I saw gorgeous Nematanthus Ubatuba in a back yard in Tampa area - this is a large leaf and generally large plant. Most of Nematanthus do have orange or pale orange flowers. There are some exotic red, white and greenish with dots blooming species - but they are harder to grow and not available in a general nursery sale. Nematanthus comes from South America - I bet it is not dry in Brazil ;-)), but my understanding - it is an understory plant - it grows under the trees and on the trees as epiphyte - so dappled light would be good. Aeschynanthus (lipstick plant) takes the same niche - but in tropical Asia - so requirements are similar. Aeschynathus flowers of the available in nurseries varieties are mostly red, one really easy and quite wide spread species A. longicaulis (marmoratus) has interesting green flowers and gorgeous marble backed leaves. Some time ago a Florida member of this forum posted a pic of a large and well grown specimen of this plant - and it was growing in a back yard. Very desirable A.hybrid is called "Black Pagoda". Regarding conventions - the local gesneriad and AV clubs usually run their shows once a year mostly in the same place. The larger conventions are done in different towns every year - because most of the work is done by the hosting club - and they take turns. You check gesneriadsociety.org and avsa.org on "events" - so you will know who runs what in your vicinity. I would say you are in luck if you have a club nearby you can join - this is usually a source of knowledge, cuttings and nice people to associate with. (Just do not use the words "lipstick" and "goldfish" - if you are dealing with gesneriad crowd - they like to use botanical names - even sometimes not very many people know how to pronounce it right - for me - the biggest issue is Kohleria warszewiczii - I grow this beautiful plant - but i cannot "voice" it.) Cheers Irina Here is a link that might be useful: hybrids and species of Nematanthus

Hi Gang, Thanks for the nice words. Well, the Hydro growing H. kerrii varieg. seems quite slow. I only bought it last Sept. & don't really see new growth yet. However, can you see it's rather lopsided? Because of that, it has to be on the edge of something like in the photo. Well, where you see it is on the edge of some furniture (& in front of a window), btwn my bedroom & the kitchen. I come around this corner a lot & fast & I bumped it accidentally & the whole thing went flying. Wet leca stones everywhere, they're round so they roll, right? Can you guess that the branch that broke was the vine w/ 3 peduncles that hadn't yet set bud? Arggggggggg. I tried to save that vine but it was leafless so of course, it didn't make it. I don't know how old this is but am guessing it's quite old, Âcause these are such slow growers. The particular Hydro supplier I used & who came to speak at my Indoor Gardening Society last fall was: www.creativehydroponics.com Creative Hydroponics 379 Amwell Rd Hillsborough, NJ 08844 Hope it's OK to list this here, I have no financial interest in them, just bought their plant. But 'cause this is so interesting & I had more Leca stones, I've started two other small Hoyas in Hydro. Helps that I have tiny lattice type pots, so I've set the lattice pots in a larger cup w/ Leca stones on the bottom & keep an inch of water in the bottom. I don't have meters for them but water every couple of days & they're doing well. I'll try to get pix maybe in a few days, but it's some H. nummularioides & H. bella. Numm does OK for me in mix, but I've lost several Bellas over the years including a beautiful variegate which is hard to find. Bellas can be very water fussy, they want more than normal moisture, but not too wet -- quite a difficult balance IÂve found. Don't know if some of you remember, but some of us have grown H. kerrii varieg before w/ a lot of trouble. Not only very slow, but often aborts its new leaves, or grows them into the side of a heavy clay pot which will abort them. This Kerri varieg I've noticed has leaves quite close together & then long stretches of bare stem, doesn't really present good spots to cut it. I'd thought I'd try to cut a few pieces make it less lopsided, but doesn't seem so doable right now. Maybe IÂll try that again later in Spring.

Ebb Tide looks lovely but not even close to the dark purple mine had. I also have Blue Mist and love its foliage. My Mrs. Woods Lavender Pink Noisette is unfortunately gone; Noisettes just don't do well for me, but its flowers at their best are truly lovely. Burgundy Iceberg is a real workhorse for me, and I wouldn't be without it. My favorite "flower" of all is Juliet, your darling little dog. I want to hug and kiss her! Ingrid

They say it was raining so hard it created some kind of insulation for us. It was the worst lightening storm I'd ever seen and pouring incredibly hard. Honestly, we felt nothing! Just heard the huge BOOM and then noticed that the car was dead and all the lights on the dash were flashing. Pulled over to the side before we lost momentum and hoped no one behind us would hit us, it was raining so hard. Silly drivers didn't even slow down, not even when tow truck driver arrived!