January 7, 2025
Plant Profile: Streptocarpus
Streptocarpus are, without a doubt, one of our favourite tropical houseplants. The vivid hues and unique colour combinations are simply gorgeous, not to mention the slight ruffling of their adorable petals! Add in those long, velvety green leaves and you’ve got a stunning (natural!) work of art to add to any bright spot. Being that Streptocarpus are unique and rare to find, we decided to grow another crop of them (a year in the making) and what spectacular art-like colourful blooms they have turned out to be!
Grown on site, our Streptocarpus 2025 crop came with a surprise twist! Instead of arriving in plug trays, each holding 105 rooted cuttings in soilless potting mix, the package that arrived was…small, much smaller and much lighter than it should have been. We had been sent petri dishes of tissue culture – miniscule baby Streptocarpus, held in clear rooting gel and so tiny we had to use tweezers to extract them! An extra and unexpected step to be sure, but with a lot of patience and care we transferred all the baby plants into our own plug trays with potting mix and placed them into our heated greenhouse to continue growing their roots and foliage. It took 4 weeks of additional care before we could repot them into the 4” pots that you know and love, and then another 6 weeks of watering, fertilizing, cleaning, and now they are ready for your homes. What a journey!
The Streptocarpus is related to the African Violet, which makes sense when you look closely at their fuzzy green foliage and lobed, arching blooms. Keeping these similarities in mind will help keep these slow growers happy and healthy in your home:
Light: Medium to Bright, Indirect Light. Keep them out of direct sunlight to avoid scorching their leaves.
Water: Let plants dry slightly then water well. Use room temperature water and try to avoid splashing the leaves as they can easily blemish just like an African Violet.
Fertilizer: Feed with either an all-purpose or flowering fertilizer every 4th watering.
Cleaning: When blooms are finished and are starting to fade, gently snip the entire stem away from as close to the plant’s base as you can reach. Treat browning or overly marked foliage in the same way; be sure to leave enough greenery behind to allow for photosynthesis (you know, food making).
Fun Facts about Streptocarpus!
- They are originally from South Africa and were brought to England by royal plant collector James Bowie in the 1820s.
- Their Latin name means “twisted fruit” because of their long seed casings that look like corkscrews; they also go by the common names “Cape Primrose” or “Nodding Violet”.
- There are currently over 150 recognized species of Streptocarpus, though many varieties and colour combinations are very hard to find – not too long ago, there was a Streptocarpus “drought” that lasted nearly a decade!
- Some varieties of Streptocarpus only have 1 leaf! They’re called unifoliates, while those that grow multiple leaves are plurifoliates.
- Streptocarpella is a close relative to the Streptocarpus and is grown by Belgian Nursery in our annual greenhouses each spring! It’s a gorgeous choice for shady gardens, planters, and hanging baskets.
- In their natural habitats, Streptocarpus can grow anywhere its seed can germinate and thrive, including mountainsides, rock crevices, even on the side of shady cliffs!
- Their impressive colours and combinations make them very popular for flower shows and competitions. The famed RHS Chelsea Flower Show (in Chelsea, England) has awarded one Welsh grower 25 gold medals for their Streptocarpus displays alone!
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