And don't forget the Gesneriad Society annual convention in Seattle in early July. Some of us will be there.. Dell ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dennis Kramb" <dkramb@badbear.com> To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Friday, March 9, 2012 2:42:16 PM Subject: [pbs] Gesneriaceae The latest BX includes some donations from me, of the family Gesneriaceae. I started growing gesneriads in 2010. I haven't seen many offered in the PBS BX but I joined The Gesneriad Society to obtain seeds from their seed bank. Many of the species are geophytes. Lately I am growing more & more Primulina, Petrocosmea, and Aeschynanthus species... which are non-geophytic members from Asia. But next week I'm getting some new Sinningia species(& cultivars) to add to my collection (South American geophytes). I am trying my hand at hybridizing too... attempting to cross things like Achimenes, Smithiantha, Niphaea, Diastema, and Gloxinella with each other. So far the only cross that produced viable seeds was Diastema & Gloxinella. I'm growing about 100 seedlings now. I won't know if the cross was authentic until they bloom later this year. One of the great things about gesneriads is how fast they can bloom from seed... many species literally within months. And many of them are prolific reproducers vegetatively with underground & aerial rhizomes. This is the time of year that Gesneriad socieities everywhere are having BIG shows & sales. Those are GREAT places for finding new plants for your collection. I know there's a show near Orlando this weekend, and Chicago next weekend, and Toronto later this month. Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati all have shows coming up soon too. If you're even just slightly interested in gesneriads, I hope you can find & attend a local show & sale. Dennis in Cincinnati (trying to spread my gezzie addiction to others) PS: I left my Sinningia tubiflora outdoors over the winter. I'll find out soon if it survived or not. It's supposed to be one of the cold-hardiest species of them all. _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/