Greenhouse Checklist for September

The chirita (cheer-EE-ta) is a very succulent relative of the gloxinia. Chiritas are easy to grow from seeds, and their light green, fuzzy foliage and blue flowers will make quite an attraction for the warm, humid window garden or greenhouse.

Anthurium crystallinum has striking heart shaped, veined leaves that highlight any collection. Buy a plant now and grow it in a warm, humid place. This plant thrives under fluorescent lights, but makes a good window sill or glasshouse plant, too.

There are many different oxalis that produce showy foliage and flowers. Buy a collection of winter flowering species and pot immediately. Sandy loam and plenty of sunshine please oxalis. Be sure to buy the upright, Oxalis Ortgiesii.

If you have not already done so, repot all African violets to prepare them for their coming season of bloom.

The rechsteineria (REX-stine-area) is related to gloxinias and African violets, and it makes a showy plant for window garden or greenhouse. It needs sunlight, warmth and humidity. Pot in a soil mixture made of equal parts leaf mold, loam, compost and sand. Sometimes the tubers are sold as Gesneria cardinalis. Flowers are neon red, oddly shaped, and come in profusion.

Kalanchoe tomentosa blooms during the holidays and makes a beautiful plant. Buy some started plants from your local greenhouse and grow them.

Bachelor’s buttons should be in every greenhouse. New varieties of Centauria cyanus come in the standard dark blue, and deep pink, red and white. Sow now for midwinter bloom and grow cool.

Episcias (flame violets) often look raggedy by September. Cut them back to four or five inches from the soil. Healthy looking stolons may be stuck in a terrarium in moist peat moss and sand, or in a glass of water. They will root and provide good plants for potting later in the fall. Episcias are ultra-tropicals; they “freeze” at 55 degrees. The plants that have been cut back will soon send up new growth and make attractive, compact plants.

Pot up anemone and ranunculus tubers in light, porous soil. Store under your greenhouse bench until growth starts, and then bring up into sun. Grow at a 50 degree night temperature. They bloom in January and February.

The blue lace flower, didiscus, makes a fine cutting subject; sow seeds now for blooms in February, March.

A sowing of annual chrysanthemum seeds now will give bloom all through spring, into July.

by E McDonald

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