Kohleria ‘Dale’s Coquette’ is a cute hybrid by Dale Martens.
It’s a small plant with dark, olive green leaves, very long and deep bright red flowers. The leaves, flowers and stems are all very furry, even for a kohleria, giving this hybrid a wild look.
So far this has been a very compact, slow growing plant. Although the plant stays compact and seems slow growing, when I went to repot it, I was surprised to find an abundance of large rhizomes. It’s possible this plant needs to get pot bound before it really takes off. Nevertheless, it still flowered quite well for me.
A very fun kohleria to grow. Seems pretty resistant to infestations. Based on how the plant has been growing, it’s possible that it prefers higher light and humidity than the average kohleria. This might make an excellent terrarium plant.
Henckelia ‘Moon Walker’ is a beautiful cross between hencklelia moonii and henckelia walkerae, made by M. Yamagata. Formerly part of the chirita genus (which was dismantled), henckelias belong to the gesneriad family.
This plant has a wonderfully exotic-looking growth habit. It forms thick, light-gray, woody stems, that branch and twist, like an odd looking bonsai. I’m exited to prune and grow this plant into a large, beautifully shaped specimen.
The leaves are light green and covered in white silky, velvety fuzz. The flowers are large, and appear only a few at a time. When they first open, the color is a very dark shade of blue, but as they age, they fade into a light lilac shade of blue.
Though the plant has only a few flowers at a time, they do appear consecutively along the stem all year round. This plant is always producing flowers!
Requirements:
Watering needs:
Dry out between watering. I’ve noticed that this plant tolerates a range of watering, from occasionally sitting in water, to being neglected and dried out from time to time. It does best when you let the soil dry out a bit, and then you soak it in water and thoroughly drain it.
Light:
Bright indirect light. East/west or even north facing windows will work. I’ve had no trouble growing and flowering this plant on a north facing window. I would say, it does best on an east facing window with a couple of hours of direct light. I have yet to grow in under grow lights and see how it does.
Humidity:
The moment the humidity drops, this plant’s leaves get very droopy and sad looking. Depside the woody stem and furry leaves, this plant needs a high humidity environment. The higher the better.
Soil Type and Fertilizer:
I grow mine in a standard gesneriad mix. Light, puffy soil with lots of perlite. You can use african violet soil and just add extra perlite, or make your own potting medium using general potting mix with extra peat moss and perlite. I use african violet fertilizer, but any well balanced fertilized should do.
Propagation:
You can propagate this plant by rooting cuttings. You can root them in water or in a terrarium environment.
Other Care Tips and Personal Observations:
This plant doesn’t seem susceptible to any infestations. I’ve had aphids and mealy bugs on nearby plants, but this one seems pretty resistant. What seem to be the biggest problem is humidity. This plant looks its best when you grow it at high humidity. Any drop in the humidity will lead to droopy leaves.
Though it seems to flower with only a few flowers at a time, they are huge and showy, and as the flowers age, you can see new flower buds growing and getting ready to bloom.
Kohleria ‘Nanny’ is a pretty kohleria hybrid with pale pink flowers and dark foliage.
This hybrid is very similar looking to kohleria ‘HCY’s Jardin de Monet’, and I sometimes have a hard time telling them apart. The biggest difference would be that this kohleria’s corolla (face of the flowers) is more cream toned, and the leaves have warmer overtones. Other than that they have the same growth habit, and are both medium to large sized kohlerias.
The flowers and leaves are large, and they get larger as the plant grows bigger. I bought this plant as a rhizome from my local gesneriad show. To grow it from a rhizome to the plant I’m holding on the picture, took me around 4 months. As the plant got bigger, the flowers got larger too.
Kohleria ‘Nanny’ is a very generous bloomer, and flowers freely throughout the year, if the right conditions are provided. If you leave it on your windowsill, it will slow down to an almost dormant state during the winter, but will remain leafy.
This plant can definitely be grown into a larger specimen. In terms of growth requirements, it’s the same as every kohleria. It’s a very easy to grow plant. This hybrid is pretty resistant to infestation and diseases too.
Kohleria ‘Dark Velvet’ is a stunning compact hybrid with excellent growth habit. This kohleria tends to grow lots of offshoot and turn into a nice dense and bushy specimen. Very quick and easy to grow like most kohlerias.
It’s been on my wish list for a while, so when I finally saw it for sale on ebay, I couldn’t resist! It took only a couple of months to grow the plant from an offshoot to the one you see on these pictures.
The leaves are very dark, almost black, and velvety, with red -purplish overtones. This plant is worth growing for the foliage alone. As an added bonus, it’s an excellent, heavy and consistent bloomer. The flowers appear in clusters of a few, all along the length of the stem, and beautifully stand out against the very dark foliage. They have a pretty interesting shape too, like a bulbous tube that is narrower at the opening, similar to the nematanthus flower (the goldfish plant).
S. ‘Prudence Risley’ is such a wonderful sinningia hybrid by James Steuerlein. This plant has large and long waxy flowers. The blooms are medium wine red in color with pink undertones. They look red-pink on photos, but they are closer to red in person. The leaves are light to medium green, small compared to the flowers, slightly fuzzy and serrated.
The plant is free branching and everblooming. It flowers heavily, even when small. Rooted cuttings start blooming while they are still in the propagation ziplock bag sometimes. It’s one of my most favorite sinningias.
It’s been extremely easy to grow. This hybrid can handle less than perfect conditions. It is very easy to propagate and is always flowering. The fact that the flowers are large makes it stand out even more.
Requirements:
Watering needs:
This plant has tolerated anything from leaving it in soggy soil to fully drying it out. It’s also very easy to propagate through cuttings, so if you mess up the growing conditions, take some cuttings and you might be able to still save your plant. With that being said, it has average watering needs. Seems to do great with keeping the soil evenly moist, but not soggy. If you accidentally dry it out, you can always soak it for a bit.
Light:
I would recommend part shade to shade. East and west windowsills are ideal, or a north facing garden window. I have had it growing and flowering on a regular north facing window, but the plant got leggy and flowered less. You can also grow it under lights.
Humidity:
Keep the humidity on the higher end. If you spray the plant, the leaves will get covered in spots, so use a humidity tray or a humidifier instead. If the humidity is on the lower end, this plant is more likely to get spider mites or aphids, especially on the flower stems and the flowers themselves.
Soil Type and Fertilizer:
I would recommend a slightly richer soil than your average african violets’ soil. You can simply add a bit of compost, peat moss and perlite to your african violet soil and use that, or make your own mix with regular potting soil, extra peat moss for acidity, perlite or vermiculite, with a bit of compost. Regular feeding with diluted fertilizer, either a regular fertilizer for flowering plants, or african violet fertilizer will do. I also recommend using it at less than the recommended concentration, but more often. You can fertilize it pretty much throughout the year, since this plant doesn’t really slow down in terms of growth and flowering, at least in my experience.
Propagation:
You can propagate it using cuttings. You can root them in water, or in moist soil. I like to use ziplock bags with a bit of evenly moist, but not soggy soil. I tend to dip the cuttings in a bit of rooting hormone powder and “plant” them in the ziplock bag. Then I close it and leave it almost indefinitely on a windowsill. That way you don’t have to worry about watering the plants while they are in the ziplock bags, and take your time. Alternatively, you can just place some cuttings in a bit of water, and they will root pretty quickly.
Other Care Tips and Personal Observations:
Despite the large flowers, the plant can be kept pretty compact. I’d say it’s a compact to medium sized sinningia. The flower stems and flowers themselves, tend to be pretty susceptible to aphids and spider mites. When you treat your plant with insecticides, the leaves tend to get quite damaged too. Don’t worry too much about it, since the plant is a pretty vigorous grower and will recover quickly. If you get an infestation, I recommend removing all flowers and flower buds for the moment, until the plant is back to being pest free, and just put up with the unsightly leaves for the time being. After it recovers and starts growing new leaves and branches, you can remove the old, damaged ones. Other than that, it’s an extremely easy and rewarding plant to have. It does not require dormancy and its free branching habit and beautiful, large, trumpet-shaped flowers makes it such a great plant to have.
