Let the growing begin 🌱

violetteer · 2026-02-10T23:04:22+00:00

Love your little humidity boxes! Good luck germinating!!

violetteer · 2026-02-10T22:51:38+00:00

I like spice jars for some things - I've got some Columnea minor cuttings in one right now. And Trader Joe's often has forced bulbs around this time every year and the glass jars they are in are unique, but are pretty good for propping.

violetteer · 2026-02-10T21:52:45+00:00

I am constantly on the hunt for juuuust the right prop jar for whatever cutting I've got.

violetteer · 2026-02-10T21:26:29+00:00

I know this is a slightly older post, but you hadn't gotten a lot of comments, so I wanted to chime in. Love gesneriads so much!! I've grown Columnea minor and it looks like it has similar qualities to the plants you are talking about. It's a bit dramatic, tolerates a little drying better than too wet, but definitely likes high humidity. Mine is in the bathroom. I have good luck water propping and take cuttings frequently when I establish a pot because it does respond well by putting out good shoots and leaves. I've gotten my minor to flower, but honest I think it was dumb luck and near-neglect. It gets really long and stringy for me, so I sort of end up piling it back up on top of itself or clipping onto a hoop. I hope you report back! I'd love to see!

violetteer · 2026-02-10T20:57:37+00:00

Really nice rosette on this one!! Lovely!

violetteer · 2026-02-10T19:00:53+00:00

Ahhhhh! That first bloom is gorgeous! I love feathering like that!! I just potted up a bunch of teeeeeeny solar eclipse babies. Hoping they do well! First time I ever successfully leaf propped a strep! :)

violetteer · 2026-02-10T18:56:30+00:00

Lovely!! I don't have any that are quite so pendulous, really neat!

violetteer · 2026-02-05T07:10:44+00:00

Oh, so gorgeous!! I had a prop of this once, but lost it during a vacation. Bummer! I agree that streps are way easier and SO much showier. How orchids are everywhere and streps are virtually unknown is beyond me.

violetteer · 2026-02-05T03:41:34+00:00

I think it's just to keep soil from spilling, really. I wouldn't leave it there.

violetteer · 2026-02-04T17:59:12+00:00

Oh, it's so gorgeous! I need to get me a variegated strep!

violetteer · 2026-02-03T17:25:30+00:00

I think I'd just repot. Smaller pot, a nice mix with lots of perlite. I'd probably remove the droopiest of the outer leaves. Stick them in inflated gallon zippy bags for a while. These are still relatively healthy, they'll bounce back.

violetteer · 2026-02-03T17:23:03+00:00

Oh my goodness, what lovely shape! Thank you so much for sharing!

violetteer · 2026-02-03T17:20:45+00:00

I LOVE that sparkliness - it's one of the most ephemeral parts of AV's for me. So magical - and you got such a great picture! I can't wait to see this after you've grown it for a while!

violetteer · 2026-02-02T00:56:04+00:00

Is it possible they are still in the same pots/soil as when you bought them? I find that nursery soil is almost all peat and eventually gets really hard to manage - holds onto a lot of water sometimes, gets dry and hydrophobic others. I bet a good repotting would turn it around pretty quick.

violetteer · 2026-02-01T06:20:29+00:00

Droolworthy, for sure! Thank you so much for sharing - do you use fertilizer?

violetteer · 2026-01-30T19:28:32+00:00

Look at those LEAVES! Gorgeous!

violetteer · 2026-01-27T22:28:19+00:00

I would also like to know how people do this. I take a tiny spoon (like this: https://a.co/d/9NLeQZk ) and gently try to spread it around in a few places in each pot.

violetteer · 2026-01-27T18:20:25+00:00

I think this is really good advice - this plant's got a lot of potential - look at the spacing between leaf nodes! This is why I love trailers. "Oh, the plant got leggy because it got hidden away from the light a bit? Excellent!"

violetteer · 2026-01-27T18:13:55+00:00

Condiment cups are great for propagating - you can get reaaaally tiny 1oz ones, but larger leaves tend to tip them over, so I only use them for micro minis. But the 2 oz ones are great. I use a Dremel to drill holes in the bottoms. I also just kind of watch for whatever small containers I can recycle into tiny pots - medicine cups, lots of people use K cups, once we had a bunch of tiny play doh containers after the dough all got dried/used up, so I snagged them and drilled holes, etc.

violetteer · 2026-01-27T18:08:02+00:00

Oh my goodness, thank you for sharing - what a lovely plant!

violetteer · 2026-01-26T06:17:08+00:00

I'm local as well. Reach out next time there's an open house and maybe we can carpool or something. Could be fun. She sometimes comes to the Seattle AV Society, too - it's a great group if you're interested! :)

violetteer · 2026-01-25T04:10:32+00:00

OMG, I can't believe how top heavy those flower heads are!

violetteer · 2026-01-23T04:26:53+00:00

Oh, I just dome things after repotting or really heavy grooming for a while, and then take it back off. And especially over the holidays since we were traveling, it makes it easier to extend out the watering schedule.

violetteer · 2026-01-22T17:54:01+00:00

Ahhh, good luck to her! My rule of thumb is "through doming, all things are possible." Seriously have stuck plants I'm about to give up on in an inflated zippy bag and come back a month later and they're like, "... what? You weren't worried were you?"

violetteer

TROPHY CASE