Sinningia leucotricha - a love story

Sometimes, remarkably often in my case, a plant just steals your heart.  It can take just a second, a glance, a moment.  You stop and look just a little too long, sometimes involuntary your hand goes out to touch, to get the sense of, to know this plant just a little more.  Sometimes the plant goes onto the list of things if you see them for sale that you will buy and sometimes, just sometimes, it is on sale in front of you and you just have to buy it there and then.
This is what happened last year when I was at the RHS Chatsworth Flower Show, it was the one plant I bought from the show and I was totally smitten by it, the Sinningia leucotricha.  I worried briefly that it might need special attention, knowing that I am not a good house-plant grower.  They rely on me too much, I have to remember to water them and that makes me over-worry about them.  The worry soon passed, it had to be mine.  So this little baby lived outside last summer and then came in for the winter.
Earlier this year I potted in on into a larger pot.  I kept the compost quite gritty as they do not like to be too wet.  Buds started to appear, it was going to reward me with flowers.  My cup-runneth-over.
I remain fascinated by this plant.
The leaves are downy and shimmer in the light,
even the flowers are downy.  When I first described it last year I said I thought it looked like a textile project, I still think it does.  It is a moment of woven beauty.

#happysigh

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