Is there a M. cominsii plant available to buy Carol?

Carole, I am getting soooo jealous now. Pure eye candy. I've been back to this thread a few times this morning to look at them again. I had no idea there were so many cultivars of this plant.

Yes....there are many species of Medinilla, all of them spectacular, really. They belong to the Melastomaceae ....Some consider them invasive here!!!!

Sandi, which type medium do you grow your Medinilla? Lee

You probably shouldn't ask me. I've always used Sunshine Mix until this year. I couldn't find it anymore, so I bought Miracle -Gro/Moisture Mix. I can't be sure, because we're having a severe drought here, but I don't think Miracle Gro is a good medium for me. The plants that I repotted in MG aren't not doing well. I bought more Perlite today and I plan to re-mix the soil the Medinillia is in with more Perlite.
I think Carole here is our expert on growing these mysterious plants. Hopefully, she'll chime in. Sandi

Thanks Sandi. Out of curiosity, I've wanted to grow one for yrs. If I find out other ways to grow them and if you don't mind, I'll share with you. Lee

That would be great! I'm always looking for more information.

Now...I didn't come up with this mix on my own....but I got it from a brilliant propagator/grower of tropical plants.... Big R and #3 Perlite...just about half and half. Big R is a Soil Conditioner...redwood shavings...now I grow everything in it and love it. He has been using the same mix for 30 years...nothing speaks like success.

Medinillas are epiphytes, so they want a VERY airy mix...lots of water. Shade.

BTW... Big R is less than 9$ for 3 cubic feet...and good for all tropicals.... the price is TOO right. If you can't find it...I will get the name of the distributor off the bag....

Thanks Carole, I'll look for it today. I've not heard of it before, but "redwood" sounds like it's out of California!

You could Google it....I did that once with success!!!!

I did google it and it listed Home Depot as a retailer. I called and they had never heard of it. I told them it was showing on their website, so could they possibly tell me which store might have it in Texas. He said he didn't know of one. I guess I momentarily forgot I was calling HD. I called the big "feed store" here and they had the Sunshine Mix #1 that I'd also been looking for. We drove to the other side of Austin to get a bale and had a good time in the store. Lots to see, including A tall cowboy with a pygmy pig on a leash in the store that nuzzled my ankle (the pig, not the cowboy). I wanted some alfalfa pellets too, but they were sold out. What a busy place! Reminded of when we lived in Tucson, and on Saturdays we'd run into the same people at the pool store buying chemicals!

Carol your medinillias are gorgeous and they look like they have gotten huge. I lost a scortechinii last winter to the cold, it was my own fault, I thought it was in a protected spot but last winter broke all the rules.

Your Big R is probably a regional, west coast, product. Around here the growers use triple ground bark in their mix along with sand and perlite. The bark is likely a combination of pine and hardwood, whatever is available.

I have been using a product called Perma Til in my soilless mix, it is expanded shale and it really improves the drainage and because it is heavy like gravel, it adds some weight so the pots don't fll over as easily in the wind.

Hmmmm I'll have to look that up... never heard of Perma Til.

Goodness, Alice...we have sure found eachother all over the internet, haven't we!? Thank goodness Dave likes this format!!!!!!

TTFN

Carole, will you look at the bottom of this M. scortechinii. I finally found Sunshine Mix and was ready to re-pot it. When I tugged on it, the dirt around the sides fell away. It looks like it's been just sitting there dying, root bound. I did notice a few hairlike roots around the top sides, so it isn't gone yet. Can I clip the roots a bit? They really look bad, and the fact that it just popped out of the pot makes me think it never really got established.
Side view

Bottom view

Carol, I suspect it would cost a King's ramsom to distribute a heavy product like shale to your neck of the woods.

Yup...maybe have to add in the Queens' Ransom too.

I have that happen with my hoyas sometimes....when I pot them up TOO much. Epiphytes and Semi Epiphytes seem to like having their pots quite small...so they get rootbound. I could never grow anything in that mix... Have you looked at the white stuff on the roots with a magnifying glass? Are they mealie bugs (root mealies) or a fungus. The fungus is probably OK. It also looks VERY dry...even the root ball looks dry. Tropical plants, in the tropics, grow almost hydroponically...their roots have to seek out nutrients and they grow wherever they can find some decomposed organic matter. I would mix that peat mix (Sunshine/Pro Mix....) with small chips of bark...yes, the stuff they use for mulch in landscaping works well...and perlite. I would take the potbound roots and soak them in water with a bit of fish emulsion or chicken manure and add about a Tablespoon of molassas or sugar.. Medinillas don't mind wet IF it isn't soggy ...they need oxygen around their roots....

Hope this helps.
Carol

It might have been dry when she first received it, but it was soggy when I got it. I haven't watered it, except the water from my fountain that over sprayed it and kept the soil damp and the remaining leaves spritzed. It was in a plastic/styrofoam pot. I moved it to a clay pot. That's when I saw the root ball was reddish, matted and dead looking. The potting soil at the bottom and around the sides was not attached and fell away. There are fine little roots, maybe an inch or so, just starting to come out. These are near the top sides of the plant. No mealies, no fungus. The mix it was in looks like Miracle-Gro moisture mix. The white things are perlite pcs. I hope this makes sense. There are four branches. I think possibly those are four cuttings in the one pot. Is it possible to trim the bottom of the root mass and try to separate it? I'm tempted to cut the whole thing in half vertically too. The roots are hard and like matted, varnished pine needles. It doesn't look good except at the very top where those few white roots are coming out.

Sandi...I don't know who sent it...but the photos you posted show a very dry root ball and dry medium around it. The fine roots towards the top of the ball are good news....

OK...so this is what I would do:

I would soak the root ball ... the whole root ball ... in water for about 4-6 hours and I would put some sugar or molassas in the water (about 1T per gallon). After they are soaked, I would rub the orangy roots between my finger/thumb to see if the cuticle of the root comes off (the covering of the root...if that sloughs off it means the root is dead) and if it doesn't come off it means they are still alive. If they are dead, cut them away until you find viable roots. I wouldn't try to separate the plants as you may rip some of the viable tender new roots. You can 'squeeze' the rootball to losen the roots...then I would repot it, as is, into a plastic pot. Clay pots really don't work well for plants that are epiphytic or semi epiphytic because when the clay dries it kills the wee little roots that the plant as put out...and then those wee little roots rot when they are rewetted. I never use clay and I don't know anyone who does around here.

If it is for the "look" of clay vs. plastic, put your plastic pot INside a clay pot.

Hope this helps.....

The root ball and the soil around it were wet. It was the way the sun was shining down behind me when I took the photo that made it look dry. when I lifted it out of the pot, the dirt that fell away was in muddy clumps.
I'll give the root ball an good soaking tonight, but I don't think dryness is the problem. I think the roots were in a smaller pot when it was purchased and it was moved up to a bigger pot without having "teased" the roots apart. I'll take another pic when I pull it out again. It's in the perfect shape of a smaller pot.
Appreciate the help. I sure don't want to lose it. I'm going to wait a bit until it cools off here. It's 105 this afternoon. We just got home from watering at the lake house. Very afraid of fire up there.

Suggest you read about epyphytes and how to grow them....it's really quite different from what we are let to believe.

Good luck...let me know if I can help...

Carol