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Success With Streptocarpella

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Published: February 3, 2011

Many gardeners overwinter plants from their outdoor gardens with the hope of using them outdoors again the following summer. Most of us have boxes of bulbs and tubers tucked away in cool, dark spots for the winter, pots of bulbs kept dormant, as well as several parent plants we attempt to keep alive on windowsills so that we can take slips from them in late winter to procure plants for our outdoor gardens. If we are successful in keeping these stock plants alive during the winter and encouraging some new growth out of them towards spring so that we can take some slips, we are quite happy. What a great added bonus it is to have a plant that is being overwintered to not only stay alive, but put forth a beautiful display of bloom during the winter months for our enjoyment during this long, cold season.

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Last fall my container of streptocarpella, after blooming profusely in my shade garden on our north-facing deck all summer, had become quite leggy and the long stems had started to hang down from the container and it generally needed a good refurbishing. In early September, before frost occurred, I sheared the plants back, leaving stems about six cm tall. I refreshed the soil by replacing the top centimetre or two and I sprinkled some soil insecticidal powder on the soil before cleaning up the container and bringing it into the sunroom. I put the container in an east window.

By early November the plants had put forth bushy new growth and before long buds formed. The container has had a nice showing of blooms since then and I think it will continue to bloom until early March when I will cut the plant back again in order to obtain slips to start new plants for my outdoor garden. By late May the original container again will have recovered from being cut back and will be in bloom, as will the slips that I will plant up in pots – about 10 to an eight-inch pot – after having rooted them in damp perlite.

Streptocarpella is a wonderful shade plant – it can take winter sun when indoors – and is a relative of the African violet and the streptocarpus which is obvious by its similar leaf texture. Like its relatives, water spilled on the leaves will leave marks so care must be taken when the plants are watered. It responds well to a weak solution of soluble 20-20-20 fertilizer. Also like its relatives, it is very happy in a winter light garden.

In the outdoor garden I use pots of streptocarpella – I prefer not to combine them with other plants in containers but I have seen them used effectively in mixed containers grown in the shade. I set pots of streptocarpella on shelves along the house wall on the north deck and they perform beautifully all summer. What a treat to be able to enjoy the beautiful delicate blue flowers not only in the summer garden but in the winter garden as well. Not all overwintered plants reward us so generously! – Albert Parsons writes from

Minnedosa, Manitoba

About the author

Albert Parsons

Freelance Writer

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