Chirita Choices???

19 years ago

Hi, Folks:

I have my choice of three of the following Chiritas: Diane Marie, Blue Moon, Spadiciformis, Betty and Walkerea.

This is my first foray into Chiritas although I was given a Tamiana. If it were you, which would you pick? I like plants which spread out; not up. My Tamiana looks like this; I prefer the growth as pictured for Tamiana (Wisely).

I have gone to the Gessie reference web to look at photos. Couldn't find Walkerea or Blue Moon but the other three are very pretty.

I know Diane Marie is one of Jon's favorites.

Thanks so much,

Linda

Here is a link that might be useful: More Upright Tamiana

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Comments (23)

jon_d
19 years ago
Ooh, ears are burning again....

Yes, I like 'Diane Marie' very much. It has a wonderful leaf and then it flowers as an extra. The foliage has deep greens and natural silver patterns plus a very nice crinkle cut leaf edge, which it inherited from its green leafed parent C. fimbrisepala. The other parent is sinensis.

C. walkeri is a shrub type with deep purple flowers. It is totally different from the rosette types, and probably not what you want.

C spadiciformis is a species. I find it fairly easy to grow and it seems to flower easily. It has plain green leaves but I think I would make it my third choice.

C. 'Betty' is, as I understand it, a selfing of the popular old timer (it was very new about 10-15 years ago), 'Hisako'. But, it has much more silver in the leaves. I love it. I only saw it for the first time last July at the AGGS convention show, and I bought one. It would be my first choice, followed by 'Diane Marie' and followed by spadiciformis. C. 'Blue Moon' is a nice hybrid too, but it has plainer leaves that my first two choices and is a bigger grower than spadiciformis.

Jon

It would be interesting to hear some other opinions on these five.
komi
19 years ago
Well I only have a couple, and then only barely. I have Diane Marie and it's doing well. I also have sinensis Silver Leaf which is just dying slowly. (Actually, most of the plants I got from this vendor are doing not so well.) I just potted sinensis down into a more airy mix and it's still losing leaves. Now that I am down to two small leaves, I guess it's going under a dome.

I love the silver in the leaves, so my vote is for as much silver as you can get.
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Hi Toni-- No apology necessary! I know sometimes we have to do silly things like eat and sleep and take care of our families--and plants! Last time you asked some questions I forgot to answer--if I go back to check if I left something out I lose the message. Always feel like I lost some of my brain when I've written a bunch of stuff and it zooms off into outer space or wherever lonely messages go. One thing you asked was about raising houses. Lucy's house isn't a mansion or anything, but it's not a mobile home--kinda typical suburban ranch-style I guess, with some changes through the years. I happened to turn on the TV in the middle of a program I think was about the hurricane that pretty much wiped out Galveston (Texas) I think in 1912, and they were talking about raising houses there. Some were nice Victorian houses with I maybe three stories, and they were raising them using horses. Don't think they do it that way now, but I don't really know how they do it. Too expensive I think for a lot of people, but you can't get insurance without it now if you live in a low area, or maybe just have to get a very large deductible. Really hard for people, but the ones who can't afford to do it can't afford to move either. Life isn't easy when you're on those lower rungs of the ladder. Another thing you asked was about the orange cleaner-stuff I add to the water I use on my plants. On one of these forums probably six months or a year ago, somebody said he went to Home Depot and got a gallon jug of an orange cleaner-degreaser called Zep I think, and added a splash to a bucket of water and watered fire-ant hills with it. I tried it and it worked beautifully. Don't know whether it kills 'em or just chases 'em away, but I don't really care. They have their place in the 'web of life', I guess, but I'd rather not have them around here. You probably don't know about fire-ants, hm? Lucky you! They're little things, but they swarm all over you, and they have this clever ability to bite and sting at the same time. I have built up an immunity--from exposure--and don't get the nasty reaction I used to get, but they still don't feel good--the 'fire' in their name comes from how the bite feels. So anyway, I thought if it worked for that what else would it work for? Started using it various ways--in the mop bucket to chase away the various bugs we have in such generous supply ('cause it never gets cold enough to kill much of anything, including bugs!) Not the very best cleaner I've ever used, but not bad, and when I use it in a spray bottle on my plant stands not only does it clean them, the bugs died when they flew in even after I was through cleaning. Started adding just a little to the water, and I don't know what all it kills but I do know it killed the scale on a chirita species that I'd tried just about anything I could think of and couldn't get rid of it. Funny thing--that chirita was on a shelf with other chiritas and other plants and nothing else got it. It was a different kind of scale from anything I'd ever seen before and I didn't recognize it at first--almost lost the plant before I watered it with that. Okay--now for today! I think any time you have anything organic, for instance peat moss, as time goes by it begins to break down and becomes increasingly acid. The dolomite keeps it from getting so acid it damages the plants. I think the eggshells do about the same thing--but the real reason is my mother, who usually had a scientific explanation for what she did with her plants, said she didn't know what they did, but she always found the plants had attached their roots to any bits of eggshell they found. I have a good-growin' friend who goes to all sorts of trouble with her egg-shells--boils 'em and puts 'em in the blender so they're really fine--but I just drop shells from anything I'm cooking, or just my breakfast eggs, in an oatmeal box, and when there are quite a few and I need some I smash 'em up a bit and add a handful or three, 'til it looks right to me. Now that's scientific! Of course it lightens the mix some, which I always think is important. The mix I buy is very light and the postage isn't much--but I suppose it is fairly expensive, tho' it lasts very well, and sometimes I add it to something like the mix at the big box store to lighten that. I did some reading on the net about salvia so I could do a better job of answering you--but of course it would have taken hours or even days to do a good job! I think before I got here I thought there was only one kind of salvia, the bright red one that everybody uses for bedding--and which comes in many more colors now. But according to what I was reading there are something like 700 species of salvia, and they come in annual, biennial, perennial, and shrub or sub-shrub varieties. A lot of the ones I grow are tender perennials and make it through most winters here, but sometimes they don't. Sometimes I take cuttings so I'll still have 'em if we get a little chilly weather. Most years it doesn't get much below 30F here but occasionally it'll get a little colder, and the worst is when things get all spring-like and everything starts growing, and then we get quite likely the coldest weather of the 'winter'. (I think I may have said, I moved here from Nebraska, and I know what winter is, and I just can't bring myself to say 'winter' without the quotes for what we have here. The coldest weather we had in Nebraska was the January before we moved here, and we knew we were coming and were back and forth on the phone a lot. Bill would ask 'what's the temperature there today?' and they'd sound kind of bored, he said, and then say, oh, maybe 68 or so. For almost the entire month of January it never got up to zero for the 'high'! It did get to 35 below one winter, but that was only down and back up to regular cold again. That was practically a whole month. The pipes under the streets froze.) Just never gets really cold here. Fine with me! There are a lot of tropicals that have to come in--like the plumerias--and I take cuttings of some in case they don't make it. Have a new banana this year I'm kind of worried about, and I don't think I can take a piece off it. Good mulch and maybe I'll wrap the trunk or something, and I think it'll do--my other bananas are either hardy or come back from the roots (all three, if you count Musella! Read that back and it sounded like I had a plantation out there!) Boy, the people that label plants must take some kinda special training all right! 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stonesriver
Original Author
19 years ago
Thank you, Jon. See, you are read. That's how I knew you liked 'Diane Marie' :-)

I don't have to make an immediate decision so I'll eagerly await reading others' opinions. I was, however, leaning heavily toward 'Diane Marie,' 'Betty' and couldn't decide between spadiciformis and C. 'Blue Moon'.

Doing a Google search I found two photos of C. 'Blue Moon'. However, the foliage looks different. One has more rounded leaf ends; the other more pointed. Both are lovely. Which is a more accurate photo?

Linda

Here is a link that might be useful: C. 'Blue Moon'
komi
19 years ago
hey Linda, the left one is probably it. Both pics are from the same website, so the right hand one is just indexed wrong by Google. If you click on the right hand image, then click on the link for Blue Moon on the page, you will find that it takes you to the other (left) photo.
JohnnieB
19 years ago
'Diane Marie' is a very nice plant but tends to be a slow grower.

C. spadiciformis is one parent of 'Blue Moon' (C. sinensis 'Hisako' is the other parent). C. spadiciformis forms a very compact rosette that looks very much like an african violet until it blooms. One drawback is that it isn't terribly floriferous. 'Blue Moon' is a much larger plant (although it has never grown as large for me as I have seen it grown by others, possibly because they fertilize and water more regularly than I do). It has much larger flowers, more abundantly produced.

I haven't grown 'Betty' but I have seen it in flower shows. If you like silver, this is the plant for you!
stonesriver
Original Author
19 years ago
Thank you so much for the information. I am prone to admiring plants/foliage and if blooms happen that's a plus. Maybe that's why I'm so fond of Columnea and have nearly 30 varieties :-)
Linda
jon_d
19 years ago
30 varieties of columneas, now that is impressive. Just my kind of grower. Oh, I collect them and then I lose them and then I get them back again. I have no idea how many I currently have (less than 30 I am sure??) but I struggle with my columneas, though they are doing well currently. BTW: I got my 'Joy' back--I love saying that. It is the red flowered sibling of 'Early Bird'. One of these days I am going to do columnea hybridizing. I want more small growers.

Thanks John for the information on 'Blue Moon'. I get some of the hybrids confused and don't know which is which. I just know that I like all the chirita rosettes even when out of flower. I also like how easily they reproduce from leaves or parts of leaves. My experiment with 'Betty' (I think I mentioned it in a thread?) showed me that Nancy Maybloom was right--the top half of the leaf will root and send up a shoot faster than the bottom half that has the petiole.

I have learned on many occasions that AV's root best from younger leaves, but I found that those older ratty leaves from the outside of a chirita propagate just fine. I am growing spadiciformis again after losing it to neglect once or twice. It has flower buds so I wonder if it likes cooler West Coast conditions better than Washington DC conditions. Time will tell.

At the convention I got a plant of liboensis that came (I think) from Lyndon Lyons. I know nothing about it and am happily living in ignorance. But, I am curious to know what it is I have--??? It has nice dark green rounded leaves.

On another off topic--at our meeting on Sunday, I took in a Gloxinia lindenii. It had gone dormant when I stopped watering my upstairs light stand during a period when I wasn't able to take care of everything. I thought I might have lost it by drying it out at the wrong time, but, no, since my watering schedule returned to an irratic but adequate normal level it has sent up a plethora of shoots in a five inch pot. It is a great and easy foliage plant with its beautiful leaves. I gave away lots of shoots and pulled off about seven or eight coming out of the drain holes for a raffle item. Some new members asked about the flowers and I said it will bloom if well cared for but I rarely have gotten flowers. Putting the plant away after the meeting I noticed it has tiny buds coming from lots of the shoots. I love the way rhizomatous gessies come back from a drought.

Jon
stonesriver
Original Author
19 years ago
Well, Jon, come Spring I'll be putting columneas and trailers on my exchange list :-) I now have nearly 40 trailers, 20 episcias and I am *not* going to count the begonias but I think it's 22 ;-)

I switched from Stanrd AVs to trailers to make room for the columnea. How's that for rationalizing???

Linda
ooojen
19 years ago
Heeeheee, now I know the 2nd reason I have limited myself to just the houseplants forum lately. The first is time constraints, but the second is that I don't find myself tracking down nearly as many new to me "must-haves" over there! ('Silver Leaf'- Hmmmm.....)
I do have and love 'Betty' and 'Diane Marie' (the latter just bloomed for me a little while ago- the first time, after eons of growing it!) but you've already pretty much settled on those. Are you sure you can only have three?

Jon- I have to laugh; you have fewer than 30 Columneas? You're not even kidding yourself, are you? There are always at least twice as many as one thinks there are!
stonesriver
Original Author
19 years ago
"Are you sure you can only have three?"

Well, I cheated. It was a three-for-$9.99 offer for fairly large plants but I added a fourth :-)

My office (formerly our living room) is beginning to look more like a jungle than an office. All those cabinet tops were just *dying* for tabletop fixtures and plants!!!

Linda
jon_d
19 years ago
I find chiritas to be slow but steady and easy growers. I have had the rosulate types now for about ten years, though I grew sinensis off and on before that. I really like the way they grow, with their slow growing trunks and slow tendency to offset. I know--some will offset pretty fast, like 'Kazu' but since I tend to grow them multicrowned I don't mind this at all. And, too, some, will make trunks pretty fast but I like that too. I especially like the way they look as a collection of potted plants--as if I could grow them in a fashion where they were actually displayed nicely as houseplants, instead of crammed in trays on windowsills, under lights, or in the greenhouse. But, when grown on, each one develops its unique qualities, Since the hybridizing of chiritas is still in its infancy, I can only imagine what the future will portend.

I also enjoy seeing how different growers treat them. They can be grown as single crowns without stems, just like AV's or they can be grown au naturale with trunks and offsets.

I also really appreciate how easily they propagate from leaves! My next goal is to set seed on some and then grow the seedlings on.

Jon
stonesriver
Original Author
19 years ago
Hi, Jon:
What does "offset" mean? Do you mean the sinensis offset? I think these two are beautiful.

http://www.gesneriads.ca/chirit17.htm

Linda

Here is a link that might be useful: Is this one
ooojen
19 years ago
Dang, those are gorgeous! ...so 'Betty' is a selfing of sinensis 'Hisako'...that should mean I could take the latter off my mental wish list...but while 'Betty' is beautiful, it has so much silver that you lose those distinctive reticulations. A person should have one of each, I suppose. Next year---
So you got four, Linda? - cool! Which ones did you decide on?
stonesriver
Original Author
19 years ago
I decided on 'Diane Marie,' 'Blue Moon,' 'Spadiciformis,' and 'Betty.'

These are my windows which have allowed me to remove the begonias and episcias from stands and make more room for chiritas :-)

The stand is in our den; the South-facing windows are in my home office.

Hope this works. Thanks to Larry B and Elaine I signed on with PhotoBucket. If the photos are too small, let me know and I'll enlarge them.

Linda

Here is a link that might be useful: Why I can have Chiritas
jon_d
19 years ago
Hi, its now 9:30 PM and the houseguests and roommates have all gone to bed. Well, almost, my cousin David is putting the last of the food away (but he fell asleep in the living room while we were all having desert). I am stuffed........but yes, that is an offset on the chirita in the photo! An offset is a new side shoot that grows off the older stem, usually from the base.

I was showing our guest, Patrick the ornamental pumkins (white, celadon green, deep orange, multicolored; and, one turned out to be a turban squash, so he cooked it! We also had sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes and what seemed like a dozen other things. I do like the vegies. And, I also showed him the crop on the quince tree and so we picked a big basket of them, and he made quince compot too--very good, kind of like a homemade apple sauce. My old tree, planted by a previous owner, turns out to be an unusual variety called Chinese quince (pseudocydonia sinensis), which makes these huge fragrant bright yellow beautiful fruit--some were 7-8" long. I just love the botanical name of this tree--it just rolls off the tongue. Note: the three similar sibilant sounds all start with a different letter--p,c,&s.

Yes, Jen, next year you will need to get 'Hisako' (who is Nagahide's wife, while 'Kazu' (another must have chirita) is his son. His name is NOT pronounced like the fake leather product.) And, also Jen, you will definitely need a few other chiritas, but we can talk about that later......

Jon, one eyelid barely open.zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
larry_b
19 years ago
Hi Linda,

You have some really nice plant setups there. The pictures could be a little larger. It would definitely show some more detail. Anyway, I really like your shelves.

Larry
stonesriver
Original Author
19 years ago
Hi, Larry:
Thanks for the tip about photo size. Here's another link. It's to my WebShots album. It's free, too. I just signed on yesterday.

See what you and Elaine started???? :-)
Linda

Here is a link that might be useful: My WebShots Album
larry_b
19 years ago
Linda,

That is much better. Now I can see individual plants. You really have nice windows and your plants look so healthy. Looking at year violet shelves you have some pretty healthy looking plants there too.

Larry
ooojen
19 years ago
Linda- I agree- That window spot must have made you really happy; it surely looks nice! By the look of things, you still have room for several more plants before you have to start stacking pots ;) It sounds like you made some good choices, and I hope you really enjoy your Chiritas!

Jon- I'm glad you had a nice Thanksgiving! Ours was nice too. MIL didn't say a single negative thing about the house, and all was quite pleasant. I don't want to hijack the thread, but sometime I'd like to hear input on what you think of Chrita 'Gemella'. It's so cute in the pictures I've seen-- almost like a Pet.
rusty_blackhaw
19 years ago
Chirita 'Chastity' has been a good performer here, flowering continuously for the past several months under lights.
JaggedRainbows
18 years ago
I have just purchased Aiko, Betty and Silver Surfer and have found pics of Aiko and Silver Surfer but no pics of the flower of the Betty... can anyone help?

Amanda
jon_d
18 years ago
I haven't seen 'Betty' in flower, though I have been growing it for almost a year. It is a selfing of the hybrid, C. 'Hisako' so should have a nearly identical flower. 'Hisako' is a hybrid of two forms of the same species--S. sinensis, so the flowers on 'Betty' would be like any sinensis, more or less. Although this species is known to have highly variable foliage, it is not known (to my knowledge anyway) of having variability in its flowers. They are purple, and on nice tall stems. I have seen 'Hisako' in flower and it can be a breathtaking sight. However, it may be that 'Betty' is shy to flower, since it is so heavy marked with silver. There is another clone of sinensis, known as 'Silver' or 'Silver Leaf' that is known to be a shy bloomer. Check out the photo of 'Betty' on the Gesneriad Reference Web--it is an excellent picture of an outstanding plant.

Jon

Here is a link that might be useful: link to Gesneriad Reference Web
JaggedRainbows
18 years ago
Thank You! I will check that out! :)

Chirita Choices???

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