Hi Mike, Dont buy the oxypetalum. I am sending you a few pieces of this one. It is true that they grow like crazy. I left this one at my parents house when I moved out because it does take a tremendous amount of space. I got a call from my mom and she told me that she was waiting for the day that that was going to strangle her..LOL. Once you have an established cutting, you can expect some new growths to be a couple feet long. No joke, mine had some growths that were 4 ft long in one summer!! The blooms are great! Just make sure your going to be home to enjoy them! Mine only lasted one night and that was it. As soon as the sun went down, the bud would begin to open. By the time the sun came up, it was closing. Logees describes it as having flowers the size of dinner plates. I had some that were even larger than that!!! Mine is pitifull now compared to when it was in its glory. I wished I would have found a way to care for it here. At one point, that plant was around 10ft long but I have had it for over 10 years. You can control the growth with pruning. Just make sure you do it at the right time or you will end up with no blooms. I will have to read up on my notes on this before I can tell you when to prune it. I can send you 3-4 nice cuttings next week with the others if you want okay? I also have a nice big pink epi. I don't know the name of the variety but it is really pretty. Trust me, neither of them will take a lifetime to get blooms from. My oxy bloomed in 1.5-2 years after I got it. I started a couple for friends and the one I gave to my landlords mom bloomed the same year I rooted it! The pink variety I bought locally and they had rooted cuttings with buds on them. I will say that it may take a couple years for those blooms to reach there potential. Andrew

Hope you used the recommendations from the previous post. Time to plan a nice trip to Upstate NY to Violet Barn or Lyndon Lyon nurseries for your Sinningia speciosas (florist gloxinias) - or just order them on Internet from these vendors. I. Here is a link that might be useful: previous reply

The suggestion of Pine Knot is a very good one. If you can, you should go down for their open house festival as it is a great show. Only a short trip from your location. Its in Virginia just north of NC border but you have to get there from the NC side. My nicest double (a lavendar pink) and my best 2 yellows came from there on one of my trips down. My best black (they are really a smoky overlay very dark purple) with gorgeous dark new foliage and my best white double were from seed ordered from Elizabethtown hellebores several years back. There is a Tissue Culture black available (got one of them from Pine Knot 2 years ago) but I don't think its quite as good as some of my others.

Burnt Ridge is a grower and Raintree is for the most part a middleman. Their value is their large selection. However, I have had repeated quality control issues with them over a long period. When an item is offered by both and still in stock I would always try to get it from Burnt Ridge first. Some of their plants can be dinky but others are quite nice. When I was on a tour there some years ago I was impressed by their approach to production of field stock and the results they were getting (as well as their seemingly extensive collection of chestnut and walnut trees, something on a par with the National Collection system plantings of garden plants they have in England - maybe I'm wrong but surely Burnt Ridge has been growing way more kinds of these than they sell).