I would be willing to trade leaves for any African varieties you might have. I’m newer to the hobby but I have many different ones I’ve obtained by purchasing online. Many are still small so not quite at the point to cut leaves on most but I could some of them. I would love to have more optimara AV’s if you have others. I have “my delight” and “margit/margit II,” and both of those are strong growers and flower beautifully. Optimara AV’s are very expensive online and I haven’t ordered any from the company directly so not sure how they’d be packaged or arriving at the price most are around $15 a piece that I want. Thanks

Hi and thank you for your response. I too live in the tropics, Malaysia. I've learnt tons from reading all the posts here and various books on African violets. Unfortunately my conditions are not the same as most people here. Sometimes I get quite disappointed when my plants don't seem to be doing well and I don't know what to do but then I look at your plants and other growers from Singapore green culture (although their African violet forum has been very quiet lately) and I have hope that maybe I too can grow African violets in our climate. So thank you bloodyfrancois and thank you AV forum. Joy.

I do not grow micros - they tend to be very vulnerable - but I remember Rob talking about restricting the size of the minis by keeping then in really small pots and repotting often with trimming the roots. I am thinking that if you start with the regular miniatures and keep the routine - your collection will not grow into rhubarbs. Some of the plants given the designation miniature by hybridizer grow into semis, and semis grow into standards if they have oversize pots. George McDonald plants are like this. What really drives me nuts - when the miniature violets were hybridized - the species Saintpaulia that gave these mini genes was actually a trailer. So - minis often sucker. i. Here is a link that might be useful: Dr. Robinson advice on minis

Probably the cost to store all of the pictures is too much. I have First Class 2 program through AVSA, it has some pictures and is helpful. Have you been to the AVSA pictures section recently? I wandered over there and found pictures of these wasps: Drucilla Fay's Paisley Calico Wasp Wedgewood Wasp without much trouble. I didn't look for all of them, and every wasp picture on the site isn't in FC2 Here's a list of all of the wasps I counted on FC2: *Amethyst Confetti (7555) 1991 (C. Carter) Single-semidouble chimera purple wasp/wide white stripe. Medium green, heart-shaped, pointed, hairy, glossy. Miniature *Blue Wasp (J. Dates) Single medium blue wasp. Medium green. Standard *Burgandy Wasp (1968) 1969 (J. Dates) Single burgundy two-tone fluted wasp. Plain. Standard *Calico Wasp (1969) 1969 (J. Dates) Single light lavender fluted wasp/purple fantasy. Quilted/bustle back. Standard *Capricious (5279) 1983 (V. Rader) Single dark blue frilled wasp. Longifolia, ruffled/red back. Standard *Dave Masterson Wasp (J. Dates) Medium blue wasp. Medium-dark green/red back. Standard *Fay's Paisley (F. Wagman) Single blue wasp/red fantasy. Plain. Semiminiature *Hood Wink (1896) 1968 (J. Dates) Single medium blue wasp/white fluted edge. Medium green, plain, pointed. Standard *Kaneland Beauty (1973) 1969 (J. Dates) Single blue wasp/white overlay. Ruffled. Standard *North Carolina Sport (Japanese) Single chimera dark red wasp star/rose-pink edge. Standard *Nymph Fly (1897) 1968 (J. Dates) Single blue wavy wasp. Dark green, plain, pointed, spooned. Semiminiature *Odie (6309) 1986 (S. Lang) Medium blue wasp. Crown variegated dark green and yellow, pointed, plain, glossy. Standard trailer *Optimara Little Crystal (7350) 1990 (Holtkamp) Single-semidouble white wasp. Medium green, heart-shaped, hairy, glossy. Miniature *Pink Cherub (J. Dates) Semidouble bright pink wasp. Dark green, spooned, serrated/red back. Miniature *Pink Fingers (J. Dates) Medium pink wasp. Medium-dark green/some red back. Standard *Rachel (J. Dates) Single medium blue wasp. Medium green/red back. Standard *Rhapsodie Bobbie (7359) 1990 (Holtkamp) Single white wasp/blue edge. Medium green, heart-shaped, hairy, glossy. Standard *Rhapsodie Fenja (7499) 1991 (Holtkamp) Single lilac wasp/darker center, upper petals. Medium green, plain, ovate to round, hairy. Standard *Royal Mountbatton (1976) 1969 (J. Dates) Double blue-purple ruffled wasp. Ovate, quilted, scalloped. Standard *Sable and Sand (5795) 1984 (J. Domiano/R. Nadeau) Single light pink wasp/darker-tipped top petals. Medium green, quilted, glossy/red back. Large *San Francisco Wasp (J. Dates) Rose-pink wasp. Medium green. Standard *Spootnik (1498) 1964 (A. Dates) Single red-pink wasp. Medium green, spooned/bustle back. Semiminiature *Wedgewood Wasp (F. Wagman) Single blue wasp. Plain. Semiminiature *Wham Bang (1899) 1968 (A. Dates) Double cerise-red fluted wasp. Dark green, glossy, ruffled. Standard *Zaca's Springtime (8093) 1994 (A. Stephens) Semidouble blush pink wasp. Light green, plain. Standard Hope this helps a bit. I have an instant gratification problem too. Here is a link that might be useful: AVSA Photos