I had a wonderful time at the Gesneriad Convention! It was 5 full days of not thinking about anything but beautiful plants. I learned so much and met a ton of fellow enthusiasts.

I entered several pieces into the show- first time ever. Firstly- Miss Siningia, a lady pillow doll. Look, she won a blue ribbon!

Also, 3 plants; they won ribbons too! I was entering into the novice class which means I have never participated in a plant show before. I was the only entrant and I won this giant pink rosette- it all makes me silly happy :-)

Here is my blue ribbon plant-

I won’t overwhelm you with flower photos but these were some of my favs-

This is called Smithiantha ‘Ode to Peter Shalit’. It has beautiful leaves that are velvety plus such a gorgeous flower.

Below is a Streptocarpus ‘Dale’s Flock of Sparrows’.

There was a sales room with (probably) thousands of plants, and almost every talk I went to had giveaway plant material. I now have a bunch of new plants plus cuttings, leaves, and tubers to plant up and hopefully grow. It was such a treat to spend almost a week focusing on my other passion. I hope I can go next year!