Will Sinningia 'Magic Moment' make the cut?

Sinningia 'Magic Moment' hybridized and grown by Ben Paternoster

Story # 18,

            Will Sinningia ‘Magic Moment’ make the cut?

            When I looked at the pictures from the Long Island Gesneriad show I saw some new Sinningias that I had not seen before.  Sinningia ‘Magic Moment’ looked very interesting with three flowering shoots with multiple rosy flowers.

            It was grown and shown by Ben Paternoster, the hybridizer.  When I contacted Ben, he told me that his hybrid is a cross of S. conspicua and S. amambayensis and was registered in 2004.   Ben offered me a plant to try and I have it here to evaluate for possible commercial production.

            The parent, S. amambayensis, had flowered easily last Fall when my friend, Mary Schaeffer, had given me a plant.  I had 10 flowers open at one time.  The leaves are sticky so I don’t know if that will be an issue with the hybrid.  Sticky leaves don’t matter unless you are trying to get dirt off the leaf.  Petunias are sticky and it hasn’t stopped them from being a top-selling annual.

            The plant shown of Sinningia ‘Magic Moment’ is somewhat tall growing from the tuber so we will need to see if young plants will, on first flowering, be shorter.

            This will be a continuing story…….