A hanging basket would be nice for trailing plants like Episcia, but I couldn’t find a suitable place in my house where I could hang the plant   While I was puzzling over the new container problem for my Episcia, I saw a cool bike/trolley looking raised planter when I was shopping one day. Yes! This could solve my problem I thought, and so I bought it right away.

This is what I got for my Episica. I guess it can keep the stolons hanging nicely for another year at least

I didn’t know that a flame violet can have different bloom colors.  So when I saw a flower bud earlier this month, with similar color and look as the one in April, I was expecting another bright orange-red flower.  But instead, the color of the bloom I have this time is in yellow, with a tint of orange at the bottom of each petal.  What a last minute surprise!

Now, I am already looking forward to the next blooming of my flame violet, wondering what color will it be… 

The colors of the flower buds are very much alike, yet the colors of the flowers are totally different.

As ignorant as I may sound, at first, I suspected that this movement of the leaves of my Episcia was due to insufficient sunlight (it had been rainy and gloomy for over a week). So, to keep my Episcia “open” at night, I put my plant under artificial light for around 14 hours per day for several days. However, the artificial light didn’t help at all. The top pair of leaves closes at night regardless of the amount of light there is during the day.

My baby Flame Violet, which I have propagated a while ago, also has its own circadian rhythms.

Open during the day

Close at night

And last week, from my bonsai instructor, I have finally got a clue! Once I told him about my Episcia, he said, “There is nothing to worry about. Your plant, like you do, needs some sleep too.”

That makes sense. This is just how the world works – we work during the day and sleep at night (or reverse), and so do many other organisms.

And the more research I have done on this topic, the more I find it interesting. It appears that the daily opening and closing of the leaves may not simply be a response to the sun, but the circadian rhythms in plants. And what I have observed is the sleep movements of my Episcia.

Throughout history, many botanists had studied extensively on this phenomenon of plants. Charles Darwin published an entire book on the Movement of Plants, suggesting that the plant itself generates the daily rhythms. And by using this behavior of plants, Carolus Linnaeus invented the flower clock. While it is not easy to make a functioning flower clock, people have done it.  Here is the Solar Clock built in Truman State University.

If you are interested in learning more about the sleep movements of plants, here is a good article written by a chronobiology specialist – Clock Classics: It all started with the plants.

Thru some research, I have learned that Flame Violet can be propagated by stolon cuttings. This is my first time growing Flame Violet. Everything to me is new and interesting. And surely, I would like to try stolon propagation. While I was wondering when I should cut the stolons of my Flame Violet for my experiment, my dear brother accidently cut off two stolons from the plant with the rotor blades of his newly bought remote control helicopter. Ok. That’s great! At least I was saved from thinking too much more before taking any action.

I removed all the leaves that seemed too big, and planted each stolon in a 2” pot.

For the first two months, I had kept waiting and waiting, and the two Flame Violet stolons showed little sign of growth. While I was wondering if I should give up on them, I found a tiny pair of leaves growing from the center of both baby plants! Yeah!

I have an impression that my two Flame Violet stolons have taken longer than normal to develop their root systems and grow their first leaves. I wonder why. Was it not the right season for propagating Flame Violet? Or did I leave too few leaves on the stolons for the plants to grow and develop their roots quickly? For some of the leaves, maybe instead of cutting the whole piece, I should cut only half of the piece, so for the plants to absorb more sun and moist in the air.

But anyways, my baby FlameViolets are growing strong and healthy now!

You can check out this post for more detailed instructions on how to propagate plant by cutting.