At the plant show I also bought this beautiful little pink Cyclamen.
I never noticed the scent on cyclamens before (my mother used to have one) but it's wonderful. Deep, sharp, and somehow spicy like nutmeg. I love the patterns on the leaves. When I got it home I started plucking off a few dead leaves and foliage around the bottom edge of the pot, delighted to see lots of new buds and leaves unfurling in the center of the plant.
And dismayed to find that every dead stem I pulled out had grey fuzzy mold clinging to the end of it. I did some looking online and have a dread that this may be
Botrytis cinerea, a mold that can be particularly hard to get rid of, and there aren't any fungicides against it. Large nurseries tend to simply trash or burn the plants they find with this mold. I wish now I'd inspected the plant more carefully before buying it. Well, I'm determined to try and save it. I've plucked out all the withered stems and even cut out with a knife some plant material that was harboring the mold. Cyclamens like cool conditions so for now it's in my kitchen as a centerpiece. Later in the summer when most of the house is warm I plan to move it to my bathroom windowsill- the coldest room in the house. They also like humidity, so it might be difficult to dry the soil out enough to get rid of the mold, without killing the plant. Augh!
I also got two little African Violets, or Saintpaulia. One a lovely dusky pink color,
the other a traditional violet hue.
It's been a long time since I've had any african violets. I used to have a few when I was in highschool, and I delighted in growing new plants from leaf cuttings (rather like I do with crassula now). The funny thing is that the back of the plant tag here said:
Medium light. Keep moderately moist. Room temperature. For decoration only. Do not consume. This last in bold. Really? People buy these fuzzy-leaved flowers and consider eating them?! And then, also in bold:
Propagation prohibited. I felt a little outraged and amused at this. Who's going to stop me? why would they want to?
The Cyclamen is beautiful!!! I've thought of buying one too. Hope you can save it!! I have a violet in my office and it won't flower :( It just doesn't get enough light I think. My office is ALL artificial light from flourescent bulbs. I have an ivy, a dracaena, a zuzu plant and a violet…they all do well except the violet. I don't know how to get flowers from it again in there :( Maybe I can give it some food and get a brighter bulb for the lamp it's under…maybe even put a grow bulb in that lamp!
ReplyDeleteAll I remember about getting my violets to reflower was that I always pulled the flower stems completely out after the flowers had died. Then they would bloom again. And I fed them special African Violet food- the only houseplants of mine that got special food.
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