With over 10,000 named varieties, good luck. I found a pic on the AVSA site, and the flowers are indeed dark pink, with dark foliage.

Have you tried contacting the authors? They might know.

Again, good luck. There's a link below to some info on trailing AV culture from Rob's; it's pretty good.

Korina, whose Falling Stars suddenly looks like Falling Snow...

Here is a link that might be useful: Trailing Violets

Kim, I have this same book so I grabbed it to see what you see. Here's my opinion....

It's important to remember that not all photos show true color. That particular picture looks a bit "washed out" to me. It's not the best. Look at the leaves, I think you'll see what I mean. It's possible that the flowers are darker than what shows in the picture. There isn't a good leaf-back in the picture, so I can't speak to that.

The FC2 description is: Dancin' Trail (5565) 09/30/1983 (S. Sorano) Double red star. Dark green, pointed, glossy/red back. Semiminiature trailer

As far as I have found, some violets called "red" are not actually red. From the pictures in FC2, it's a very purple maroon color. The leaves are more what I call a medium green also, but that is so sujective!

If you want a pink trailer, I doubt it'll be hard to find one similar to how Dancin' Trail shows up in that photo. I did a quick search on FC2 for double pink trailers and here's a few that I saw:

Champagne Pink (7945) 10/08/1993 (S. Sorano) Double light pink pansy. Crown variegated green, white and pink, plain, ovate. Semiminiature trailer

Cirelda (3620) 03/01/1979 (P. Tracey) Double pink two-tone. Quilted. Semiminiature trailer

Dresden Doll (7259) 11/24/1989 (P. Harris) Double pale pink. Medium green, heart-shaped, pointed. Standard trailer

Lyon's Pinky Wink (7972) 10/08/1993 (S. Sorano) Double medium pink pansy. Medium green, heart-shaped, quilted, serrated. Semiminiature trailer

Rob's Willawong (8181) 06/05/1995 (R. Robinson) Semidouble bright pink sticktite pansy. Medium green, pointed. Semiminiature trailer

Rob's Wooloomooloo (8074) 03/05/1994 (R. Robinson) Double bright pink sticktite. Medium green, plain, pointed. Semiminiature trailer

There were 140 entries. Good luck at finding the one you like best!

~Brambles

Brambles,
Thanks for responding so quickly. I agree that my first thought was that the lighting in the picture was too bright but if you look closely there are two leaves (one is just below a bunch of buds in the top right corner of the picture, the other is on the opposite side at about the same height) where you can see part of the back of the leaves and it looks the same color as the front. So that is why I think the caption might be wrong.

What is FC2? Is this a website for African violets? I've noticed that a lot of the sites (mostly sellers that I found using a search engine today) showed only a picture of a flower and a leaf. I really like the habit of the AV pictures along with the double bloom, the way the stems are so long. Are all trailers like this? I couldn't find any pictures of trailers that looked like this when I did find a site that showed an entire plant. I appreciate the help. Thanks to Korina too. I'll check out that link.

Kimberly

Hi Kim,

Brambles is correct. It can be very difficult to photograph violets. I photograph my African violets and sometimes it is difficult to get a good picture. Also, the same African violet can look considerably different depending on what environment it is grown. High light or low light, watering practices and how much fertilizer that has been given all have a profound effect on how the plant looks.

I have dancin' trail and I would not call the flowers on it red. Instead I would say that they are more of a fuchsia. I have put a picture of my dancing trail below. The picture is pretty true. My dancin' trail also has some pink behind the leaves.

I hope this helps,

Larry

{{gwi:376382}}

Hi.. according to FirstClass database.. there is a Dancin' Trail (Sorano) Double red star. Dark green, pointed, glossy/red back foliage. Semi-miniature trailer. So there is a variety by this name..
It sounds like the one you might be describing.. hope this helps.

Tea

Larry,
Thanks so much for the picture. Your dancin' star looks very much like the picture in my book. I am thinking of ordering one, can you tell me where you acquired yours from? And if possible, a picture of the entire plant would be greatly appreciated. Does it trail over the edge of the pot? And are the flower stem very long? In the picture that I have I really like how the flower stems extend so far from the leaves before the buds begin.

Thanks again for the help. I love all of the forums on Garden Web, no matter what plant I have a question about, there is always someone willing to help.

Kimberly

Hi Kim,

Here is a picture of my dancin' trail. It isn't the best specimen. It's not blooming very good right now and it's not very symmetrical. The two crowns on the right are starting to trail but the one on the left is still pretty upright. But, you get the idea of what a trailing violet looks like. This violet is about 1 1/2 years old. I had a dancin' trail once that got to be 2 ft. long but it took years for it to get that way. Trailing violets are not where you have a trailing plant from the beginning. They take some time to get that way.

{{gwi:376384}}

The place I bought Dancin' Trail no longer carries it. There is an eBay auction at this moment of dancin' Trail. It ends in 2 days and 16 hours from now. The auction on eBay is from a person called Dave from The Bear Tree. He comes highly recommended and I have bought plants from him myself. I would not hesitate to buy anything from him if you have any worries about buying plants on eBay. I have included the eBay auction page for you to look at.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&satitle=African+violet+trail*

The second-place I found Dancin' Trail is a place called violets in vogue. I have never dealt with this vendor although I have heard of them. They sell only leaves.

http://violetsinvogue.com/_wsn/page4.html

I hope this helps.

Larry

PS -if you have never bought anything on eBay, e-mail me and I will give you some pointers on how to win an auction. It is not just a matter of bidding on the asking price. I wouldn't want you to lose it if you really want it.

Larry/Kim,

Violets in Vogue is one of our few Canadian violet suppliers. Their website says they are not currently shipping outside Canada.

But if you know someone over the border....

~Feegle

who *never* smuggles houseplants across international borders! Really!