Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Can't shake the flowers off!

Sinningia 'Stone's Yulia' grown by Gary's Specialty Plants
Story # 64,


      Can’t shake the flowers off!


      It’s always a challenge to time the flowering of your entry into a flower show.  The frustration is when you get it in prime condition and then the flowers fall off during the packing and transport to the show    

     So here’s the plant for you.  In my very scientific experiment I’ve determined that you can not shake the flowers off of Sinningia ‘Stone's Yulia’.


      It traveled to the Mid-Atlantic Gesneriad show (1 hour), to Longwood Gardens (1 hour) and to the Delaware AVS meeting (1 hour) and home again (6 hours of bouncing) without losing a flower.

 
      The first flower to open has finally gone past after 15 days, but it has not fallen off. 






6 comments:

  1. Glad to read about Stone's Yulia from the commercial point of view.
    I have a question, curious to know which part of the Sinningia is usually taken for tissue culture ? Thanks in anticipation.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for your question. This is the answer that I have from my tissue culture source:
      The best explants for Sinningia tissue culture are shoot tips taken from new growth emerging
      from the tuber after dormancy. I have also used shoot tips from flowering plants but these
      take longer to revert to a juvenile-like state in culture and thus longer to go into production.

      Gary

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  2. Many thanks for the answer. In fact I have 2nd question. :)
    Just would like to know how long does it usually take to turn a shoot tip (tissue culture stage) into a flowered Sinningia (from baby starter plant to bloom size) ? Maybe take Sinningia 'Prudence Risley' for example.
    I know the tissue culture of orchids, but not sure if it's similar to Sinningia.
    Sorry if I disturb too much.

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  3. Thank you for your question. Sinningia ‘Prudence Risley’ grows very fast from tissue culture. Right now we are doing about 300/month.
    I get unrooted tissue culture shoots that are about ¼” tall that are placed in a plug media in a miniature domed greenhouse. It is put under fluorescence lights for 14 hours per day. They root in 3 to 4 weeks. Then they are potted into the final 3 ½” or 4” pot, where they flower in 8 to 10 weeks.
    So they go from unrooted tips to flowering in about 3 months--------- this is very fast-----which makes it a viable commercial crop.

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  4. Gary, greetings from far away Australia. Do you happen to know the parentage of Stone's Yulia? I know I have seen it somewhere but can't remember. Memory isn't what it was!

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  5. Hi Ruth,
    Hope that you are well.
    From what I can find, it is a cross of a miniature Sinningia X S. tubiflora.

    Because the miniature Sinningia is unknown and a hybrid, the offspring are variable. Because 'Stone's Yulia' appears to be a good one and is a short plant, this line of crosses could be repeated. Pick any miniature Sinningia and cross it with tubiflora. There may be some very good hybrids in there.

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