Sunday, August 9, 2009

Pretty pictures: Sinningia speciosa cvv.

I'm not a particularly huge fan of Sinningia, though in fairness to the genus I should point out that I've also never tried to grow one. They just seem like they'd be easily upset.



Part of this is my semi-recent bias against gesneriads, who have really not been co-operative since the move and were frequently not patient or forgiving before the move either.



The other part of it is that I've noticed that I don't know anybody who has one, or ever has had one, which makes me suspicious. I mean, maybe WCW has had one before and just neglected to tell me about it. But that seems unlikely.

They also always used to fall apart as soon as they arrived at work, too. Which was frustrating. Anyway. In conclusion, Sinningias suck. Probably.

But enough badmouthing of the plants. Let's speak of happier things, by which I mean Nina:


I've been trying to get a picture of this forever, but there's usually not been enough light to make it work. (My camera is sometimes extremely selective about what light levels it thinks it requires in order to get a picture.)

So but the above picture is Nina, looking daggers at me for interrupting her sleep, which lately has been taking place inside her Vriesea. She had previously been sleeping out in the semi-open, on one of the leaves. It took me a while to clue into this, and so there were a few episodes of panicked room-searching because I couldn't find her anywhere in the terrarium. Eventually, though, order was restored. She sleeps in there about six times a week. It's not the same leaf every time; if she has favorite leaves, I haven't been paying close enough attention to notice.

The real reason for bringing this to your attention is, of course, that it is THE MOST ADORABLE THING EVER!!!1!1!!!


10 comments:

Plowing Through Life (Martha) said...

This is the cutest thing! It looks like she loves the home you've made for her; such a lucky girl.

Tatyana@MySecretGarden said...

Can you give a common name for Sinningia, please? It looks good for me, lovely. The little creature looks good, too!

mr_subjunctive said...

The only common name I know of for Sinningia is gloxinia, which is their old botanical name. Davesgarden.com also lists "florist's gloxinia," "Brazilian gloxinia," and "violet slipper."

CelticRose said...

Nina is just adorable! That is the cutest picture!

Lol, it reminds me of when my cats would hide somewhere and I would be panicking and searching frantically for them. Then I would see them sitting somewhere in plain sight looking at me like they were wondering what I was searching for.

Karen715 said...

Nina is adorable. I agree with Water Roots; she looks like she loves her home.

I have one Sinningia these days. I used to have another, which I grew from seed. I had it in my basement, under lights. Apparently, I also had mice in my basement. I found out, the hard way, that mice will eat gesneriads. Apparently if you want to know what is toxic in your collection, get some hungry house mice. They ignored every other plant I had in my light set-up, but they devoured my Sinningia and my two Steptocarpus.

Anyway, they aren't all that difficult. The one I still have (it was upstairs at the time of the massacre) has survived considerable neglect. They do die back to their tubers, and can easily be restarted later.

Chris said...

Nina rocks!

Anonymous said...

I love Nina updates! She's so cute. I used to keep anoles as a kid, but I never gave them a nice terrarium with such an abundant choice of sleeping places. Maybe I'll get another one of these days...

Anonymous said...

Anoles definitely are the cutest when they sleep, and where they choose to do it.

Paul said...

Cute shot of Nina. Rather surprised that she is down in the leaf axil -- would have thought it would have been wetter there than she would desire. Ah well they choose what they like.

If I'm recalling correctly, glox's require cooler temps to be happy. Might have been the issue at the greenhouse. *shrug*

Diane said...

That is just too adorable for words.