Hello Ruth. I always enjoy your
messages on the indoor-gardening list
Thanks. Just call me gabby. I have three dwarf
bougainvilleas that I keep indoors. One is a brick red with variegated
leaves, one of the others is a double pink and the third is a single
pink. I haven't put them outside but one of these years I'll
start some slips and try them in the summer garden.
Since you are a
consultant, perhaps I shouldn't ask you to advise me, but I need some help
with
my
"indoor-garden". My achimenes, which I had allowed to go
dormant, has started to send up what look like new shoots. Would you
start giving it water and food as if it were spring, or let it sleep for a
couple of months? I should explain that, while I have had flowers
outside for many years, I am starting late (eighty-five years) trying to
grow gesneriads.
Vera
The consultant bit dates back to when I was
lecturing on houseplants to hort societies and women's groups. Haven't
done that for a few years but am still writing for gardening mags and
it looks good on my queries <G>
In my experience, in spite of what the gesneriad
enthusiasts say, achimenes stay dormant for three to four months and then
sprout regardless of the time of year. I have had success removing the
sprouts and letting them sprout again if I didn't want to start them right
away.
I would suggest repotting some of the rhizomes and desprouting
(that's a word?) the others in case they didn't come back. Achimenes
are heavy feeders and usually exhaust the soil so need to be repotted when
they resprout. I can't get them to bloom on the windowsill in
the winter - not enough light here - but they will flower under
lights.
Do you know about the gesneriphiles list at
gesneriphiles @lists.colorado.edu. This is an active list with a LOT
of info. Also the gesneriad gallery at r*@pathcom.com/rmyhr has a lot
of gesneriad pictures, someof them mine.
I thought I was the oldest oldie here but you've
got me beat by ten years. Good luck with the achimenes .
Ruth
Z
email: r*@execulink.com
Freelance
writer and gardening consultant zone 5/6 southern
Ontario
