You often see bougainvilleas grown into large hedges or trained as a trellis in tropical climates. They love direct sunlight and plenty of warmth. They are fast growers and flower all year around. But not many people know, that they actually make wonderful and quite resilient houseplants.

The plant you see on the pictures is a bougainvillea I’ve had for years and maintained small, by having it root bound (which stuns the growth), and by trimming it. This is one of my most neglected houseplants and it’s shocking to me that it’s even still alive, let alone flowering consistently.

Bougainvillea ‘California Gold’ has beautiful rich golden-yellow bracts surrounding the tiny orange flowers in the center. This plant is almost always in bloom for me, but surprisingly, it flowers the heaviest in the winter. I grow it on an east facing window, where it gets several hours of direct light.

Bougainvilleas are native to eastern South America, and are extensively cultivated and hybridized. The flower bracts which are the main attraction, come in many different colors, most commonly in a bright magenta shade, but also lilac, orange, white and yellow. The foliage in some hybrids can be variegated.

Requirements:

Watering needs:

I recommend drying the plant out between watering. It seems to like drying out fully, then getting soaked in water for a bit, and then left to drain. I have severely neglected and dried out this plant before, but it kept coming back, thankfully. I have also overwatered it before and it lost some leaves to that, but still survived.

Light:

The more the better! This plant can be grown in full sun, so south windows are the best for it. You can grow it on east or west windows, but make sure it’s getting at least a couple of hours of direct sunlight in order for it to flower. I have tried growing it on a north facing window with no direct light, and it survived, but it ceased to flower. I have yet to see how it does under grow lights.

Humidity:

So far I haven’t notices any preference to humidity. Given the plant’s native environment, I would assume it likes it hot and humid. Either way, this plant doesn’t seem to be bothered by dry air at all.

Soil Type and Fertilizer:

Slightly acidic, well draining, and rich soil. I like to mix peat moss, perlite, some regular potting soil and compost (I use either cow or chicken compost). Keeping the plant root bound should encourage more flowering, and should help keep the root system healthy. For fertilizer, I use a very diluted generic fertilizer, but lately, I’ve been just removing the top layer of the soil and replacing it with fresh compost and peat moss mix. It seems to work well for me.

Propagation:

You can propagate bougainvilleas though cuttings, though make sure they are longer cuttings, or air layering. You can also bend one of the stems, make a small cut on the bark, and “plant” it back in the soil. That way it can take its time to root, without loosing access to nutrients coming from the mother plant. This way you can propagate larger sized pieces of the plant.

Other Care Tips and Personal Observations: 

Bougainvillea ‘California Gold’ is a gorgeous plant. The bright, beautiful, golden yellow flower bracts look like paper origami. The plant flowers while young, and can be shaped however you want. I think it would make a nice bonsai specimen too. So far, I have not had any pest problems on this plant. It seems resistant to pretty much everything that has plagued my collection so far.

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Kohleria ‘Florida Freckles’ is a cute hybrid with bright-red, fuzzy blooms. The flowers have white faces speckled with red polka dots. I quite enjoy the maroon, fuzzy stems and olive green foliage as well.

I grew this plant under grow lights, and it remained very compact and dense. I’m guessing this hybrid will grow just fine on a windowsill, unlike some of the taller varieties that can get quite leggy. It seems to be a free branching plant too.

There is nothing special about the growing requirements. It seems to be fine with the average kohleria care. This hybrid also doesn’t seem to be particularly bothered by lower humidity or infestations.

K. ‘Florida Freckles’ is quite a good bloomer for it’s size. Based on how it’s performed so far, this plant can definitely be an everbloomer, once it gets more established. Some kohleria seem to go dormant in the winter, but this hybrid kept on growing and flowering freely even in the winter months.

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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.

Kohleria “Vanilla Sky” is a medium to large growing hybrid, that definitely needs staking, once it grows larger. This plant flowers heavily and is very showy.

Warm toned leaves and flowers, makes this an interesting hybrid. The leaves are olive green and lightly marbled with lighter and warmer toned olive green. The flowers are magenta and cream and are heavily spotted with large burgundy dots.

I highly recommend growing this plant under lights. I have grown it on a windowsill and it was a bit limp and messy. The plant really shines if you grow it under lights, or on a brighter windowsill.

In my experience this hybrid needs a bit more light than your average kohleria. Other than that, it’s easy to grow and a very heavy bloomer once it grows to a larger size.

The warm tones give it interesting tropical vibe.

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Kohleria coccinea is a kohleria species, I couldn’t find much information about. I bought a rhizome from ebay and it was shipped to me all the way from Germany.

The plant is a slow, sturdy grower. Very thick robust stems, large bright green, velvety, serrated leaves, edged with dark red fuzz. The stem is covered with dark red hairs. The flowers are large and showy.

It’s on the larger side for kohlerias. Much sturdier than a typical kohleria hybrid, this pant doesn’t need as much staking (though I still did stake it out of habit) and can hold its own weight. Seems a lot more resilient towards infestations, and has been actively growing and producing rhizomes all year round for me.

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Kohleria ‘Dale’s Chameleon’ is a lovely hybrid by Dale Martens. I acquired quite a few of her hybrids at a pre-epidemic gesneriad show, and so far I am in love with all of them!

This plant is so cute! I grew it under lights, and it has nice, bushy, compact growth, olive-green furry leaves, maroon furry stems, and such interesting flowers!

The flowers are bright magenta tubes and are covered with bright orange fuzz, giving them sort of a frosted chrome effect. It’s hard to capture that in a photo. The cream colored corolla is covered in magenta polka dots.

As a typical kohleria this plant is easy to grow and flower. In my personal experience, it seems to prefer warmer conditions. It really slows down if you try to grow it in a cooler environment, a bit more than your average kohleria.