I love the way the bouquet formed. I don't have that one, but have a few others of that series.

Joanne said "According to a recent interview on a podcast called All About African Violets, the experts agreed it can take 3 years for a violet to mature." May I gently correct that idea? Annie did say that she invests 2 to 3 years to bring a standard to show maturity but the two experts she was interviewing (Kurt Jablonski and Belinda Thibodeaux) said that was not at all true for them, about 18 months being more their time line. And they offered the thought that perhaps that was because they are both from the deep south, but Annie grows in the much colder Chicago area. I don't know where in the world you live, Xmahini, but perhaps you wouldn't need to expect to wait 3 years to see a mature standard African violet. :-) Irina, I love your story (and your patience) about your husband's airplane building, LOL. BTW, I had trouble with watching those podcasts too once Annie switched to using WordPress to put them out. By suggestion I downloaded Google Chrome and they did play perfectly on that web browser for whatever reason... Anne

Thanks. I was the one asking about the Jewels. I thought they were supposed to be smaller series but you never know with Optimara. If my plants get to the stage I can photograph them, I will try asking Optimara about any iffy ones. Supposedly Margit isn't in production, but I guess they show up. I got one thinking it might be Kentucky but I don't believe it is. Now it's one of those other ones....??? Karin, Anthoflores does (or at least did) have some nice varieties. I just haven't seen them here for a long time. I liked A. Rose quite a bit and someone thought my little white one might have been Little Wynn. I lost it and miss it. It was from Canada, like my favorite liitle blue and white one. I still have a couple of leaves set, but I don't think I'll keep the plain purple one. the other was a blue that looked nice at the store (I got them before I realized they were Anthoflores but the blue had looked nice.) They had a lot of a peachy/white one. This one is the white one edged with red that is on their website in the planter. (My County Market Cerise) Diana

In May, I brought 13 mini Optimaras home from Lowe's. Some had multiple plants, some had suckers and some didn't. When I was done, I had 12 because I got a little carried away removing suckers from Little Maya and it had no crown :). I was tired. (The leaf has babies now). I had two extra Little Crystals. Since then I think I may have found one sucker on a plant. They are sitting in my window. They are all doing pretty well except what may be Little Comanche. It looks good but only now has a blossoms and the rest have bloomed freely. I know it was a single purple/blue. Little Blackfoot hasn't been a particularly free bloomer but it's been steady. These 2 might do better under lights. They look related. There is a pink that could be Little Coral. Minis/semis often need more light than standards. I didn't intend to keep 13 of them. I like what I think is Little Apatite but it seems like the weakest plant. I just potted that one down. Diana