Not sure if this is the right forum, but I'm so pleased with this plant this year! It usually throws a tantrum, even though it goes on and blooms well enough. This year so far so good and it has started blooming. The ribbed leaves are like bright emerald green corduroy.

That's a beautiful, healthy looking plant you have there, Donald!

That is divine

Impressive Donald. I had to run around trying to find information about it but without much luck as our entry shows.
XAchicodonia 'Shogun'

Well, 'Shogun' is a hybrid between Achimenes and Eucodonia. I have a bunch of those types growing. Not really too common anywhere in the States, but grown more in Europe I believe. They sure aren't common in my part of upper west central Texas. They would appreciate some degrees cooler and a lot more humidity, as would I. The plant group suits me because the little rhizomes are winter dormant, so I just let them dry up starting in Oct. and Nov. and then pack them away in the garage, or somewhere it won't freeze, until it's time for them to wake up toward the end of April and early May.

Here's an Achimenes 'unknown cultivar'. Purple and violet shades are the most common. This one has wide foliage that's very neat in habit and is always the first one (barely) to bloom.


I was trying to get a photo of the hosta bloom, but the plant above is Eucodonia 'Adele'. I probably won't see it begin to bloom until Sept., but I can always hope.


This plant is xAchinantha 'Inferno' a hybrid between Achimenes and Smithiantha. If it never bloomed, I like the foliage well enough to grow it. The blooms are a spectacular fire engine red, but sadly it's one of the last ones to bloom.


One more. Achimenes 'Yellow Beauty'. The foliage habit here is much looser and sprawling. It doesn't look as domesticated, plant-wise, as the others I grow. I did see a violet Achimenes blooming wild in the cloud forest in Costa Rica. It sprawled a little, but it sprawled with a very neat habit. Yellow, orange and pink blooms are less common colors. This is usually my second one to start blooming. It is just getting started, so if nothing happens I'll see a lot of bloom from it.


I think the hummingbirds are about as happy as I am to see them start blooming . I'm not positive, but I think the orange bloom in the cover photo here on ATP is probably an Achimenes or xAchimenes.

Top Tropicals has Achicodonia 'Shogun' if you can read Russian!

Looks like we cross posted, Donald. Those are just gorgeous!

Those are stunning! Are they naturally shaped that way or are you selectively pruning/pinching? They all look so perfect.

Those are some great plants and photos Donald. I didn't know you could grow Hosta in your area. Sandi Nyet.

These are natural, but I think most growers pinch for shape. My method is just to let the rhizomes increase until they grow as thick as a ground cover! That doesn't take long. I usually don't re-pot them until I'm forced to. That can be years. Eucodonia 'Adele' and xAchinantha 'Inferno' were acquired in 2011 and are in the original soil and containers (though I've replaced the liners and usually throw enough potting soil on top to level them out when it's wake-up time). I started with 5 rhizomes of each. Inferno is in a 12" coconut fiber wire basket and Adele is in a 14" container. A hard driving rain with wind and/or hail is likely to mar their shape. So far this year, they have just been lucky on some of the things that can go wrong. I expect most people that grow them do it in greenhouse conditions, but I don't have one of those . My last source for getting some was via Kartuz Greenhouses http://www.kartuz.com/ - are we allowed to post a link like this?

I didn't know Hosta would grow here either, though I see it for sale. I bought it last year to plant in the cast iron pot with the idea of treating it as an annual, so I was surprised when it came back up this spring :).

Thank you for the info. They really are spectacular.

Those are beautiful David! I started growing Achemenes a few years ago .. I only have two, the yellow A flava and Ambroise Verschaffel. I would love to do some trading with you!

The Achicodonia 'Shogun' is really fabulous. I thought at first it might be a shrub, but it is a very large hanging basket, right? Is that a white Achimenes down below it? My white ones are really wimpy.

I'm growing a few colors of Achimenes, two purples, a double red and white, and have been laboriously 'thinning' them but from seeing yours I now will let them increase with their friends in the baskets. I didn't know the hummingbirds like them! Wonderful, I'll plant more of them for the hummers. I don't think any of mine are blooming yet.

The Hummingbirds do love mine.

Elaine asks: "I thought at first it might be a shrub, but it is a very large hanging basket, right? Is that a white Achimenes down below it? My white ones are really wimpy."

Yes, a 12" wire coconut fiber lined basket. The basket itself isn't large, the plants just do that. Yes, that's a white Achimenes below it. You can see another white one hanging behind the purple unknown in the other post. When you mean wimpy, are you meaning as a growing plant or the bloom? I've been growing that white since 1998 and it's prolific on increasing the number of rhizomes - why there are now two baskets of them. The bloom, though, is more sensitive to high temps and the duration of bloom only runs about 6 weeks. I've thought I need to find a better white, but never have. It's a heavy bloomer when it is blooming. I just have to look at it in the morning or afternoon to avoid seeing the blooms that wilt in the heat.

Photo of the white Achimenes 'Gary' taken in 2010.

Donald
you can ask Dave to move this to the new forum

Donald, yes what I meant by 'wimpy' was that the white Ach's don't seem to bloom as much as the other colors.

Be sure to let us know if you move this thread to another forum so that we can follow! What other forum were you looking at? I think it's fine here.

I find that true of the Yellow A. flava as well.

A. flava is a species rather than a hybrid cultivar. Introduced hybrids tend to be selected for things that might not be inherent in a species cultivar - like an increase in bloom. They do have their own charms, I think.

I believe there are a number of alternate choices beyond my white one, but it would just be a guess on my part to select one that was better. Mine blooms heavily when it gets started, but it only has a run of about 6 weeks and I'd like that to be longer. Also, I find the foliage on 'Gary' to be the least appealing compared to any of the others I grow. It's been around a long while now and hasn't been replaced yet :).

As for moving the thread, that probably won't happen since I don't know how to contact Dave for such a request. There is so much on ATP that it's overwhelming and I have somewhat varied interests which perhaps makes it even more overwhelming. But Achimenes and Eucodonias are gesneriads and would fit in that forum. However, that forum is new and wasn't an option when the initial post was made.

It has already been done.