Now Wilson ;), the Episcia register is not old. In my mind it is still "new". I actually read the thing. I read it on the airplane coming home from an AGGS convention. It is a bit dry, reading plant descriptions without actual text. But, by reading between the lines, I found all kinds of fascinating tidbits. Seeing the dates of introduction was very informative. From reading them, I got a sense of the history of the plants. I saw names of people who I later learned more about. I found out that many of the great cvs came from my area, when West Coast Gesneriads (David Allen), a short lived mail order nursery existed. He grew on seed from others and selected some great ones, which are still popular. That was back in the early 70's. I never met him but he was a founder of our chapter of AGGS in 1970. Some of the ones he introduced were from hybrid seed where 'Cleopatra' was a parent. That was actually a mistake in hybridizing. Crandell was using Cleo thinking she could get new variegated cvs. But, instead the hybrids were all non-variegates. But, some nevertheless had great colors and patterns. 'Cleopatra' is a variegated sport of an old cv. 'Frosty', which I have only seen in books. I suppose a reversion would bring back this cv. Other variegates came from sports of other cvs. I don't think any came from seedlings, but I may be wrong on that. The "valley" variegates like 'Pink Shimmer Valley' orginated at a long gone greenhouse business in Paul's Valley, Oklahoma (Pat Thomas). It has been speculated that she must have done something odd to get so many mutations. Perhaps it was just that she grew and propagated so many episcias and had a good eye for the sports. By the way, 'Pink Shimmer Valley' is supposed to have come from another very old cv, 'Shimmer'. Patrick Worley once told me that 'Shimmer' was his favorite episcia. He said it had, well, a shimmer to its foliage that was unique. Again, I've never seen this oldie but it should be around as a reversion. It could be, however, that these variegates may not revert to the original but to a new sport. I have heard that 'Cleopatra' has made a muddy uninteresting sport, whereas pictures show that 'Frosty' was pretty attractive. But, 'Cleopatra' and 'Pink Brocade' are pretty much confused nowadays, and I suspect that the latter is a sport from a different plant, that just looks very much like 'Cleopatra'. So it could be that the muddy reversions were in fact the originator of 'Pink Brocade', but that's all speculation on my part.

R. L. Wilson was an eary enthusiast, who had a nursery in Florida. He was a botanist who later moved to Costa Rica and founded a botanical garden which, I think, is now a National Park. He was a friend of Hal Moore and also creator of the first pink flowered types (I think?). So, that is how the x wilsonii's got this name.

Jon

Hi Jon,

Thank you for explaining this subject so thoroughly. It is so nice to hear some of the history about the plants. Is there anything about gessies you don't know? ;o) lol

Larry

Hi Jon,

I am impressed with your knowledge. Just how you get to know so much? That intrigues me.

Hmm... How I wish there is really a compilation of all the various cultivars - their pictures and description and any other info on them - will be so useful!

Thanks Jon, for sharing your knowledge!

Wilson

I too wonder where and how I picked up all this gesno-trivia. A lot of it has to do with talking with lots of different people over the last 25 years. In the early days my best friend was totally absorbed with gesneriads. We talked about them for endless hours, and in the exchange I think we both learned a tremendous amount. He went into business raising and selling gesneriads, but hybridizing them was his main inspiration. He introduced me to the family, eventually dragged me to a local gesneriad society meeting and then later on lost interest in them. He just couldn't make money with them and foolishly blamed the plants for this. He went into orchids. Eventually we stopped being friends, but I kept up with the family and started attending the annual conventions. I've been a regular attendee since 1989. Then with the Internet, I found gesneriphiles and that has really helped us all learn a lot. There has never been a lot of literature on gesneriads but I have read most of it--The Miracle Houseplants still the best overall book (circa 1978 mol). The AGGS journal, the Gloxinian has been my main source of reading material. Every once in a while I go through old issues and re-read them. Many of these are still available through the AGGS publications chairman. In July we got a new chairman and I believe the publications will be easy to order and quick to receive. I forget who has taken it over though.

I think the fact that I learned so much through conversation is the reason why I like to post and pass on information via this medium. Don't get me wrong--I forget a lot too. But, it is a process.

Jon

I think that Jon's brain is like a very dear friend of mine. Vincent once told me that if it had to do with plants.
his brain just absorbed it like a sponge, and he retained it. Other things, may not enter and be absorbed as quickly.
Jon is remarkable, in all he does for our gessies.