It ain't bragging if ...

'Mini' Plants with Custom  Blue Tags

For years, my tag line was:

            “Nobody does what I do with plants.  They could, but they don’t!”

It always seemed like bragging, but six years of developing the ‘Mini’ plants program has proven it true.

"It ain’t bragging, if you can do it."

My ‘Mini’ plants for Miniature Gardens and your Windowsill have substance---they are full pots of unique varieties that indoor gardeners want.  Serious collectors recognize my custom blue tags when seen at one of my 30 retail outlets.

A Specialist beats a Generalists every time.

      Gary K. Hunter, Grower

   Gary’s Specialty Plants

‘Mini’ Plants for Miniature Gardens and your Windowsill !

          1610 Fern Glen Drive         

            Drumore PA 17518

   (717) 951-4507 – Cell (Voice Mail)

Gary@GarysSpecialtyPlants.com (Best way)

http://GarysSpecialtyPlants.blogspot.com/  --- Blog

A Modern Day Codonanthe 'Gina'

Codonanthe gracilis 'Joinville'

            Forty years ago, I made a cross between Codonanthe carnosa (small white flowers) and Codonanthe gracilis (bigger white flowers).  I only got a few seeds but the resulting hybrid was a trailing plant with bronze narrow pointy leaves.

            At least that is what I think happened. 

            I took my hybrid, Codonanthe ‘Gina’ ---- named for my second greenhouse employee, to the National Gesneriad Convention in Silver Springs, MD.  Hans Wiehler took notice immediately and told me I had the first known Codonanthe hybrid.

            Over the years, the finer points have been lost.  Codonanthe ‘Gina’ has been lost to cultivation.  The pictures I had cannot be found.  The original parents are uncertain due to name changes.  Codonanthe ‘Gina’ can not be duplicated.

            However, something better may be possible.  If we cross C. carnosa ‘Libby’ with C. gracilis ‘Joinville’, we should get a large white flower on interesting foliage.

            An improved ‘Gina’ cross will deserve a new name.  If successful, it will be exciting to see ---- Same concept, different parents.

Codonanthe gracilis 'Joinville' (top) and Codonanthe carnosa 'Libby' (bottom)

Codonanthe carnosa 'Libby, Part II

Codonanthe carnosa 'Libby'

          From the wisdom of the crowd, I'll start with the conclusion from Ron:

     "It's just as Gary suspected, this large-flowered Codonanthe appears to be the "original" C. carnosa distributed by Hans Wiehler many years ago.

Good to see it in production, and hopefully widely distributed. Thanks to Gary!"

          If you hate details, you can stop reading .  If you are always looking for historical clues read further:

Mauro, Brazilian Seed Fund comments:

     "Alain is the best one to “give the verdict” and he will correct me  if I’m wrong, but it seems that the name confusion came from long ago when Wiehler described C. digna and C. paula that are in fact Codonanthe devosiana.
Codonanthe carnosa has the biggest flower among the four species with small leaves from Southeast Atlantic forest: (devosiana, serrulata, gibbosa and carnosa) and Gary’s plant fits on C. carnosa flower size.

Probably some plants labeled as C. carnosa are in fact C. devosiana…"


Alain answers:

     "I fully agree with Mauro, the material posted as Codoannthe "Libby" matches exactly the clone I got from Hans Wiehler in the early 980's, it pertains doubtless to C. carnosa."


Then Mauro says:


     "Yes, to me, it is a standard sized C. carnosa flower. It “should” have at least twice of the size of C. devosiana ‘Paula’ since the later has one of the smallest flower from all clones of C. devosiana that I’ve seen.
The attached picture is C. carnosa  (not fully open) that I grow from seeds of the Seed Fund since 1995, it looks to be the same as Gary’s plant. The ones that I collected don´t have the red on the back of the leaves."


          And so it goes----The clone I have designated as 'Libby' is the species carnosa which somehow got to Libby years ago.  It has red on the back of the leaves which is different from those collected in Brazil by Mauro.