A plant she sent me back in the spring DID bring in rust. I have sprayed it half to death and so far it hasn't spread to any other plants around the garden. It has actually put up another fan. While at the National, I visited her garden. It was set up very nicely and there were some very nice seedlings and futures, perhaps some of these ( haven't had a chance to compare pictures to the intros). The one thing that really bothered me was that one ( in particular) of her expensive new introductions had an absolutely gorgerous bloom. I was all set to buy it, but as I looked, every single plant - and there must have been 30 or more of this cultivar - was blooming down in the foliage. This is a very bad trait ( IMHO) that she will hopefully breed out. I know most hybridizers try to breed this out very quickly. But I just could not bring myself to pay the big bucks for a plant that bloomed down in the foliage. Perhaps in another climate, it would bloom differently than in Florida. I know often Florida plants grow at different heights here than they have been registered in Fl. I only saw a few of her plants blooming low, but henceforth, I will probably wait to see future intros of hers growing in gardens around here before buying more.

Good points. And yes, I've had things sport before and ignored it or tossed it out. Most of the time it isn't an improvement. This one however I think /may/ be a keeper. It is currently on it's second generation with variegation so we'll see. But every one of these might drop the fantasy, or the white edging, or have some other fault that ruins it. So it's very hit and miss and requires a lot of patience. In this case Rose, there is no 'patent' filed on the original hybrid that I'm aware of an in any event would not apply to a new sport anyway if it is notably different. Patenting a hybrid is /very/ costly so only the biggest commercial producers can afford to even consider doing so. On the other hand, as Irina mentioned, it takes time and mutiple generations to see how stable the mutation is and whether it is stable enough to hold. So I wait and reproduce it for a few generations to see and at the same time work to obtain many more copies of it. They will in turn either be sold later or thrown out into the compost heap according to their merit.

There's a ton of information about growing these if you do a Google search. There are also VERY helpful Facebook groups where people like Dale Martins (and others) will gladly help as well. I learned a ton from them myself. Streps tend to like very bright light (but not full sun), cool as mentioned (in the 65 to 80 degree range being ieal) but NOT wet. Make sure the crowns are planted high so new leaves emerging do not contact the soil, and let the soil dry out a bit between watering. Adding a lot of perlite or other fast draining media to open up and add lots of air pockets to your potting mix is a good idea, especially if you wick water as I do (self watering). Easy to start from leaf cuttings that are still fresh and not too old.

Quoting seagrass: This makes me laugh. We are retired and with the exception of funerals we dress very casually. I would rather donate the money it would cost us to dress for this event seagrass I really appreciate your attitude and am inspired by your true understanding of giving. why do y'all supposed these events are so formal and pricey? Plus, after a while it seems like a circuit. Same familiar faces at hospital ball, univ ball, cancer society ball, yada yada. It's high society networking which has limited bearing on people being helped, no? it reminds me of a time we were asked to buy a "gold" table at some benefit. My acquaintance tried to persuade me by suggesting that she would buy a gold table at an event by my charity of choice if I bought a gold table for this event. I declined, thinking this was a zero-sum exercise. it seems bossy is not social, ha