Sinningia lineata

This eight-inch [20-cm] diameter tuber of Sinningia lineata is over 25 years old.  It was started from AGGS seed in 1976 or 1977.  The plant was entered in both the 1984 San Mateo and 1995 Millbrae convention shows.  It traveled to Portland for the 2005 show, but got yanked at the last minute when I noticed caterpillar damage on a couple of the flowers.  No caterpillars, but who would want their show plant sitting next to something that had had crawlies munching on it just a few days before?  Caterpillars are one of the hazards of growing this plant outdoors.  They crawl up the peduncles and pedicels to the flowers and then eat part of each one, causing it to bend and distort.

This plant is one of the parents of Sinningia 'Peninsula Belle'.

Recently, this plant has been blooming in April.  In 2004, I cut off the stems after it had finished blooming, and was rewarded with a second crop of bloom in August.  In 2005, however, the tuber did not sprout until the end of May.  I had almost given up on it.  Then it sprouted just in time for convention and critters.

I am not sure whether this had anything to do with forcing it to bloom twice the previous year. Another lineata plant (a descendant of this one) did not sprout until the beginning of June.

Another picture shows a younger tuber with a single shoot.