your area.

Good luck.

Linda in Tennessee

BTW, this week was the Gesneriad Society Convention so you may not get a reply for a while.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gesneriad Society of America

Where are you in Louisiana? (You don't need to be too specific--I'm pretty paranoid about my location and certainly understand others who are.) There used to be a gesneriad society in New Orleans, but I think when Earl died the club did too. It was a little too far for me to visit very often, and I've always felt I should have helped more. There used to be two African Violet clubs in this area (south central) and some of us grew gesneriads as well as, or more than, AVs. Not sure about the western part of the state. Sometimes you'll find a few in the box stores, and sometimes in nurseries, but not by any means regularly. If you want specific plants you almost have to do mail-order, and to Linda's list I would add Rob's Violet Barn, where I just got a beautiful order a couple months ago. If you're somewhere near the Lafayette area I can tell you a couple places I've gotten a few, and I might have some extras, depending on what you want.

It is much more fun for us long time gesneriad growers to buy from a source that offers lots of variety. That means mail order, a club plant sale, or growing from seed from the Gesneriad Society seed fund. The Gesneriad Society site is at www.aggs.org , using the initials of the former name, American Gloxinia and Gesneriad Society. Look for the suppliers page for a list of mail order sources--most with on-line catalogs. You can get suggestions here, if you let us know what kinds of gesneriads interest you. Since there no longer is a gesneriad chapter in Louisiana the best place to look for a plant sale would be an African Violet chapter. Usually chapters have shows and sales once or twice a year. It would be great if another gesneriad chapter could start up in Louisiana. The former club hosted two great conventions for the society. At the convention last week a group of us were talking about the late Earl Derouche and how much me miss him.

The society seed fund is available to members of the society, and lists hundreds of gesneriad varieties, both species and hybrids. Packets cost $2 each and annual membership in the society, which comes with the journal, Gesneriads, costs $25.

Jon