Hi all, My first plant was an African violet. My grandmother was at fault. It was 1979 and I was about 23 years old and in college. I decided I would like to have a house plant and went over to her place to get some pothos cuttings. She grew wonderful looking pothos like nobody I've ever seen since. Anyway she was really thrilled that I was interested in having of houseplant and cut me several good lengths of pothos stems. When we were done with that she took me over to the window and showed me an African violet. She told me that I could take one of those leaves, put it in a glass of water, and that it would grow new plants from the base of the stem. I thought to myself, "no way", but I took a couple of those leaves home, stuck them in a glass of water as she instructed and indeed after couple months little plantlets started to grow from the bottom of the stems. I then planted them in African violet soil and had two plants. I soon took more leaves and started even more African violets. I thought it was such a coup how I was able to produce these "free" plants. Although by the time I bought the pots and soil those plants were not free. lol I then started propagating other plants. I even grew a lemon tree from a lemon seed I had harvested when making lemonade one time. My surprise was that the thing had thorns. Even though I liked my plants I can say that I was really in love with them. That would come later. I graduated from college and married a girl who was in ROTC and went into the army six months later. She was immediately sent to different schools and we traveled around the country to three different places in less than a year. Keeping plants going under those conditions was not very good and I lost a lot of plants, but not my African violets. I wound up in Washington, DC and worked for what was pretty much a white collar "sweat shop". It wasn't uncommon for me to work 60 to 70 hours a week. I needed somewhat of a diversion occasionally though and I found that diversion to be houseplants. I was very lucky to share a corner office with a couple of other people. The sunlight was incredible, and the windows were tinted so that the sun was not too harsh. I bought several starter plants and had them around my desk. To make a long story short I had a spider plant that was just magnificent and I had a Swedish Ivy that was to die for. The Swedish Ivy hung from a 9 foot ceiling and was basically a pillar all the way to the floor. I could not get my arms around the circumference of the plant. Anyway that's when my love of plants really blossomed. I continued to purchase and propagate African violets and had several to give away. My wife, who would eventually become my ex wife, and I moved to Denver. I then became acquainted with other gesneriad cousins of African violets. I went to African violet and gesneriad shows annually and met several people who grew these plants. I love all of my plants but my first love is African violets and their gesneriad cousins. Larry

Wow, 23 shoots in four days. Hmmm, that's the second one that went ballistic after incubating in a hot/sauna like garbage bag. Though the other was in for 4 weeks and may not have done so well. Maybe a week long sauna incubation is enough to make rhizomes kick into gear, then plant them. I wonder if we just learned something. I've got a red margin that I planted in a pot 6 weeks ago that's done nothing. I think I'll wrap the whole pot in a garbage bag and sit it on one of my radiators for 10 days and see what happens. gdr - I'll get you some Yellow grove in the mail, but it might be the end of next week, the next few days are busy, busy, busy! I'm setting up a hydroponic system for some winter veggies, I guess I'll experiment and see if the seeds respond well to hydroponic planting.

That's crazy that Calgary had an unusually mild winter - Saskatchewan had a colder and more snowy winter than we have had in years! Looks like all the fruit I planted last year has made it through, my honeyberries are just about to leaf out. I received my roses order from Corn Hill today, so despite the drying winds and +26 temperature, into the ground they went - with lots of water of course! I'm tempted to plant my garden with how warm it has become, but I think I'll wait until next weekend at least. This post was edited by weeper on Mon, May 6, 13 at 20:35

Sue - as promised ~ and late ~ your package is on its way! Conformation #0307 0020 0000 4013 5339, hope you have it for the weekend :) Mellisa ~ Megin loved her surprise! She recieved shower gel, lotion, lip gloss and a foot scrubby. As for feeling bad about what you sent??? NO, don't even think that - everything is WONDERFUL! In fact, Megin is doing her best to take me into starting a new quilt with her this coming weekend out of the Mickey fabric... I keep telling her that we need to finish her cousins Easter one first. Her thinking is: cousin Jenni and cousin Kayla are both having babies this summer and we need to start on the baby quilts so that they have them when they are born in case the weather gets cold. LOL If that fails she wants a new robe from the pattern you sent - when I said that I didn't have a piece of fleece big enough she comes back with - it can be like Josephs coat of many colors, only a robe! Kids... gotta love'm! Stay warm everyone! Marie