Dear All, Another favourite genus! Being a member of both the American Gloxinia and Gesneriad Society (AGGS) http://www.aggs.org/ and the Swedish Gesneriad Society (contact Mrs Lindskog: sv.lindskog@telia.com), I would like to spread the information about these societies. Both are relatively small specialist societies and they are VERY friendly. Both run a magificent seed fund, the AGGS seed fund lists so many entries I absolutely never heard of, including both Sinningia species and hybrid seed. Both societies also have regular publications, the swedish one contains an addition with an english translation of the most important articles and all the photographs are commented in English, too. There is also another very good adress for Sinningias in Brazil: Mauro Peixoto. http://mpeixoto.sites.uol.com.br/index.html He has a well done home page with good photographs of many Sinningia species and other plants together with short cultural and habitat information. He also offers seed, I ordered this spring and got good quality, most plants bloomed the first year from seed. He also guides botanical tours in Brazil. Personally I think that Sinningias and other Gesneriads are plants with a lot of future. The great advantage is that they have a very long flowering season compared to Amaryllids or Irids. Some Kohleria Hybrids do in fact flower year round given the right condition. Most Sinningias are also perfect house plants, the very large and thin leaved ones may suffer from dry air, though, but there are so many that come from hot and exposed rock habitats that makes them cope with ease with indoor condition. Many Sinningias go dormant in winter and can be tucked away, but, having learnt through losses most do not want to be bone dry for months on end. They are also underrated foliage plants. For example Sinningea speciosa 'Reginae' has dark green velvety leaves with white veins, together with its dark purple flowers a stunning plant and NOT difficult to grow. It was used in hybridisation to produce white veined giant florists 'Gloxinias' but these seem to have disappeared. Many other Sinningias and Gesneriads have velvety hairy leaves that look very attractive even without flowers, often contrasted with brightly coloured bristly hairs. My Sinningia collection is too young to really jugde but the impression I have is that they are long lived and can form an impressive caudex that makes them look very exotic, some look like a little shrub sitting on a bottle. This summer was excellent hot and dry for Germany and many Gesneriads were in the open garden for the first time. It produced excellent results and most can take far more direct sun than expected, this produces plants of compact habit with well coloured flowers. I can't say I really like the look of the plants grown under artificial lights. But of course I understand if there is no choice it is better than not growing them at all but I can only encourage anybody interested in these groups of plants to try some outside in his or her climate to see how it works. I have not bothered testing for hardiness as our winters are too unstable: the constant change of frost and rain and mild weather and frost again will kill them, I am sure. Have fun with Sinningias! Uli