Episcia Collection - Chocolate Soldier

The name reminds me of a character in Nutcracker: Firm, strict, disciplined and touch me not..

And of all the episcias which I can consider a female characteristics - this one is exclusively a male figure.

He doesn't like to be touched.
Any visible disturbance with this one and he will punish you by going dormant or dead.
Such is the heart of this soldier..yet, I wonder what is he actually defending.

I used to have another type of this kind which is more browner and hardier but as I mentioned earlier, due to negligence - I had lost all of my earlier collection. I had bought this about 6 months ago together with Kee Wee, Malayan Gem and Strawberry Patch for a very good price.

The purchase came with a long heavy stolons cascading and it gave me opportunity to propagate them and have spares all around my garden and more than enough to share with other gardeners for exchange and gifting.

Chocolate Soldier prove elusive and I had found they do tend to disappear with the rest of the other garden plants. I had to search for it only to find hidden with the rest. A stealth mode indeed for this one.

I admire these guys as they are devoid of green pigmentation yet they do very well in growing and producing beautiful blooms. Indeed he is a warrior species.

This is the plant when I first bought it (picture below)

UPDATED DECEMBER 2019

It has been like a year cultivating this particular episcia and I wanted to write some updates about my experience on this one. I had found that these bronze colored foliage types somehow seemed to be more hardy and durable too. 

This one is resilient and able to handle stress well. 

However, after about 6 months or so, they require pruning and re-potting as the plant can become so leggy and messy. If failed to do so, the plant slowly succumb to withering and slow death - the plant sort-off terminate just below the root ball and that is the end of the plant if not checked or inspected.

Their care & needs are similar to begonias - high humidity, shade loving plant and proper feeding regime to ensure stability and well balanced plant.

Below are the pictures about the episcia in my garden in this one year duration:

Episcia Names and Images

Please click on the link on the title above for the post.

Here is the link where I had put together a list of all the Episcias that I had come across. A database of all the different types & their characteristics.