Hi :) What's blooming... let's see... I have a couple of streps, and those are blooming -- not as well as in the summer, but they are trying. Even the tiny baby strep I just bought is blooming -- I wish it'd concentrate on growing leaves, but no, it wants to have its own flowers, like all adult plants. I also have a sinningia speciosa plant that for some reason is ignoring dormancy -- it got stuck on its last flower, has been proudly holding that flower up for more than a month, and not even thinking of letting it wilt. The leaves look perfect, too. I have a couple more clones of that same plant, and all of those have long finished flowering and are looking ratty and ready to go dormant, like they are supposed to -- but not this weird one. Nothing else is flowering though. I have a chirita Keiko that is busily forming buds, but if I understand it correctly, the flowers won't open till spring (this is the first year I have the plant, so I don't know for sure). What else... I just got dormant tubers of sinningia leucotricha, calcaria and tubiflora, hoping they'll flower next year, but they are small, so I don't know if they are mature enough for flowering. And I have a tiny Petrocosmea forrestii, and I honestly don't even have an idea of when these guys flower... And I guess that's all!

Cool......you have quite a few varieties as well. I love those petrocosmea's, they are just the coolest looking plants. I have never seen them around here, they would be neat to get a hold of. Do you grow yours under lights? I have found my episcia (both of them) don't like to live out of my humidity dome, they start to go crispy.....are any of yours like that?

Yep, petrocosmeas are definitely the coolest plants ever! I saw one at a show, and I just ha to get it! My plants are all in natural light, but I supplement with compact fluorescent lights for some of them. But some of my violets get weird spots on their leaves if I put them under artificial light, and one of the streps kept getting brown leaf tips under lights too, so I generally stick to natural light unless the plant complains :) Are your under lights? I haven't had problems with humidity for gessies. I read tha episcias need high humidity, especially the pink ones, and that's actually why I decided not to grow them -- I had high humidity plants before (ferns), and I never figured out a good set up to grow them. It's a shame though, episcias sure are amasing plants!

I gave away most my blooming chiritas and kept smaller plants, most of them budded, 'cause bringing things in from the summer and 'rescuing' a friend with too many plants (wasn't that nice of me?!) left me with a shortage of space. I have a few columneas and an aescynanthus in bloom--some still outside and some in--AVs of course, and a few episcias in bloom. Our summers are so long and so hot and humid that episcias do beautifully outside (even better when I remember to water them!) and I have one in bloom now that will have to be in a terrarium inside, but loved being outside and is full of bloom. I've lost the name and will have to do a little research, but it's a very fuzzy light green leaf with no pattern, and large lavendar slightly fringed blooms. The chiritas will bloom when they decide to, but that includes now. I find that, for me but not necessarily for you, they like not to dry out or the buds will dry up. If it's ready to bloom it'll keep building more buds, but they'll dry if the plant does. It does take forever for the blooms to develop especially when it's the first ones you've had--I'm sure that's mostly anticipation! I have a few hardy sinningias outside that are still in bloom; my favorite at the moment is S. guttata. It's a second stem and has been blooming for quite awhile--went kinda half-dormant after it bloomed this spring. Eucodonia 'Adele' is still gorgeous in spite of poor care, and a 'name lost' I think is Seemannia making propagules like mad. Supposed to be hardy, so I'll probably put 'em all out next spring. That one's new to me, and I'm still learning. (Still learning about ones I've grown for years, as a matter of fact!)

Oh, that's interesting about chirita buds drying when the plant is allowed to dry out. I read somewhere on the forum, johnnieb (I think) suggesting that they are to be kept on the dry side, and also with less fertiliser, especially in the winter, or they will just grow huge and not flower. But now that I'm thinking about it, if it is already forming buds, then it's probably not overwatered to the point where it wants to just grow and not flower -- so I'm safe there, and should watch out for buds drying up. I guess there's some balance between too much and too little water that I'll need to find...
Found a picture of S. guttata. on gesneriads.ca, awesome-looking plant! How tall/wide does it get it?

My S. guttata is fairly new and I assume as I get to know it better it will probably get bigger--maybe have multiple stems--but this one is, just guessing, about 8-10 inches tall I think. Can't decide if I should put it in the ground, as it's supposed to be hardy, or keep it in the pot for drainage. I really enjoy these forums--have a few friends who grow some of these things, but not a club or any real experts, and I do feel like I'm 're-inventing the wheel' a lot of the time. Learn a lot here!