120 days to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Gesneriad Show

Yes, I counted the days.

There are 120 days - growing season days, no less - until the Mid-Atlantic Regional Gesneriad Show. That's plenty of time to select some gesneriads from your collection and grow&groom for entry into the show.

Although some gesneriads need years of good culture to be show-able, others will do quite nicely in a 4 month window.  Achimenes, for example, grow very well outdoors and have one distinct growing cycle a year - start now and they should still be in bloom at the end of September.  Kohleria is also another rhizomatous plant that would do well in the available time, either outdoors or indoors.  Some Sinningia will go from a healthy leaf-less tuber to full bloom in a few months and some of them do superbly outside. Other good candidates for growing outdoors through the summer months are Alsobia, Columnea, Drymonia, Streptocarpella, Episcia, and the other ones I'm obviously forgetting.

Indoors, if you have a healthy Saintpaulia or Streptocarpus plant, you can disbud for a period before attempting to bring it into bloom in time for the Show.

So... a candidate for your "to do" list this weekend: go through your gesneriad collection, tag a few Show candidates, and repot if needed.