Ideally the plants should be grown in a light airy atmosphere averaging about 65°F (18°C) and lightly shaded from strong sunlight. Given these conditions plants will continue growing the whole year round and will also flower for about three-quarters of the time. The usual procedure, however, is to allow the plants to dry off, after the middle of autumn, and from then onwards they are kept as dry as possible, without being allowed to dry out completely until growth is re-started in the spring. In this dry state plants can be wintered in the greenhouse at temperatures as low as 40-45°F (5-7°C) without harm. Streptocarpus make little or no growth at temperatures below 60°F (15°C) especially when dry; consequently the plants remain in a dormant condition and tend to lose their larger leaves. Once you have raised a batch of plants from seed you can propagate the best plants by means of leaf cuttings. Propagation of plants by leaf cuttings is carried out either by cutting the leaf across into three or four sections and pushing the cut edge of the leaf into the cutting compost about Чг in (13 mm) deep, or by dividing along the central vein and inserting the cut edge of the leaf obliquely to a depth of 1/2 in (13 mm). Plantlets should grow from the bottoms of the sections in about 4 to 6 eeks, and when they have made sufficient root they should be detached and potted in 2 1/2-in (6-cm) pots.
If you wish to keep a continuous stock of streptocarpus it is as well to raise a few new plants each year, either from seed or from cuttings, because although they are perennials plants grown in pots do not usually thrive after the third or fourth year, and even if they do they become too big and require too big a pot to be useful for house decoration. A wellgrown plant will require a 6-in (15-cm) pot in its third or fourth year, after which it will require an even larger pot; therefore plants should be discarded after the fourth year, as a general rule, unless you have some special reason for keeping a plant.
