Streptocarpus ‘Concord Blue’, a subg. Streptocarpella hybrid, was created in the 1970s by Bartley Schwarz by crossing Streptocarpus saxorum and Streptocarpus stomandrus. At the same time, hybridizer Bill Saylor made the same cross and produced a hybrid plant identical to ‘Concord Blue’. Neither hybridizer knew of the others’ efforts at the time. Mr. Saylor registered his hybrid as S. ‘Good Hope’. It is impossible to know whether material in cultivation derives from one or the other of these, given their extreme similarity. Most cultivated plants are known as ‘Concord Blue’, and we will use that convention here.
Unlike its saxorum parent, ‘Concord Blue’ typically has paired leaves, although some stems may show whorls of three. It has also inherited some lower lobe markings in the flower, near the throat, from its stomandrus parent.
S. ‘Concord Blue’ is widely available as a garden plant for baskets and pots, although not often under its actual hybrid name. It may be misidentified as S. saxorum, or as simply Streptocarpus, and sometimes by fanciful made-up names.
Additional photos may be seen in a slideshow by clicking one of the links below:
- A specimen purchased in spring as a small starter plant at a nursery, and grown outdoors on a verandah through the summer
- A spectacular trailing basket plant at Longwood Gardens, in Pennsylvania, USA
- A close-up of the flowers on the Longwood Gardens plant
- A nice pot plant
- A wall of plants at a nursery in the Cameron Highlands of Malaysia; these plants were labelled as Str. ‘Good Hope’