I ordered a mixed packet of Sinningia seeds last year for the office and planted them on the potting mix in my clear cup bottom/clear cup top greenhouse. The minute seedlings appeared pretty quickly and then grew pretty quickly over the summer. I ended up with three seedlings.

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The leaves of these plants are handsome on their own, but the flowers are the amazing, shocking production they bring.

One of the seedlings was a bit precocious and decided to bloom in October. Then, all three went dormant. As a kid, I was always fascinated by these plants. They were called Gloxinias. Their bulbs were sold in some mail-order catalogs. So, I was aware that they would form bulbs, go dormant, and then sprout again.

In the last month, they have leafed out again. In order to get them a bit bushier, I have pinched the main stems back. I am waiting to see if both of the dormant buds that I’ve exposed get activated. I also used the clipping as a cutting, so we’ll see if I can get those to root.

2020 plans for these plants are to grow them into adult plants with big heads of flowers, as shown in catalogs and online.

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At my new office at TeamChild, I was anxious to watch things grow in my window. I put an apple pip in a pot in the summer of 2018 and then watered it and within a very short time, I had a cute little apple tree. The tree is now about 7 inches high and looks like it is getting ready to leaf out for spring 2020.

Originally, this seedling was in a clay pot, but I moved it to plastic last fall and it seems happier.

My 2020 plans for this plant are to continue growing it at the office and then maybe move it gradually outside at home and grow it on as a bonsai start.

I purchased this little palm in early 2018 when I was at a different office and had no window. I was setting up a terrarium. The pot of palms arrived (2.5″ pot) with three little palm seedlings. Two of them passed on to the compost pile in the sky, but the third one has done well for me. It never made it into a terrarium, but I’ve kept it as an office plant and potted it on a few times.

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As of this writing in February 2020, the palm is about twice as tall as it was in this photograph. It just chugs along, adding palm leaves one after the other and getting taller.

This plant is potted in a general organic potting mix and I water it about twice a week. I feed it with an organic fertilizer spike in the spring and diluted orchid food may find it incidentally a few times a year.

I don’t have much planned for this plant in 2020 other than to let it grow and hope that it gets some new stems from the roots and maybe a flower spike one day.

I purchased this plant in 2018 under an old name, Primulina, but it seems to be Chirita now, so I’m listing it that way here. I ordered my plant off of eBay and have grown it in my TeamChild office from the beginning. The plant was in bloom when it landed as a little start. It has grown well and bloomed well ever since.

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My favorite things about this plant are that it seems easy to please, it blooms prolifically through the warmer months, and I love the way the flowers develop in an alien-looking bud that then splits up to have multiple flowers on long stems.

This plant grows easily from leaf cuttings so I have a few clones of it, as well. Strangely, one of the flowers also was pollinated and set seeds, so I sprinkled the seeds on some soil in a solo cup with a clear solo cup on top. I never thought this would go anywhere, but within a few weeks, I could see tiny seedlings–lots of them. I moved about 15 of them to a solo cup of their own and they are now growing on slowly–they are at about the two-leaf stage now. If all goes well, I expect to have 20 Chirita tamiana plants to share.

For the care of this plant, I give it bright indirect light. It seems happiest going a bit dry between waterings. It is potted in a general organic potting soil. I feed it orchid food and organic fertilizer spikes in the growing season.

Another January 2017 Violet Barn purchase, this is one of my favorite gesneriads! That’s saying a lot since this is probably my favorite plant family. This plant is unusual in that the leaves are very thin and less succulent than most gesneriads. The start I received three years ago was pretty small but once it got settled with the right light (bright indirect) and the right water (self-watering pots to keep it moist work well), it has done very well for me.

Here is a gallery of photos over the years of this plant.

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What I love about this plant is the foliage, which can be stunning when healthy and abundant. I also love the flowers and the plant’s generous display of those. This plant bloomed from about March of 2019 until December 2019, when I decided to cut it back and take cuttings of the clippings. As I type this in February 2020, it has buds showing color again! And the cuttings, which may or may not be rooted at this point, have also been blooming!

The challenges with this plant are that it gets a little lanky and rough mid-to-late season, with the leaves looking sickly and old flower and leaf stems hanging on in shades of brown and tan. I feed it with orchid food and organic fertilizer spikes, and that seems to suit it.

Propagation is also a challenge with this one, as the leaves seem too tender for leaf cuttings to be successful. If the cuttings I took from the pruning I did eventually grow, I think I’ll end up with four plants.

My goals for this plant in 2020 are to grow it well so the pots look great. For the cuttings, I will pot them up and grow them on and give them to family, friends, and coworkers.

This is a newer plant–and one of the fun things about online ordering is that you can look up what you ordered and when. I ordered this on January 10, 2017, so I have had this plant for just over three years. I originally bought if for my Lung Association office in South Lake Union, then moved it with me to the Lung Association office in Georgetown, and finally moved it to my new office at TeamChild, where it has settled in very well and bloomed almost nonstop (as have I!).

There is a lot to like about this clone. The leaves are tiny and perfect, as are the rosettes of leaves. It is also pretty prolific. I’ve been able to take cuttings, both stem, and leaf, so I have about six of these clones now in various stages of growth.

Here is a gallery of photos over the years.

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The major disappointment with this plant is that the flowers only open part-way–they end up being rather cup-shaped. They are a lovely glowing lavender-blue color, though, and so prolific that they quiet my complaints. Below are recent photos of one of my pots of Teeny Bopper.

My goal with these plants is to keep propagating them and give them away to friends, family, and coworkers. I will keep the original plant well-fed and deadheaded.

Another plant originally from brother Tim, this is a nice, compact geranium with lovely leaves and bright, interesting flowers. I’ve had it in my collection for at least 20 years. By taking cuttings every year, I’ve kept it going even when I haven’t always been careful with individual plants.

The plants I’ve had the longest were gifts–mostly from my brother, Tim. “Petals” is no exception. I’ve had this plant in my collection for over 25 years–but not the same plant. I’ve taken dozens of cuttings and so I always have a few of them to tuck into patio pots in the spring or to brighten up the greenhouse any time.

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This cultivar has amazing foliage. The flowers are a nice pink, but it isn’t particularly floriferous for me. It tends to grow very leggy, so I have to pinch ruthlessly to get any kind of shape other than a leafy stick.

My 2020 goals for this plant are to take a few more cuttings, to prune back the plants I have and move them into larger pots with fertile soil. Some of them live in window-box-type pots that I place on the patio and I will topdress those and prune them back hard in the spring.

Abutilons are fun plants to grow from seed. They germinate pretty easily, grow fast, and bloom the first year with impressive blooms. A strain of hybrids called “Bella” came out a decade or so ago and I tried them and ended up with a lovely, large-flowered pink specimen. Later, I purchased more seeds that were not Bella. The results were smaller-flowered, but fun in their own right.

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The two greenhouse plants I have of Abutilon are the two pictured above. I have had a few others, as well, which I planted outside and which come up each year and bloom in the autumn.

Abutilons are very forgiving plants. They have survived overwatering and drought and being extremely underpotted and underfed. The worst challenge they pose for me is that they are tough to grow into a pleasing shape. They want to grow whippy, leggy branches. I’ve tried pinching them but that only helps a little –they still don’t branch much. But they are still beautiful when they bloom.

My 2020 goals for these two plants are to repot them in the spring into larger pots with fertile soil and to prune them down to a great starting shape. Then, I’ll just let them grow and bloom, which is what they do best!

Our Day 26 plant has an interesting story. I’ve seen Geranium maderense in books and catalogs for years, so about seven years ago, I finally purchased some seeds. I ended up with only one good seedling.

This plant is supposed to be biennial and somewhat tender, so I wintered it in the greenhouse and then promptly neglected to plant it in the garden or pot it on. The plant kept growing but did not bloom in that second year. I potted it up and then kept in the greenhouse again, and then never planted it in the garden. So, now I have what might be the only seven-year-old Geranium maderense around!

You can see in the above photo how the leaf stems turn down after the leaves die and help support the stem. This is a cool, unusual behavior.

My 2020 goals for this plant are to plop it into a nice spot in the garden early in the spring and hopefully have it grow strongly and bloom before frost.