Glasshouse plants

Streptocarpus
Cape primrose

Streptocarpus comprises some 130 species, mainly coming from South Africa. In recent years, breeding has resulted in numerous new cultivars, many of which make excellent windowsill and cool conservatory subjects. They have a long flowering period, with some of the recent introductions flowering profusely in the winter.

Plants need filtered light, never bright sunlight and do well on a east- or west-facing windowsill, or shaded greenhouse or conservatory. Most need a minimum winter temperature of 10-18°C (50-64°F).

Plants need plenty of moisture in summer and may need watering daily. For the rest of the year (November to the end of February) the compost only needs to be kept just moist. Overwatering at any time of year can cause root rot, which may result in the plant dying. During spring and summer, feed every 10 to 14 days with a high potash liquid fertiliser to encourage flowering.

Remove old flowers as they fade. Once the complete flower stem has finished flowering cut it from the plant as low to the leaf base as possible. Old and damaged leaves can be trimmed back if necessary and in winter old leaves can be removed completely - as close to the base of the plant as possible.

Ray Waite

< Back to The Glasshouse main page