Another Micro Sinningia Seedling..

A new blossom opened her face among the seedlings of my muscicola x Li'l Georgie cross. Cute, but nothing special.

Pretty neat all the same, because every time one of my own cross seedlings blooms, it's magical. I just look at it in awe like, "I hybridized that. I made a plant!"
Yep. But I still think I can do better. :)

Stripey Micro Sinningia Blooms Again!

My little cross is blooming again, ain't she cuuuute? Couple of the flowers threw 6 petals this time, which is especially neat looking, but I've learned that just happens sometimes. They're also kinda faded, I was away for a few weeks so I didn't get to snap a pic of them "fresh".
I really should get to propagating it to see if the stripes will be on future generations.. Then if it stays awesome, I could name and register it! *dreeeaaammm*

Star Eyes x Self BLOOMS

And boooooriiiing, they look just like Star Eyes so far haha!
Better luck on other non-self crosses I've got in the works.
Hey,  at least I'm trying.

Haha lookit my foot down there, ewpz.

Star Eyes x Self Update...

Lookit all those buds coming! They might all end up just looking like Star Eyes but... Who knows? Maybe something cool will happen.... 

Yeah I know I said I needed to separate all the plantlets, but I didn't get around to it! 

Pregnancy!!

OMG YAY! No not ME! My micro Sinnies!

Remember like a week & 1/2 ago I made my micro sinnies have sex with each other?

By golly I think it worked--Check out the seed pods forming!

It would seem as tho L'il Georgie is a VERY pregnant little guy with SIX pods forming!
All selfed. Dirty bird.

Star Eyes just has one on her too!
I really hope it makes it, this is the cross I was really wanting to make the most (father is L'il Georgie)

I'll keep ya posted on the progress!

Micro Sinningia PORN

So I got a wild streak today and decided to take 2 perfectly blooming micro sinningias and make them have sex with each other. Well I didn't *make them*. That would be wrong. I just assisted. They never said "no", so nobody needs to call a hotline or anything.

I took pics and a video for all you sick plant porn fetishists out there. Also for those folks out there who are legitimately wondering how it all works with micro sinnies.

Please forgive the complete CRAP quality of the vid, it was the first time I tried doing a plant-related video on my phone. I prolly won't do that again. It shoots HD, but not that close-up apparently. Bew on that. Oh well, ya get what ya get. I took some pics too, to make up for it.

So first we have our "father" plant, Lil' Georgie.

Who's ya daddy!?

How do we know he's the father? Nope, don't bother calling Maury. First, Lil Georgie sounds like a boy's name. Second, he's donating the pollen. Third, he also selfed himself--as most guys are want to do, amIright? Heh heh... But really, Lil' Georgie is going to be both a father and a mother because I crossed him with not only himself, but with Star Eyes also. He's a multi-tasker!

Next we have our "mother" plant, Star Eyes.

Woah, mama!

She's pretty, look at those cool little notches on her petals!

All joking aside, my real goal here is that I want to get Lil' Georgie's floriferous trait, combined with Star Eyes' cool little notched petal trait, on one hopefully very awesome plant.

I mean seriously, look at all those flowers on daddy! And that's after months of neglect.

OK I'll shut up now and you can just watch the dirty movie. (And it is kinda dirty, I have really grimy nails from repotting, and brown leather dye on my wrist from working on rehabbing a vintage leather Coach bag earlier! Oh,  such an exciting life I live..)

Since that video SUCKS, I also took some pics:

Slitting the flower up the center...

Slit and spread open!

Petals folded up, and pollen sacs out!

HOT PLANT SEX!! And boom goes the dynamite.

Ovary BEFORE swelling

THE GOAL: Swollen ovary (ouch?) AKA seed pod!

SO ANYHOOZLEZ, that's all for today. Hope you enjoyed and that you still respect me (and the plants).

Mystery Micro Sinningia

Click to biggerize

Found this blooming in my Wood Nymph container today, but it's not Wood Nymph!
I can't find anything like it online, a micro sinningia with six petals?

Either it's a fluke (hope not!), or my Wood Nymph selfed itself and made a new hybrid. That would be so cool! So I have to take extra special care of it and see what happens... Cross your fingers!

African Violet PORN

Noted African violet hybridizer Bob Kyzynski shows how to make a quick cross using B-Man's Etna and his own hybrid Jersey Snow Flakes while David Tooker and Joe Palagonia get in the way "assist".

Teh Hawt Plant Secks!

Lenny and I just crossed  Sinningia 'Gabriel's Horn' x Sinningia pusilla! Now we're gonna put on a Barry White record and hope they make some babies.
What I'm really hoping is that they'll make some interesting/colorful micros since the mommy is a vibrant two-tone double, and pusilla (a micro) is the daddy!

Video - Separating Babies From Leaves

Remember that video I made back in February about how to start African violets from leaves? Well, those leaves made babies! Now I will show you how to separate them:



And yes--that biggest, healthiest Rob's Antique Rose baby was mailed out this afternoon to #1 Fuzzy Foliage Blog Stalker Reader Dawn!

Micro Sinningias March 2011

So, I came home from a few weeks at Lenny's and was both delighted and also disappointed when I looked at my micro sinningias. Mostly delighted, read on...

First, I was delighted because Sinningia muscicola (formerly named "Rio Das Padres") had not one, but THREE ripe seed pods which I picked off and put aside for a post I'll do later about sowing seeds. Oh and in addition to those 3 that were all ripe and ready, there are another 3 that are fresh, fat, and green that look like they'll be ready within a coupla weeks. Does this thing ever have a flower that doesn't self-pollinate? I'm starting to think not.

Then second, I was disappointed with what used to be my beautiful little glass globe full of Sinningia pusilla. What the heck happened?? This is how it looks after I plucked off all the rotting leaves. There was also some weird algea stuff growing on the surface of the potting mix, which I tried to scrape off as best I could. But in the end I was left with these straggly, bleached/pink mottled leaves, what a sad sight!

 What is going on here? The foliage used to be so lush and green!

But third, back to delighted because speaking of pusilla, check out how big those babies that I separated have become!

Serious growth! Remember how tiny they were not so long ago?

Lastly, I was even more delighted when I saw my 'Wood Nymph' bursting with blooms! Three of them I had to pick off because they were turning brown, but I was left with these five which isn't bad at all! Two are a bit distorted in shape because they were kinda stuck under foliage and I had to work them out with tweezers. Is that common? Also, there's a seed pod! I haven't had a seed pod on 'Wood Nymph' yet, so YAY! (Yeah I know there's also 2 non-seed pod spent stem thingies that I need to remove, I just didn't get to 'em yet haha)

Oooh, flowery!

So that's what's happening with my "weeds"! Hope I can get that sad thing of pusilla happy again so that it'll be complete delight around here--If you have any tips, lemme know!

Sinningia muscicola Seed Pod

Ooooh, my Sinningia muscicola (formerly called "Rio das Padres") seems to have impregnated itself--Check out that big seed pod forming!

How romantic, just in time for Valentine's Day <3

Video - Starting African Violets From Leaves

I made a video showing how I put down African violet leaves to propagate new baby plants.
This is especially for the beginners out there, because I wanna get more people interested in this awesome hobby!

As always, I welcome your comments and questions.