My Primulina yungfuensis, 永福皮草 or 永福報春苣苔 in Chinese, surprised me by flowering on the first day of the new year! It was sitting on the second shelf in the corner of my balcony because it prefers shade as it is related to the common African violets. When I gave it a quick water during the Christmas and New Year period, I haven’t really looked at it carefully for a couple of weeks, so did not even notice its flower stalks forming, LOL… Then on the second day of the new year, I was watering it again and noticed some light magenta white things floating on top of the leaves, they are flowers just starting to bloom!
Aren’t the flowers just the most delicate things? Although Primulinas are related to the African violets, they are tougher and not as difficult to grow. Their leaves also have patterns on them, so they look good even when not in flower, in fact they are more known for their leaves than flowers. I have got 2 different types of Primulina, the other one I have is Primulina dryas (or Chirita sinensis which was the name I bought it as). Primulina dryas is also more commonly sold wrongly as Streptocarpus ‘Pretty Turtle’ because Streptocarpus is a completely different plant, so its correct name should be Primulina dryas while ‘Pretty Turtle’ is its commercial name. They are also native to different continents – Primulina is native to China and Vietnam while Streptocarpus is native to Africa… I don’t know if it is just the growing conditions or what, but Primulina dryas seems to have 2 different leaf form, the one I have has more pointed leaves, while the one sold as ‘Pretty Turtle’ I have seen has more rounded leaves? Below is a photo of my two Primulinas I took in April last year for comparison of leaves, Primulina dryas (left) has much bigger leaves than Primulina yungfuensis (right).
More photos of the flowers…
OK, to some tough succulents which I have grown (and neglected) for a number of years and developed long thick trunks, some of which were colouring up beautifully in late October last year, which was about mid-spring at the time.
Sedum clavatum – the leaves were so plump with light yellow colouring on the older leaves… The green succulent behind is Echeveria ‘Yamatoren’…
Graptoveria ‘Tricolour’ – pink tone showing up beautifully…
Echeveria ‘Set-Oliver’ (hairy green one) and Sedum adolphi (yellow one) – I love the combination…
Pachyveria ‘Clavifolia’ – one head was colouring up so beautifully… The small-leaf succulent behind is Graptopetalum mendozae…
Pachyphytum compactum – showing some bronze colour on the leaves… The small-leaf succulent behind is Graptopetalum mendozae…
Three unnamed succulents… The name I attached is the closest I could identified them with, but could be totally wrong, LOL…
Echeveria ‘J.C. van Keppel’ ?
Pachyveria ‘Elaine’ ? The yellow succulent behind is Sedum ‘Golden Glow’ (I bought it as Sedeveria ‘Golden Goddess’ but apparently that’s an invalid name).
Graptoveria ‘Margaret Rose’ ? Behind is another Sedum adolphi.
Finally, not succulents, but 3 beautiful Coleus…
Corner Café 
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