Petrocosmea aff. martinii 'Crugs Capricious'
22nd June 2008
Collected by Crug Farm Plants near the summit of Doi Chiang Dao in northern Thailand, under their number BSWJ 7249.
A new Petrocosmea to me - it came from Crug Farm Plants earlier in the spring and has produced a couple of light purple flowers.
I am hoping that it will fatten up a little. At present the leaves are looking rather tired, and it is without the sense of prosperous self-satisfaction
that seperates the successful gesneriads from those that may turn up their toes at any minute. (I have a handful of the more tender Chirita
skulking in the conservatory that are also teetering on the brink of oblivion - a warm month now might restore their will to live, a cold month would
tip them over the edge.)
The Petrocosmea are all at the experimental end of gardening - they may turn out to be excellent little plants for pot growing, or a sheltered
spot in the garden, or they may die out in cultivation when the current flow of plants from Chinese nurseries ceases (as it must).
The Crug Farm Plants catalogue entry says:
"A new diminutive perennial evergreen soecies to cultivation, with tiny softly hairy leaves, in late spring and early summer bearing mask-shaped blue-lilac yellow eyed flowers,
borne on protruding bristly stems above the foliage. Resulting from a tiny seedling we collected from moss covered shady boulders, at an altitude of over 2050m
near to the summit of Doi Chiang-Dao, Northern Thailand. Best ghrown in full to part shade in a well drained soil, preferably at an angle to allow water to run out of the crown."