| @copyright Brad Walker, November 28, 2010 |
| Hello to everyone visting my site, my name is Brad and I really like to grow plants. I grow wildflowers, bedding plants and my current hobby gesneriads, 90% in the family Sinningia. I do grow several other species in the gesneriad family including streptocarpus, steptocarpella, diastema, vanhouttea, saintpaulia , achimenes, seemania, niphea, phinea, kohleria, smithiantha, chirita and a few other misc. species. It is now December18 and I am putting together another greenhouse (9' x 13') to move my plants into, the one I built this spring has to come down. When they come to cut some of my trees I am going to put up a 10' x 15' greenhouse, that way I can leave some of plants in the one I am working on now and have plenty of space for spring. |
| Bradsgarden is my website of the plants that I grow at my house in Smithville, TN. |
| Above - (901 x 'Ugly Girl') has nice white blooms with burgundy lines. |
| Above 3 photos - 712 {(eumorpha x iarae) x [eumorpha x (leucotricha x reitzii)]} this one opened July 31, 2010 and I was shocked at how pink and intense the colors came through. It has the look of the [eumorpha x (leucotricha x reitzii)] parent, but the iarae cross intensified the color in the throat. If it holds up well I may name this one. |
| Above - Mauro Peixoto's cross of S. eumorpha x sp. 'Florianopolis' |
| Above - 'Seminole' x 'Anthony Wayne' |
| Above - Kohleria hirsuta |
| Above - S. 'Beulah Mae' |
| Above and below - (S. 'Iris Walker' x 'Cherry Delight') S. 'Cherry Delight' is Richard Holder's full calyx double. Plant is holding up well as of November 28, 2010, have 3 cuttings with roots showing so hope it will be easily reproduced. I have decided to name it Sinningia 'Rebecca Margarita' after a friend of mine. |
| Left and right - (S. 'Iris Walker' x 'Cherry Delight') a single sibling of the above cross, only 4 seedling, so far 1 double and 1 single. This is a nice compact little plant with large blossoms, 2" long and 1" wide, nice medium orange with dark spot at center of throat and white throat. I have decided to name this one Sinningia 'Toney Dale'. I have a couple of cuttings growing and am hoping to make more soon. |
| Above, right, below - Columnea sp. - this was given to me by Molly at the plant in 2009, she had used a branch in a flower arrangement and thought I might like to have it after the show. It almost died twice and broke into several pieces, this spring I put it in a 4 inch basket and hung it in the roof of the greenhouse. It grew slowly but surely and about 2 months ago I saw the blooms forming, it has been blooming for about 2 weeks as of November 28, and as it is higher than my head in the greenhouse an amazing display. I have a golden christmas cactus hanging near it, but it is by far the prettier of the two. |
| Left and below - Nematanthus sp. - Goldfish plant bought this at Johnson's greenhouse in Cookeville, TN in a large 10" pot, full of blooms in early April 2010. It has bloomed all summer except for a couple of weeks during the end of July and early August when it was the hottest. It is still blooming as of Nov. 28, maybe 15 or 20 blooms. I have another plant I bought also orange but it is an upright and doesn't bloom as well as this plant. I have recently purchased nematanthus brasiliensis, but it hasn't done well for me as of yet. I really like these plants, easy to grow with lots of blooms and who doesn't want goldfish in their gardens. |
| Streptocarpus ('Bristol's Very Best' x 'Midnight Flame') BO-07-06 - ordered from GHS in Jan. 2009, only seedling to survive. Really nice deep red, these are the first blooms, very prolific. |
| Above - Christmas cactus 'Golden Charm' - I bought this plant at Mary's Greenhouse about 10 years ago, but had forgotten what color it actually was. It has set blooms for years and as soon as it comes inside they fall off. It really likes the greenhouse and has been blooming since around thanksgiving, the first couple of blooms weren't as nice as the pictures above. It is in a 4 inch pot sunk in a 10" basket with an easter cactus on the other side, so I get blooms in the spring and the winter. |
| Above - Moussonia elegans an interesting plant with a bright seed for this one from Mauro and it took a year to bloom. I bought this set of seeds and some others to try interbreeding the rhizomatous plants, smithiantha, achimenes, gloxinella, gloxiniopsis, diastema, niphaea and phinaea. Of course it takes time to get blooming plants from seed, so hopefully next year (2011) I can get started. |