oh, thanks!
i go purely by looks: ultra-superficial, i know!
the last 2 that subverted me, got me into hot water: DH was giving me dirty looks for a week...(those blue thumbprints i was asking about).
after i saw the artist series...hm-m i realized how much better my collection could be , IF i ordered online!
but i am swamped with plants as is ;) . to a point that i started killing off suckers without remorse! making exception just for new plants to get a double or two.
and they grow and grow and take over the shelves...and refuse to die! kidding :)...
for now it's mostly HD and supermarket 'what-ever-catches-my-eye' and i can smuggle in. hard to conceal the premeditated online order!
been growing AVs for 5? years and guess my conditions are pretty favorable for them, 'cause they grow like weeds for me, honest :).

...went and counted... i am at 38?! now actually (been blindly deceiving myself that i have only 20smth...) and patiently waiting on 4 more suckers :0...

Lol, start a seed pod and quintuple your numbers!

I was reading on the violet reflections group, how they find newbies a 'sponsor' who hooks them up with some named varieties, if they have less than 20 (named ones). I thought I'd qualify, but I am nearly there! Not to mention all my noids and seedlings!
I have actually started neglecting other plants to make room for more violets... (Who needs a ficus anyways? :-p )

They multiply as you aren't watching....

Hi petrushka. Would you be willing to part with any of your a v leaves or babies. I live In Texas and would reimburse postage if you do. Please let me know . bc31754@gmail.com.

Geez. I killed off a bunch of mine because I quit watering them for a couple of years. Well, not totally but almost. At the end of it when I surveyed the mess that was left, I had to decide whether to toss everything in the trash or attempt to restart what wasn't dead. That was around last Sept. When I counted in the spring, I had 49 or 50. (I didn't buy any new ones.) Amateurs! ;-)

I was trying to find a tomato seed packet to see what we were eating and found Park's violet seeds. I told DH that's just what we needed.

Diana

o-ops! i stepped right into it!
there goes my untarnished record...
jessie, i'm sorry, i do not send out plants in general, as it is more pleasant to visit a dentist then to track to the nearest PO for me ;). one such trip for sending photos stretched into a 2yr guilt-ridden project ;(.
and in addition, i am having a particularly unpleasant greenhouse thrip problem at the moment. they are not supposed to hunger for AVs....but somehow they were not well informed and are overstepping the legal boundaries!
that is to say i haven't disbudded AVs ASAP and they dug in and are persisting, so would not be a good time even if i went into 'po therapy' to improve my outlook.
and on top of that - all mine are NOID cheapos, not worth 2cents in postage, all things considered.

i regretted my prior statement: i don't want to get jinxed...
here's a plug of my very pretty and worth growing NOID violets ;).
all obtained for $1.49-2.49 and grown with reasonable care.
47,
i hope to see your new lyons when you get them.

Nice growing!

Blooms at my house are sparse right now - i disbudded everything after seeing one thrip. then sprayed, then added a systemic to the water. then i was seeing deformed blooms, so those had to go as well.

gah.

and how to tell DH that i am using double the space now and have no blossoms? yup, not an easy conversation.

at least my hoya is in bloom. he's never seen one of those flowering, so that's a victory.

as for jessie, please try and contribute a bit more than requests for leaves. or keep it to the swap/trade forum.

Karin

well, i gave in and went to look at lyons.
of course, it is possible to swing some stuff for some ...special occasion?
so,
russian mystic mermaid , cosmic blast, lunar eclipse, pink pearls, private dancer, taffeta petticoats and chimeras: cherry princess and concord.
or in other words...
russian mystic mermaid on lunar eclipse had a cosmic blast dream. she was a private dancer for cherry princess in taffeta petticoats and pink pearls. she flew on a concord.
now you!

OK
Buckeye Colossal, Apache Brave, Cranberry Crush, Bold Party Girl, Bubble Gum Charm Buckeye Butterflies, Best Friends, Buffalo Hunt, Apache Holiday, Betty Jean Caribbean Blue

Buckeye Colossal and Apache Brave both had a Cranberry Crush on Bold Party Girl. Even though her Bubble Gum Charm gave them Buckeye Butterflies, they were Best Friends so went on Buffalo Hunt for Apache Holiday and left Betty Jean Caribbean Blue

This post was edited by lucky123 on Tue, Aug 5, 14 at 21:57

LOL!

Diana

Now I know my ABC AVs!

i had hick-ups! i had to read it to DH.
though some of the lucky's wheren't currently listed.
by heart order?

Zoe and Startrick had a Secret Rendevouz. In Perfect Harmony, they sat at The Edge of Darkness, observing the Optical Illusion of Cosmic Art in the Red Sun Rising, eating Ness' Cranberry Swirl ice cream.... What a Scandal.

Problem is, they're all standards, and I have neither room, nor a spare $120 for shipping and phyto.
Still, your stories cracked me up, and I'll be looking for these varieties closer to home :-)

Karin

Here's mine .... Elizabeth blinked in the Warm Sunshine and lent her Party Dress to Nancy Leigh when she found Jean Pierre had sipped a Frosty Brandy and slipped into a Louisanna Lullaby by Moonlit Waters. Decked out like a Lacy Lass in Vintage Lace, Marie Lorraine heard a knock on the door. Her Heart's Aflutter like a Smitten Kitten, and all Winter Smiles, she dreamt of Zaney Love Bites and a Fiery Dance but had to settle for a Twinkle Twirl because it was Just Jeff.
;0)

Joanne
That is outstanding!

Karin
Very Clever!

This post was edited by lucky123 on Wed, Aug 6, 14 at 0:56

Nice one Joanne!

Interesting how we all picked different ones. Though Just Jeff should be on my list too, and I am sure there were a few more...

Karin
I just made up a story using the ABC section of Lyons.
What is on my list?
Species,
Variegated ??
That is about it.
I had a really good African Violet Day today. My grandifolia 299 which I am always on the brink of losing, made mouse ears.
Good day, good conversation and so I bid you all a Good Night

This post was edited by lucky123 on Wed, Aug 6, 14 at 11:58

Karin, Don't you need all of the Mac's Reds ... and what about that Sun Scorched red that has white leaves?!
Joanne

This post was edited by fortyseven on Sat, Aug 16, 14 at 21:52

I am sorry Karin , I don't know very much about all this. I didn't think I was doing any thing wrong. But if I am I am sorry . You see where Is a very small town in south Texas . I am disable . If I order plants on line they together with shipping cost me a fortune. So that's why I try to find some here and reimburse postage. So again If I am doing wrong I'm sorry. Jessie

Jessie
Karin said, "Join In"
Contribute to the discussion.
An African Violet from Walmart or Home Depot is cheaper than postage from just about anywhere.
Then contribute your unique experience of growing that African Violet in your particular area of Texas. Texas is a big place. The East is wet, the West is dry.

This post was edited by lucky123 on Wed, Aug 6, 14 at 11:32

Pet rushes, beautiful photos. How did you get them all on one page?

Hi see what spell check did with your name? Oy!
J

Jessie,
Requests for leaves are usually posted on the Exchange Forum. The guidelines for requesting leaves are posted in the Instructions. You might want to review them. While sometimes folks might be willing to send leaves, that is their personal decision. Usually , most people get experience by growing the Optimaras they buy in local stores because they are easy and cheap compared to the more touchy and expensive specialty violets. Hope this gentle reminder of forum purpose and guidelines is helpful.
Joanne

Jessie, it isn't about contributing knowledge others don't have, but joining in, as Joanne mentioned. Threads like this one are a perfect opportunity, we're just having a bit of fun here...
With time, people get to know you. They will probably even offer to share plants.
Lucky, for example, got a haul of plants from another forum member. And we're all kept current on how well they are doing. And we are all amused by the little idiosyncrasies. And we all know lucky will never, ever, ever let go of those precious plants ;-p
I'm in Canada, so sharing is a bit trickier. But I've kept looking and found someone in my area who doesn't belong to a club either, but loves to grow African violets.
So, let us get to know you. Be more than "oh that's a beautiful plant, will you send me some?" - which is all I ever noticed you posting, that's why the comment....

Joanne has posted two comments in the time I wrote this, and she made a lot of sense, in a more polite way than me :-)

So, just join in & have fun, we don't bite. Usually ;-p

Karin

pet...rushes... i was beginning to wonder if you meant i rushed to plug-in my pics ;(, when i saw the other post. :).
that's funny, though some people abbreviate to 'pet' understandably (though it actually never occurred to me that they would, silly me).
i devised my name to have a few interpretations which are not readily apparent... and wound up with a 'pet' :(.
i do use a decent digital camera sony nex-c3 with a zoom+ digital macro zoom.
and then i just use 'paint' on windows.

Here is a link that might be useful: how to use windows 'paint' for pic combos

Joanne, if you get windows paint to work for you, you'll have one photo-editing-skill I will never possess ;-)

Petrushka, (ha, my phone spells it right) If I had to guess, I'd say it's a diminutive form of Petra. My aunts name is Petra, no one would ever dare calling her 'pet' ;-p

Karin

it's very close, but not quite. that's the one i didn't think of. so one more is added to the possibilities! with stress on 1st syllable?
the actual stress is on the 2nd, though.

of course you have germanic name/handle and now based on spelling i am guessing bavarian connection?
and i know what it means.. but i won't tell!

Karin
LOL
If necessity is the mother of invention
Then success is the brother to charity.
Already I have promised a plant to a friend who gave me plants and leaves. When my purple walmart rescue noid blooms, it will make a fine gift for mother. I have a few suckers and leaves coming along that will also make fine gifts. I can't keep them all, however Precious :)
But nothing, especially not bugs, heat, low humidity or cold is getting my main collection,
My Precious!

This post was edited by lucky123 on Wed, Aug 6, 14 at 19:43

Petrushka, Germanic roots yes, but a bit further south than Bavaria.
(Froeschli = little frog, in Swiss German)

Hello yall . First of all I want to say how sorry I am
For responding the way I did. I know it is no excuse , But i Was having a very bad day. I realy appreciate all the advice from you all. I realy enjoy reading about all your plants and hope some day I can have some to talk about. I have learned a lot from all of you. Again please accept my apologies. Keep up the good work. and y'all do have some beautiful
plants. Someday I hope to have some pics. On here. :). Jessie

Jessie
Go to the local BBS and find at least one (1) African Violet. After you bring it home, tell us about it or post a picture.

The thing is, I don't let strangers babysit my kids and I am very reluctant to send plants or leaves to someone who may not know how to care for them.

It is disappointing for the person receiving the plants and leaves when the small plants and leaves, stressed enough by shipping, fail to grow as expected. It is a waste of plant material. And it is a waste of expensive postage..

So stand up, testify. Show and Tell

PETRUSHKA
My computer does not try to spell check all caps! I posted my Lyon 's goodies on the Gallery , joanne

Petrushka, what beautiful plants, you are one great grower, they all look so healthy. Do you know the name of the pink and white one in the center left of your photo? I have the exact same plant and have tried to research it. Thanks for sharing the picture.

47, you can type PR for short, if you find the name too long:), i'll catch on...
perle, thank you!
all of mine are NOID's and i am forever trying to find at least smth close ...but failing for quite a few, including that pink.
here's a better close-up. the buds open up with greenish edges.
did you make any guesses yet?

Wow what a great close up. Now I can see the edges are more frilly than my plant, mine has the red/pink eye and the exact leaves as yours. I am stumped, but it is a very beautiful plant. Your plant in the middle on the right, the one with the dark leaves looks like Optimara Maui. I assume these are probably Optimaras if you got them at Home Depot. Have you gone to the Optimara Info site to ID them? Some are easy to ID, but others not so easy.
You sure have a green thumb with them

yah, i looked at optimara and anything i can find. the plain or with geneva edge are ea-sier (thanks for 'maui' hint - that's likely what it is - it has leaf red reverse and all..; it looked like a few other non-opti ones too... but they are unlikely).
my most problematic are bi-color white/pinks and that left bottom white with blue-eye. it's sporting nicely with some pin-wheels. i tried rooting the bloom, and could even see the bud beginning to develop, but then the stem rotted.
i got keikigrow just now - and i'll give it a try on the stem, without cutting it off (just like they do for orchids).
i should post in sep thread, prolly. sorry for side-tracking here.
i am only now, after 5? years of growing, am getting into names. AV's are just a side-kick for me to get some winter flowers indoors in gloomy season.

This post was edited by petrushka on Tue, Aug 12, 14 at 11:03

There have been people who find plants that are not Optimara or even Anthoflores at garden centers. I remember someone posting one that was unmarked and certainly appeared to be Frozen in Time.

While we shouldn't jump to naming them from all the registered varieties, we occasionally find someone who has a source that's not just Optimara or Anthoflores either.

There are only a few that really stick out without their tags.

I didn't answer about Pen 'n' Ink, but there is such a big deal about "box store" plants and how you move "up" to the named ones and then we can't tell the difference between a well known hybridizer's plant and TWO box store varieties. Now maybe if I'd grown Pen 'n' Ink, I could say it was different. That was why I reacted that way, Petrushka.

So what is your main interest beside great big Ming Aralias?

Diana

One of my favorite plants i got at a local grower. It is very strong, grows in a perfect whorl, and when one leaf broke off, it developed three perfectly formed replicas. Joanne

This post was edited by fortyseven on Sat, Aug 16, 14 at 22:01

see, i don't even know that opti's are parias?! in exclusive circles...ha-ha!
lyon's varieties are very appealing to me, i have to say.
and you put me on them, 47!
but you did not say exactly which ones you got! names? then i can look them up by pics? and post a composite pic for you.
i know, in specialized circles big-box plants are like mac-n-cheese...but i often try my hand first at growing easy pretty accessible replaceable plants before i venture deeper. so i get the culture right.
i grow a lot of tropicals. seems aroids are attracting more-n-more of my attentions: have african masks, thai aglaonema, some caladiums (often keep them totally indoors), couple of flowering anthuriums.
got a few broms to rebloom indoors, which is not easy.
used to grow a few cattleyas, oncidiums, brassias, but now only have light for phals (just barely enough).
and lots of big ficuses and jades and aralias.
and the requisite holiday cacti, begonias, amaryllis - just reg big-box varieties though.
all indoors and a small balcony, so keeps me ultra busy and supplies are very hard to come by in NYC.
here's my NW/N/NE window 'fish bowl' 3-sided fl-to-ceil-glass with curtains drawn - very hard to get a good pic when back-lit.
this is last year summer. now it's even more crowded ;), since i got many more special more showy plants since.
and i reshuffle a lot of plants for better light/displays.
it's becoming a full time job. and i can't quit...and need to do many other interesting things and travel. hence i grow most of my plants on wicks (which i learned about here, in AV forum! and adopted for most of my plants).
sorry, if lengthy...it's obviously one of my fave topics ;).

HI PR
Gorgeous photo.
thank you for your offer to make a photo composite or collage for me, I am getting ready to make a poster for my AV sale in Sept.
I don't know how to download a photo from the forum.

This is off topic for the Forum, so would you be ok with continuing this discussion by email?

Joanne

This post was edited by fortyseven on Sun, Aug 17, 14 at 12:54

okie-dokie!
when you position mouse cursor on a pic and click right with a mouse once and release - the drop-down menu opens with sev options. roll the mouse to highlight the one you want, like 'save the image as' : left click the mouse on that and it'll pop the std explorer saving page - where you can type-in your name (just do not change the extension whether it is png or jpg,etc) and save it where you want it.
that is provided you're on a computer, not phone.
i'll give you a small combo right here that you can download.
there is a size-limit here on pics, though.
if you want, i can e-mail you a much large image thru e-mail as an attachment. it'll be better resolution for a poster.
yeh, i can also make a nifty collage or sev - pick'n choose. windows 7 has a very nice collage option.
just post names and we'll get rolling!
i choose not to receive e-mails thru these forums, but i'll e-mail you thru yours.

Very interest group of plants! Way back, I used to grow (sometimes just try to grow) many other kinds of plants. Now I really try to limit what I tackle. I shake my head when I remember the plants we had to haul around on the back of a truck!

Somehow I now have 12 holiday cactus, several of them are named. That was a bit of an accident this Feb. We'll see if any bloom.

I think it's wiser to learn the ropes on locally available, healthy african violets instead of mail ordering and being disappointed. Not every Lyon's plant grows well; not every Optimara plant is the same either but you don't pay all that shipping. I was probably 40 years old before I bought a NOID. I had grown Optimaras right along but they had names in the early years.

My mom grew all named violets but after she died, they had lost their names. Suddenly what was left of her collection were NOIDS. That's when I realized what BS some of this really amounted to. Were we growing plants or pots with names on them? A good plant is a good plant. A bad plant is a bad plant.

Diana

Hi PR
Thanks for the great info and instructions. I will work on them and see what I can do. I think you gave me enough info that I can figure it out with a little help from a computer guru at work.

If you would ever like to email anyone on the forum,
you can click on
the "my page" button which will take you to a button that says "send me an email."

I don't think it shows the sender's email, I think it just goes back and forth thru GW.

I don't want to put the names on the web as it is off topic,
but I will try to do this on my own and let you know if I get stuck. Thanks again
joanne

quimoi,
i am certainly not concerned much about names, i only grow what appeals to me visually that i pick up on the fly on the whim. i do prefer to pick up AV's in bloom in person, just as with orchids.
at least for now...
47,
i know that personal e-mails don't show, but as my internet policy i prefer not to receive e-mails thru forums.
i am a software developer by profession and we tend to be paranoid about internet safety. or should i say 'total unsafety'?
hm-m, not sure i understand about off-topic. this is your post about lyons sale, so what can be more on topic that plants that you liked enough to buy?
in any case, it'll prolly be better to take it off-line. i'll be in touch.

Hi PR
Your occupation is fantastic!! That is a great one to have! Glad you found this forum as I have read others complain on other forums that this one is not up to date in its technology. Or is too public. With other forums, the sign in and approval process is more private. But we don't seem to get hacked too often.
When I said off topic, I only meant that asking about how to make a poster is probably off-topic because I have never read of anyone discussing topics like that on this forum. Probably most people are not too interested in that as a topic. Joanne

You're ALL a bunch of amateurs when it comes to plant count. I currently have 504 varieties. Not plants; varieties with more plants than I care to count. I think that makes me Queen! ;)

I didn't read through all of these so I don't know if this was offered or not but-Jessie, I will send you leaves if you can wait until mid-September. I know Optimaras were mentioned but, although they are good growers, some of us find them a bit dull.

Let me know!

Linda (The Queen)

LINDA
Further down the threads, someone posted that they had found Garnet Elf
Did you get the message?
Did you get the plant?

I got a message about two weeks ago from Karin. She sent me the owner's e-mail but I have not heard back from them.

I haven't been on in a while. I will check the latest threads.

Thanks!

Linda

the QUEEN SPOKE ;)!

Update on my order. The dozen plants that arrived from Lyon's are all doing well. The 15% off sale is still going on so I placed an order for leaves. For the minimum amount of postage, 20 to 22 leaf sets of 2 each can be ordered. They are priced in just two categories, no matter the cost of the plant, either $2.75 or $3.50. Joanne

This post was edited by fortyseven on Sun, Aug 17, 14 at 12:52