Purchased at a Puget Sound Gesneriad Society plant sale held at Sky nursery probably ten years ago, this plant is a late starter that really impresses when it reaches its peak. The leaves are richly quilted and deeply colored, while the flowers are graceful, pastel goblets with lovely details in the throats.
With my lazy label habits, I lost the tag for this plant almost the same day I bought it. I always thought it was a Chirita, but I found S. eumorpha online and that seems an exact match.
The plant grows from tubers and I haven’t done well by it, but it has managed to grow well every year until 2020. This year, no leaves were showing as of a month ago. When repotting all the other plants, I turned this treasure out of its pot and found most of the tuber had rotted over winter, but there was one solid bit. I potted that up and moved it to a top-shelf spot in the greenhouse and finally, just today, I noticed it leafing out.
What a beautiful plant, right?
My 2020 plans for this plant are to nurture the surviving division to get it to bloom and also take a leaf cutting or two to see if I can expand my collection a bit with some insurance plants.
