Petrocosmeas with Fragrance

I've posted about this before, but wanted to remind those of you who are growing P. minor or P. sericea, or P. sp. 'HT-2' to sniff the flowers when they bloom for you. This year, in the GS Convention show, Paul Kroll entered a flowering P. minor. This was an unusual entry since P. minor rarely blooms at this time of year. I used this opportunity one morning in the showroom to conduct an informal survey with those who were viewing the show.

I asked ten people to sniff the flowers of the P. minor. Seven of the ten people could detect the fragrance. It was mid-afternoon, and for me, the flowers are most fragrant very early in the morning, but still the fragrance was there. Of those who could smell the fragrance, I asked them to describe it. All said "spicy", four also detected a floral scent along with the spice.... two said it reminded them of carnations. Three people could not detect the scent at all. I find that for many of the gesneriads that have fragrant flowers, there are always a good percentage of people who cannot detect fragrance. Covering or enclosing the blooming Petrocosmea will also help to concentrate the fragrance. I also feel that some clones are more fragrant than others. The veined leaf form of P. minor, the one often labeled P. sp. #5 is the most fragrant.

So, just a reminder to take the opportunity to enjoy yet one more incredible trait of these fabulous gesneriads!! SO take the time to "stop and smell the ....Pets!"

Petrocosmea minor Kinship group

This year, I entered my first Petrocosmea Kinship Collection in the Gesneriad Society Convention show. A Kinship group is an effective way to showcase a parent and its offspring. Dominant characteristics can easily be illustrated with this type of entry, as well as utilizing the entry to introduce new hybrids.

I chose to showcase Petrocosmea minor and four of its hybrid offspring since P. minor has been quite the challenge to hybridize with. It has never performed successfully for me as a seed parent, and has only functioned as a pollen parent in three crosses so far. I must have pollinated a hundred flowers, actually likely more than that. Last year, I think I applied pollen to every P. minor flower that opened, all failures. The crosses that have worked have been P. minor crossed onto P. forresttii, P. sericea, and P. rosettifolia. The cross with P. sericea, which like P. minor has fragrant flowers, also produced fragrant offspring.

Pictured above is my Petrocosmea minor Kinship Collection. Starting with P. minor at the top, and moving clockwise, there is P. 'Paul Kroll', an unnamed seedling of P. rosettifolia x minor, P. 'Keystone's Blue Jay', and P. 'Keystone's Slippery Rock'. I used tan fabric as a unifying drape for the collection since I like the brown tones against the green Pets....

Pictured above is a new hybrid P. 'Keystone's Slippery Rock' which is P. forresttii x minor. This cultivar had lots of flowers and inherited a nice compact rosette from P. forresttii and the shiny round leaves of P. minor. It was my favorite seedling from the cross. Slippery Rock is a city about an hours drive north of my home in Pittsburgh, in western Pennsylvania. The glossiness of the leaves reminded me of a slippery quality, so the name was to honor a great university town in PA.

Pictured above is P. 'Paul Kroll' a sibling from the P. forresttii x minor cross that produced P. 'Keystone's Slippery Rock'. This plant has flatter leaves with more prominent veining, a dark green round leaf with a bluish coloration and a nice combination of glossiness and hairness to the leaves. It was the most floriferous plant from the cross, producing LOTS of flowers. You've heard me mention my friend Paul on here before. Paul is a skilled grower of Pets and has shared lots of new Petrocosmeas with me over the years, so I wanted to honor him with this new hybrid.

The Kinship group got lots of positive comments and received a first place ribbon from the judges. I had lots of requests for leaves of the new hybrids, so I hope they will be enjoyed by other admirers of Pets soon.

Petrocosmeas Go To Convention!!!

Well, the annual international convention of the Gesneriad Society is but a fond memory now, but what a great time we had! Philadelphia was the site for this years convention and the fast-paced week was full of fun, friends, and of course gesneriads! While I do love the plants, I always leave convention reaffirming that the chance to spend a week among friends who also love gesneriads is the best part, and this year was no exception. On the Petrocosmea front, Pets got their fair share of attention. I was overjoyed to see some of my own hybrids being grown and shown by others....a "high" that every hybridizer enjoys.

Petrocosmea 'Keystone's Bantam' won big this year and was selected 'Best Petrocosmea'. The plant was grown and shown by Richard and Nancy Carr of Ohio. An interesting story about this entry was that the classification committee almost didn't let Richard and Nancy show the plant as 'Keystone's Bantam', insisting that it was actually P. rosettifolia. I was asked to come over and help to sort out the confusion, which we did. The Classification Committee were simply unfamiliar with the characteristics of the hybrid, and honestly thought they were helping the exhibitor to correct some mislabeling. The distinction, when out of bloom, is that 'Keystone's Bantam' is significantly smaller in leaf and rosette size and a bit hairier than the species P. rosettifolia. A P. rosettifolia with that much leaf volume to the rosette would have been three times the size of the little plant that the Carr's were attempting to enter. The confusion was quickly cleared and the plant was entered. It did well in the judging too! I was as proud as the Carrs were, I think!

P. 'Keystone's Bantam' also showed up in the Photography classes, and performed well there too! Dale Martens did a very skilled job of photographing her little plant early one morning just as the sun was rising and casting a golden glow upon the little plant. She captured this in the photo and the judges recognized her skill by awarding her a First Place in the class and 'Best Photograph' for the Division. Dale, a dear friend of mine and my hybridizing mentor, kindly gave me the photograph after the show! I was touched by her generosity and the photo now hangs in a prominent place in my living room.

Mary Lou Robbins won a second place award for her needlework interpretation of a photograph from this blog, taken of my hybrid seedling P. forrestii x sericea. Mary Lou wrote some time ago asking for permission to use the photo in a craft entry, and this is the result. I loved it! She even used longer tufts of thread over the calyx lobes to mimic the hairiness of this hybrid. It was a First Place effort in my book Mary Lou!!!

Another friend, Paul Kroll, executed a wonderful design using a Petrocosmea sericea as a focal point in his design. The theme was Punxy Phil, the legendary ground hog from Punxsatauney, PA, who emerges each February 2nd to predict the arrival of spring according to whether or not he sees his shadow. This design required that hairy and fuzzy gesneriads had to be incorporated into the design. I loved this one! The pieces of slate at the base were intended to suggest Phil's shadow.

This photo, taken on the last evening of convention shows some of my dear friends and mentors in my gesneriad adventures. From the top left are Dr. Bill Price, Mary Lou Robbins, Ben Paternoster, myself. Middle row L to R are: Paul Kroll and Arleen Dewell. Front row L to R are: the legendary and beautiful Rosemary Platz, namesake of my first Petrocosmea hybrid, Karyn Cichocki, Dale Martens, and Jill Fischer. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner on our last evening together. Each of these people has taught me something about gesneriads over the years that I have known them. In all things in life, having mentors and friends is most important to success. I have been most fortunate to have lots of both. I wish the same for each of you.........

New Pets From the Netherlands - Foederer Hybrids

I just love this photo.... it is a photo shared with me by Jeff Foederer of P. sericea growing and blooming outdoors in Jeff's garden in the Netherlands. I've had the pleasure of corresponding with Jeff a few times and am currently growing one of his beautiful xBrigandra hybrids 'Ivory Falcon'. Jeff also produces some spectacular Petrocosmea hybrids, which I thought I'd tell you about.

Jeff was the first person to register Petrocosmea hybrids with the Gesneriad Society when he registered P. 'Lexi' back in 2006, followed by P. 'Milan' in 2007. Recently I received a photo in an email from Dale Martens, asking me to take a look at Jeff's most recent hybrid P. 'Helena' (pictured below). Just take a look at the flower count on that one!!!!! Magnificent!!

Jeff's hybrid, P. 'Helena' is a cross between P. menglienensis and P. nervosa. I can see the nervosa parent in the foliage and the menglienensis parent in the flowers. What a beautiful plant. 'Helena' was registered in 2010.

P. 'Milan' (begoniifolia x nervosa) is another beautiful plant. The flowers seem to dance like butterflies above the foliage. P. 'Milan' was named for Jeff's grandson, I believe.

Jeff's hybrid P. 'Lexi' (barbata x flaccida) is a small grower, looking much like P. barbata in habit, but then the lovely blue flowers emerge and it is clearly not P. barbata. I'm happy to say that I've grown this one for a couple of years now and really enjoy it. It too was named for one of Jeff's grandsons. This represented the first use of P. barbata in hybridizing.

Ornamental Value - Judging Petrocosmea Out of Bloom

WARNING: I'm going to offer an opinion in this post that you may find objectionable.... reader discretion is advised.

Please take a look at the photo below and notice two things.... First, notice the number of entries. This is the "Grown for Foliage" class for Petrocosmea at the 2009 Gesneriad Society Annual Convention Show in Silver Springs, MD. The intent of this class is to provide a place to enter those nonflowering gesneriads that possess significant ornamental value for the parts of the plant other than the flowers, such as foliage, stems, calyces, etc. There were around 30 entries in this class. It was subdivided into about five or six smaller classes due to the large number of entries. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, take an objective look at the entries on the table and ask yourself if there is anything particularly ornamental about them. Granted you cannot see them well due to the distance of the photograph from the individual entries, but is that anything about them that makes you say "wow" what a striking plant?

As a keen admirer of Petrocosmea, when I first viewed this section of the show, I said, "wow" but that was due to the number of entries. However, once I got past that, as I looked at them, I had to ask, "why are all of these entered into the foliage class of the show?" Now, remember, those plants entered out-of-bloom for judging are intended to possess some particularly ornamental quality about the foliage or the plant habit that is ornamental. At this point in the argument, people usually challenge me by saying that "Petrocosmea has an ornamental growth habit to the foliage". Granted, many of the Pet species do have a pleasing foliage habit. That flat, symmetrical, spiraled pattern to the foliage rosette is attractive, and has some ornamental value. Notice I said "some". But, many Pet species do not have this...kerrii, barbata, nervosa, often flaccida and parryorum are not particularly pleasing as they want to grow. But, others like forrestii and minor just "do that"...they generally, without any intervention from the grow, just naturally form and near-perfect rosette. But what else is there to make them ornamental...and by this I mean ornamental ENOUGH to rise to the level of a first class show specimen? I say, not much else is there in most cases. The fact is, in my opinion, in most cases the average Pet, when out of bloom is just a plain green plant. Consider other plants that do this...Sempervivum, Aeonium, Haworthia, many Primula, Bromeliads, and even many Saintpaulia hybrids do this....but do we see them on show tables entered when they are out of bloom? Usually, No if the leaves are plain green with no other coloring, variegation, etc. Why don't we see these other plants entered when out of bloom? Because they are not showy enough to win awards if they are not in flower.
Consider this blue ribbon and Best In Class winner above...P. forresttii. Other than the form of the rosette, is there anything particularly ornamental about this plant? It won these high awards based on the ornamental value of the foliage in large part..... Should it have? Do any of us believe that the grower here likely had to exert any great effort to get the plant to achieve this shape and symmetry? Probably not....P. forrestii just grows that way without any intervention.
Another first place winner above...P. barbata. Anything striking about the foliage on this one? It is a lovely little P. barbata...... but is it ornamental enough to get such a high score?

So then, why are these plants getting such high awards and why are we seeing so many of them entered for Ornamental value in shows? My thoughts are that we are still getting over the "new and rare" effect that we so often feel and see when new species and hybrids are introduced. Most Pet species in cultivation in the USA and Canada right now have only arrived within the last decade or so. Prior to that we grew P. parryorum, P. flaccida, P. nervosa and P. kerrii. P. formosa came along around 1998. Then in the years following that we had P. forrestii, P. minor, sericea, rosettifolia, etc, etc. So for many growers we're still infatuated with the "new-ness" of these plants. Yes, they are charming, and interesting ,and new, and rare, but are they strongly "ornamental" when not in bloom and when you exclude those factors? No... in most cases it's a plain green leaf...sometimes with a bit of silvery hairiness, or a curled leaf margin, or a bit of yellow central veining as in some of the rosettifolia clones, but do they rise to the level of Episcia 'Cleopatra' or Pearcea hypocyrtiflora, Gasteranthus atratus, or Smithiantha cinnabarina? THOSE are the plants the ornamental foliage classes were intended to accommodate in shows... plants that you can spot from across the room due to the striking foliage.

Lets consider, though, that I am being a bit harsh, and lets accept the argument that it is the foliar rosette, and that flat, perfectly symmetrical form and habit to the growth pattern that IS the ornamental quality which makes a Petrocosmea ornamental when out of bloom. Okay, lets explore that. Granted, the public often approaches a Petrocosmea in a showroom and says "WOW, look at that!... Look at how perfect it is!" I've spent a great deal of time standing near the Petrocosmea section in a showroom with the sole purpose of observing and studying the public's reaction to my favorite genus. I've seen and heard this reaction many times. So, in fairness, yes, there is something quite ornamental about the form or habit of the plant itself. If we are then to accept and make room for this , then certainly one should expect near perfection in this regard for the blue ribbon Pet entries. But we're not seeing that. Think back to the last few shows you've attended or photos you've seen of award winning Pets that were out of bloom.... were those plants on the table the best of the best with regard to form, symmetry, even pleasing shape and habit? Were they mature plants in all cases? To rise to the level of a show specimen, they should exhibit evidence of maturity, careful and consistent care, shaping, training and grooming. Given the ease with which most Pets naturally shape-up as they mature, judges should be requiring a first place winner to be perfection in most every regard. The form of the rosette should be a perfect circle without gaps in the leaf pattern.

Take a look at this first place winner above... P. menglienensis. It appears to be little more than a starter plant, with a rosette that is weak and open, and asymmetrical. There are gaps and it certainly is not a perfect circle. Leaves are really pretty much plain green leaves. Why a blue ribbon? Giving such a plant a blue ribbon does not do the exhibitor or the public any favors. There is often the argument to "be kind" in judging and just reward the effort to bring it in for the show. Huh? Awarding such entries high awards misrepresents that standard and potential for the plant, as well as misrepresenting the basis of the whole judging process. That does no one a favor. Better to take such an opportunity to educate the exhibitor and the public. That is the duty of the judges in such a situation...education. This is a healthy, young plant, with great potential to become a large, attractive flowering plant which will demonstrate the true potential of this beautiful species. But, P. menglienensis is a plant that most likely will always perform best as a show specimen when in bloom..... it possesses nothing particularly ornamental when out of bloom, whether large or small.

So, there it is. The opinion of someone who has spent a lot of time over the past few years learning about, and growing to love the genus Petrocosmea. I grow them, I bloom them, I hybridize them, and yes, I even fail with them. I also judge them as a master judge for the Gesneriad Society and I DO exhibit them.... Almost without exception, I enter them as either a "New Species" when that is the case, or as "New Hybrids". Perhaps I'll enter them as a collection to show the variation within the genus. They certainly are excellent plants for educational exhibits because we are learning so much about them everyday.. BUT, I am very hesitant to enter them when out of bloom for ornamental value. I simply feel as a judge, exhibitor, hybridizer, and most importantly, as their greatest admirer, even at their best, they lack significant ornamental value if they are not blooming. My purpose in this post is to begin to spark thought and consideration on the part of exhibitors and judges about the current manner with which we treat these entries in shows. I feel that the standard for awarding non-flowering Petrocosmea entries should be re-evaluated. It is kinder and fairer of the judges to educate than to give awards that lack substance. Now, I'm going to go and water my Petrocosmeas......

Stolons, Zippers and Buttons

Most of what we know about cultivating Petrocosmea is still pretty new information. Many, or rather most, of the species we are growing now only arrived on our plant stands and show tables within the last decade. As we are growing them more, and our time spent with these plants is increasing, we're seeing for the first time in many cases, just what sort of peculiarities these wonderful Pets are capable of. Zippers, buttons and stolons are just three of the manifestations my Pets have produced in the last few years. Since these may be new to growers, exhibitors and judges of Petrocosmea, I thought I would discuss them in a short post.

Buttons ~~~

The photo above is Dale Martens' photo of a "button" that appeared on her plant of my hybrid 'Keystone's Bantam'. There was a recently lengthy discussion on this phenomenon on Gesneriphiles, when a plant exhibited with such a button was marked down in judging . The judges, who were all expert and seasoned judged, had not encountered this anomaly before. One of them contacted me to ask if Pets "normally" did this. I've seen several plants of P. rosettifolia do this during the winter when I was resting them by keeping them drier than usual and cool. 'Keystone's Bantam' does this often, and since it is hybrid of P. rosettifolia, I suspect it inherited this trait from it's rosettifolia parent. I have also seen this once on P. forresttii.

In all cases, the plant produced a new whorl of leaves from the center of the "button" and the plant regained full and attractive symmetry within the rosette with the next cycle of growth.

Above is my photo of 'Keystone's Bantam' at it's first flowering. You can see the center button in the photo. The button appears to be a dense tuft of golden yellow hairs and does not represent poor culture or a rotted or diseased center. It appears to be a normal, although not that common feature of these plants. It is my opinion as a grower and judge that it should not be faulted or penalized in judging unless in the opinion of the judges, it detracts from the overall ornamental value of the plant. But, that's just my opinion...and opinions are like noses....everybody has one.

Zippers ~~~

The next phenomenon in Petrocosmea growth patterns is what I call zippering or zippers. A healthy plant, usually with a few years of age, suddenly starts to produce a center growth point within the crown of the rosette, that begins elongate into a linear growth point. The normally circular rosette can often become more oval in shape, and if grown on, the plant often splits into two or three crowns. Eventually these will totally split or separate producing two or three new crowns. I see this occur often in P. forrestii, and it's hybrids, as well as the rosettifolias and their hybrids. I have seen it occur once in P. minor also. In all cases the plants were three years old or more when this happened. See the photo below of P. forresttii at five years of age, with a zippered crown, which eventually became three separate crowns. The plant flowered very heavily during this period. It appears to me to be more a factor of age that a cultural flaw.

P. forrestii with a zippered crown.

Look closely at the plant in the center of the row on the left above....the one with the yellow ribbon. This photo shows a group of P. 'Short'nin' Bread' entries at a convention show a couple of years ago. The third place winner was a plant with a zippered crown..... it beat out some other specimens with more typical round crowns. This judges, in this case, did not penalize this plant for the zippered crown..... which again, they should not do unless it detracts from the ornamental value of the entry. Good judging in this case...as it demonstrates a panel of judges who were familiar with the habits of these plants. (P. 'Short'nin' Bread' is a P. forrestii hybrid...so it likely got this trait from its forrestii parentage.)

Stolons ~~~

Stolons are yet another trait of healthy Petrocosmeas which we are seeing from time to time. I've seen it on several species and hybrids....so it appears to be possible on just about any Petrocosmea. I have not identified what might be triggering it other than the plant deciding that it wants to make some stolons.... I find it a "cute" phenomenon on most Pets.

Congratulations to B. J. Ohme of Perfect Petals for his first place winning entry of P. 'Short'nin' Bread' at the recent AVSA convention in Cherry Hill, NJ. Wisely, the judges recognized the additional ornamental interest that the stolons provided to this entry and gave B.J. his blue ribbon. P. 'Short'nin' Bread' is a plant that, in my opinion, is most ornamental when shown in bloom. But traits such as stolons can add ornamental interest. (Photo courtesy of Dale Martens..... "thanks, Dale!!!!!" )

So, there they are, the quirks that our Pets are capable of conjuring up to keep us fascinated and infatuated with them. These may be just the beginning of the wonders we will unlock as we enter into a new era of hybridizing with this genus.

Lost and Found - A Tiny Surprise

One of the first lessons I learned as a budding gesneriad grower was that the first thing one should do when acquiring a prize new gesneriad is SHARE IT! At the very least, propagate it and then share it. Why? Often, events in our lives can get in the way of the care of our gesneriads, or they simply may not like the care we have to offer them, and they die. But, fear not, if we've followed the first rule of growing gesneriads, and we've shared our prize plant, we often can get it back from the friend with whom we've shared it. That has happened to me more times than I care to remember, and recently I was reminded of how true that rule can be.

The story begins a couple of years ago when I wanted to test whether the "miniature" gene that has shown up in my hybrid 'Keystone's Bantam' would be passed along to its offspring. So, I crossed P. forresttii with pollen from 'Keystone's Bantam'. I used forresttii because it was the smallest of all the species I had grown at that time. A seedpod did indeed result, and sure enough, as those zillions of tiny seedlings began to mature, it was evident that something unusual was going on. They were all not only mini's but microminiatures.... the leaves remained the size of a sesame seed on all of them! I thought that was "too miniature" and that they were stunted. So, I repotted them... and began to fertilize them. They were all healthy, but just very tiny. After about a year and a half, I decided they were rejects and tossed them all out. But, I gave a couple of them to a friend who is known for growing spectacular, prize winning Petrocosmeas. I had forgotten all about them until recently when I was visiting that friend. We were making a Sunday morning sweep of the plant room when I happened to notice among the Pets, a tiny little plant. I picked it up and saw the label.... There it was, my tiny little Petrocosmea hybrid...still tiny! See the picture below, with the little plant beside a quarter for comparison. ...........

The plant was growing in a one inch pot, but appeared healthy and thriving....and under two inches in diameter. It is now almost three years old and it remains very small, with lots of tiny leaves in a neat little rosette. So far, it has never bloomed.

My tiny little hybrid Petrocosmea, sitting beside a standard P. sericea. Each of those little squares on the grid is 1 cm x 1 cm. This little guy proves the value of sharing plants AND the value of not being too hasty to make judgements about new hybrids that show new and unusual traits.

The genetics that are showing up within the genus Petrocosmea, as I am getting to grow out more and more crosses are amazing me! Who'd have ever guessed that mini Pets would have shown up so early in this adventure? The variation in flower coloration and extra petal lobes, ruffles, etc is also a wonder to see. I counted around fifty seedlings this morning in the Pet Cave that are yet to flower for the first time...and these from five different new crosses. My excitement with these seedlings in continually renewed.

A happy ending.........I'm delighted to say that my friend shared a dozen or so little leaves from the plant, and they are already forming tiny little babies in my prop box. Now, if I can just grow them on ....and see if they remain minis. I also still have a good supply of the seeds from that original cross in the freezer, so I'll be planting them again this winter. Lesson learned....again?!