Hello

I tried them this summer - on the windowsill - since we are way too dry for A. to grow outside. But Michigan will be OK.

I loved them. Looks like they can take a lot of heat and sun. They do not want to go dry otherwise they start looking ratty or go to sleep for the year. I heard some people keep them in flower beds in summer and then harvest and store rhizomes for the next year.

I am now worried about storage- I am going to keep them in the dried soil in their pots. I would like to hear other suggestions about storage.

Parkseeds were selling them this year.

Irina

I read in I think the African Violet journal a few years ago not to try to grow them without those (various brands) crystals that hold extra moisture, since it is so important not to let them dry out. If they do they tend to go dormant, which can be pretty discouraging if they haven't even bloomed yet! (Voice of experience here.) They can also be grown in windowsills or under lights with wicking, the only way I handle my chronic under-watering. They're pretty easy and rewarding other than that, tho' I should add our summers range from hot and humid to hotter and more humid. No experience with cold spells in summer here. There are several people who offer large numbers of achimenes, my favorite being Lauray of Salisbury. I think Marcia Belisle also has an extensive list, but I always get way-laid by the sinningias.

I had quite a few achimenes a few years ago. But I lost many of them. They are easy to grow and easy to keep. However, I have too many plants so I put these outside to live. They handle my climate pretty well, but a squirrel discovered their edibility, and dug through my pots, eventually eating up quite a few of my varieties. So, now, I have a more manageable collection, which is in the greenhouse, taking up space I really need for other plants.

My plants dried out quite a bit this summer, getting poor attention from me. They didn't go dormant but wilted and then came back with damage, just like any other gesneriad. At a local meeting one of our members brought in some beautiful flowering plants. She has an unheated greenhouse, where they get too hot at times, but not too hot to do well. They are tolerant. However, she taught me a trick, so I will pass it on. She grew her plants with high clear plastic saucers--which are about 4" high and not much wider than the pots. When she waters the excess fills the saucers, and then keeps the pots moist as the water is drawn in. Sitting in water like this didn't harm the plants at all! Maybe this wouldn't work at all for others in different climates and water quality. But, it is a thought. Achimenes are tough, easy, and seasonal. They like high humidity in summer, and they go dormant in winter. In nature their domancy period is roughly December to May. But, when grown in cultivation they can be grown with altered seasons. Sometimes indoor plants will be growing in winter, under lights and do well, then going dormant for three months, getting their seasons all mixed up.

Parks carried many kinds of achimenes at one time. There is a reason for this. George Parks, the founder, was a gesneriad fan. He popularized this genus because he liked them. I guess they also did really well for him in his Georgia climate. Over the years, Parks has carried fewer and fewer gesneriads, as his influence has waned. I think that also the superficial similarity in achimenes to impatiens has also led to their decrease in popularity. But, achimenes are much more elegant that impatiens, if not quite so easy.

In dry summer humidity, I think the trick of growing them with deep saucers or wicking makes sense. Those water holding crystals aren't necessary, but are an interesting strategy.

I leave mine in their pots, which dry out in winter but still retain some moisture. If the soil really gets baked dry, the rhizomes will shrivel. My pots get some water and the rhizomes don't rot. They just don't want to be kept really wet or in wet heavy soil in winter. If I try to remove and store the rhizomes two things happen. One, I never find all the rhizomes, so they sprout in my used potting mix containers, or in pots if I reuse the soil as I sometimes do. Second, I am not so systematic that I plant the rhizomes at the right time. So, store in the way that suits you. There are many wonderful cultivars. Spring is the time to order the rhizomes from Lauray. Judy, unpots her plants and collects the rhizomes sometime in late winter. Email her and ask her for her list (Lauray of Salisbury). She has around 200 kinds.

The most common color for achimenes is the range from light lavender to deep purple. But, the reds, oranges, and pinks are the most popular. The biggest flowered types will be in purple range. I like them all, but some of the more unusual colors and forms get my attention, such as soft salmon pinks with contrasting eyes. I also like the very few that have wide throats, that make the flowers more three dimensional. Most have a tiny opening to the tube, making them basically flat flowers.

Jon

Hi Jon,

One of these days I will just fly to SF and knock at your door. Or may be pretend that I am a squirrel and hop across the fence. With all the gessies you have... Some in a greenhouse, some outside, frost resistant sinnigias, nematanthus and streps...

I kept my Achimenes on wicks and they drank water like sump pump. But again - our humidity in Denver is zilch.

We (3G club) were really lucky to get a generous gift of different A. rhizomes from Susan Grose, then AGGS president. I got five different varieties. All were beautiful, a double one A.Desiree was so late to start and was in it's prime late that I got a blue ribbon on September 3G show. X-Achimenantha Inferno - is still blooming on and on. Camille Brozzoni - produced lots of little air rhizomes (propagules?) along the stem and successfully seeded them in all available neibours pots.

Susan Grose grows Achimenes outside in Kansas - which is more humid than Colorado. but for the next summer i will have enough rhizomes to try them outside as well. I think the water crystals is a very worthy idea. I will keep them in fromt of the house - out of the reach of squirrels. If they managed to pick all plums from my big plum tree and carry them to their nest one plum at a time - rhizomes just do not stand a chance.

Cheers

Irina

Thank you so much everyone , who contributed with information, and I wlll try them in the near future.

In hindsight, a simple way to keep the squirrels out of the achimenes pots would be to put some wire mesh on top of the pots, such as chicken wire or something, that allows the stems and foliage to grow through but prevent the pests from digging in the soil. Maybe I will try some next year this way. If the plant is well grown the wire will disappear under the foliage. I didn't mention pinching--most achimenes look better if pinched early and often. The downside is that this delays the opening of the first flowers--not so good if being grown for earlier shows, but fine if grown for fall shows.

A'Camile Brozzoni is notorious for making tiny propagules in the axils of the flower peduncles, that are almost invisable but drop into surrounding pots as the plant dies down in the fall. Keep this cv. well away from other pots or don't grow it. Sometimes a given achimenes will make propagules by the zillions and other years won't make any or even die out. I think some of the small red flowers, bred from erecta 'Tiny Red' have this quality. A. 'Caligula' did this for me one year but now I don't have it at all. There is a smaller growing species whose name I can't recall at the moment with small orange flowers that also does this too.

Irina, next year try growing some achimenes with saucers that you keep water in all season. See if the plants don't like this method. Its worth a try, and would be relatively easy to do. Our summer humidity is somewhat low, depending on how much marine influence one gets. Our humidity plummets as we get no rain from sometime in mid May to sometime in the fall (often October).

Jon

Jon,

That's what I missed this year - pinching. And now I have A. erecta blooming - also weedy - not pinched in time.

When do you think is the best time to pinch them - when the shoot is 4 inches tall or what? How much do you remove? Do you reroot the tips?

My A. were sitting on permanest trays - the small ones - and I refilled them every 2-3 days. In summer I airdry my laundry. While the next load is washing - the first one is almost all dry.

Cheers

Irina

Pinching. When the stem has three or four sets of leaves, pinch it out. Pinch it once again after another few nodes on the side shoots. That is what I have been taught, and which Katherine Henwood mentioned yesterday at the San Francisco Gesneriad Soc. meeting. You could also take off enough of the tip to make a cutting, and plant back to make a new plant fuller for later in the season.

Patrick Worley, when he was creating new achimenes and achimenanthas would select for stems that have three leaves per node. He only propagated from these stems, and in time, thus would sell only propagations or rhizomes from these. The plants would continue on with this growth pattern, which yields more positions for buds at each node. I think these three node growths will persist in subsequent years but will be lost to reversion if not reselected over the years to keep this quality going.

Jon
PS: (off topic). At yesterday's meeting Katherine brought in for show and tell a truly spectacular flowering specimen of the new Petrocosmea sericea. It had a perfect full layered rosette of dozens of leaves covered with a cloud of lavender flowers--too many to count. She grew it outdoors under a fiberglass roofed area. She lives in a cool humid coastal neighborhood. It would have been a best in show at just about any show, AGGS or local! Two members took pictures and hopefully one will make it too the internet. Ron, a professional photographer, took pictures (not digital) which I expect will make it someday to a book publication. I will post a link if it does make it on the net from our other photographer. Oh, almost forgot--Ron Parson's brought in his perfect flowering specimen of Petrocosmea minor, also with a cloud of flowers. I would hate to be a judge at a show with these two entered. Too bad there are no shows at this time of year.

Thank you - I will try. Didn't see 3 leaf nodes yet - need to pay attention next spring.
Do you grow A. in winter under lights? I have another pot of A.erecta sprouting - will be pinching them as you told.

Irina

Offtopic -Wow - I love petrocosmeas. Only once got P.forrestii blooming in spring. Have a good size P. parryorum - refuses to bloom.

I hate to be bragging again for Katherine, but she also brought in her parryorum--I had forgotten it, being totally smitten by her sericea. It was just opening its flowers, but had numerous peduncles coming up under the leaves. It is probably a little more on the warm growing side, but I would guess it grows outdoors here too, but probably isn't frost tolerant. It generally flowers well on a light stand--just give it time and some fertilizer. Then, when its peduncles come up, you need to gently coax them to grow up through the gap between the leaves. Its natural tendency is to flower underneath the leaves. Its the first petrocosmea to come into cultivation--about, oh, about 35 years ago, I guess.

Jon

I have several different colors of achimenes rhyzomes in dry peat moss starting to grow, just waiting to be potted up for a summer of glorious color, Does anybody want them?
Grable

My new rhizomes are only about 3 inches tall, while last years are in bloom. planted them (new ones) in light mix, while old ones are in a moisture control mix (Miracle Grow). Need more moisture?????