{"id":7049,"date":"2017-03-03T00:55:11","date_gmt":"2017-03-03T00:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=7049"},"modified":"2017-02-15T10:26:03","modified_gmt":"2017-02-15T10:26:03","slug":"streptocarpus-care-and-propagation-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/flowers\/house-greenhouse-plants\/streptocarpus-care-and-propagation-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Streptocarpus Care and Propagation Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Windowsill orchids are a houseplant favourite and I repeat and update some tips given 3 years ago.<br \/>\n<a title=\"Streptocarpus \" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hortoris\/4540942897\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4020\/4540942897_538de86e19.jpg\" alt=\"Streptocarpus\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Plant care tips from Dibleys National Collection <\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Always cut off dead flowers.<\/li>\n<li>Excessive or incorrect feed and poor light make the plants produce very large leaves and few flowers.<\/li>\n<li>It is quite natural as plants age for the old leaves to die back, and the ends should be trimmed off, especially in winter.<\/li>\n<li>In March or April gradually start watering more often and commence feeding.<\/li>\n<li>Do not over-pot you will get more flower by keeping on the pot bound side. Using half of three quarter depth pots is a good idea.<\/li>\n<li>Given this treatment you will be rewarded by a continuous display of flowers from about May until well into winter.<\/li>\n<li>You will also find the flowers are good for cutting.<\/li>\n<li>Shallow pots are recommended but I find the roots quickly mat up and become hard to water.<\/li>\n<li>I have taken to only using clay pots (Wide Toms)<\/li>\n<li>Start with AGM varieties.<\/li>\n<li>Dibleys attend a large number of plant &amp; flower shows where plants can be bought.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\n<a title=\"Streptocarpus \" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hortoris\/4541576998\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2741\/4541576998_82e2baee8c.jpg\" alt=\"Streptocarpus\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Streptocarpus Propagation<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Streptocarpus can be propagated quite easily by leaf cuttings like it&#8217;s near relative the African Violet. For detailed instructions <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dibleys.com\/factsheets\/dibleys-fs1.pdf\">see pdf<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>For breeding new Streptocarpus and generating more stock seed propagation is also quite simple. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dibleys.com\/factsheets\/dibleys-fs3.pdf\">see pdf<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Some Streptocarpus benefit from being divided when repotting.<\/li>\n<li>Grow lots of Streptocarpus to give away to friends<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Overwintering Streptocarpus<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>From around November most cape Primroses stop flowering.<\/li>\n<li>Keep on the dry side with just enough moisture to avoid wilting.<\/li>\n<li>Stop feeding and do not allow plants to stand in water or soggy soil that rots the roots<\/li>\n<li>Keep in a light, bright, frost free spot, a south-facing window sill is ideal.<\/li>\n<li>Crystal varieties may continue flowering.<\/li>\n<li>As the days lengthen brighter green leaves should appear from the centre of the plant and old damaged leaves can be removed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/streptocarpus-alba.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-357\" title=\"streptocarpus-alba\" src=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/streptocarpus-alba.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"402\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/streptocarpus-alba.jpg 955w, https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/streptocarpus-alba-300x241.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Cape Primrose known as Streptocarpus now come in a wide range of colours and bi-colours. I like &#8216;Roulette Cherry&#8217; a maroon with white center. Still my favourite is the pure white &#8216;Albatross&#8217; AGM with just a hint of yellow in the center. regular readers will know I tip a lot of AGM plants, the RHS award of garden merit, because if it is good enough for the RHS I have to make a real botch of it not to get a decent plant.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">A comparatively new range of seven &#8216;all year around&#8217; flowering Streptocarpus are sold by Dibleys nursery under the banner <strong>&#8216;Crystal Series&#8217;<\/strong>. The flowers are smaller but initially more numerous. I have been a bit frustrated by the sparse flowers from Autumn onward and don&#8217;t think they are worth growing in preference the main cultivars. Crystal Ice has an AGM and is white with a purple throat.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Update<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Dibleys continue to send me their Young Plant Catalogue with new varieties to tempt the windowsill or Cape Primrose grower.<\/p>\n<p>Thompson Morgan are a seed supplier of these flowering houseplants that some find fascinating.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Recent New Varieties<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Myfanwy, another girls name to adorn a flower. In this case a white with purple face.<br \/>\nHarriet, what is it about girls names, this is deep purple.<br \/>\nScarlett, as in O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Hara I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think so but it is blood red.<br \/>\nCappuccino isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t coffee coloured but deep mauve with indigo.<br \/>\nHarlequin Blue is half yellow, so go figure.<\/p>\n<p>Grow from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.awin1.com\/cread.php?awinmid=2283&amp;awinaffid=81944&amp;clickref=&amp;p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thompson-morgan.com\/plants1\/search.html?section=all&amp;search=streptocarpus\"> seeds at Thompson &amp; Morgan<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0954446828\/richardpettin-21\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.amazon.com\/images\/P\/0954446828.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg\" alt=\"Book Cover\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All you need for care and propagation of Streptocarpus The Cape Primrose<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[71],"class_list":["post-7049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-house-greenhouse-plants","tag-houseplant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7049\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}