Instant Attraction does have an attractive blossom. Some of those fantasies have wild foliage though. I don't know why it seems that way.

I don't know if your Edge of Darkness has done some crazy sporting or it's some other plant. It's pretty but if it's Edge of Darkness, then it's certainly unstable.

Diana in PA

its def. edge of darkness unless Lyons sent me the wrong leaf! :) yeah the foliage on Instant Attraction is a bit leggy... but it seems to be settling down. :)

Here's the description fro Lyndon Lyon Greenhouses for Edge of Darkness. It's actually not listed on their store anymore... I found this on the page "Quick Photo Lookup": Extremely dark, purple semidouble stars with a geneva edge. The edge is slightly fringed. Standard growing foliage is dark green with a red reverse. The large growing leaves are variegated in ivory on the leaf edges.

So I was curious... I love the bloom that is semi-double, light purple, with darker streaks through it... What would happen if I propagated the leaf right below that bloom stalk... would there be more chance that THAT particular leaf would send up a violet that would look more like the light purple with darker purple streaks? I know nothing about Violet genetics but would love to learn. Maybe we should start a new thread for teaching us newbies about Genetics. :-)

Well, Lyon's has sent the wrong leaf before. Still, you'd hope they didn't do it. I have Edge of Darkness so I know what it is supposed to look like. I've also seen those photos going around with the gorgeous variegation while all my plants have little to none. However the blossoms are right - dark red-purple with a thin white edge. The cameras throw it a little more to the blue than it really is - there's more red in that flower.

If you have a chimera, it won't come true from a leaf. (I'm not saying you do - just if.) All you can do is take a leaf and see what you get. Go to the AVSA sports page and look at Rebel's Splatter Kake

http://www.avsa.org/sports

This is the list of REGISTERED plants that came from Rebel's Splatter Kake (excuse the caps, I'm not yelling). True, it's notoriously unstable but it gives you an idea.

You might shoot off an picture to Lyon's and see what they say. That will check to be sure it's not something else. Send it to Paul Sorano. One thing is that we don't want to waste time messing with something we think is unique and then find out it is Lyons' Hinky Dinky or something that was just sent by accident :) (I think I made that up but you never know.) I can't see the leaves very well but I'm not sure they look quite like EOD either.

Someone said Edge of Darkness was from Apache Midnight X Plum Pudding.

If you want to learn about genetics, then I think you'll have to go somewhere else and I hope no one here is offended. Even on groups with long-time growers, their knowledge sometimes doesn't go too far in that area. Jeff Smith writes a column in the AVSA magazine (I'm not a current member) and he is an expert. I doubt he's the only one on the planet but he's the most frequently cited source.

Diana in PA

Your best bet for a plant with similar blooms would be that exact bloom stalk (cross all your fingers for it to root). If its the newest bloom, and the plant has actually sported (an actual change in genetics, rather than an expression of environment factors) then the leaf above it would yield the"new version" whereas anything further down may be used to re-gain the "original" variety.

Karin

thanks both of you. good thoughts. karin how do you root a blossom end?? the Stork book mentions it but it doesnt say how to do it. do you root it just like a leaf?

i am by no means an expert - i managed to get 1 out of 15 to root.

as i understand it, you remove the blossoms, and cut the blossom stem about 1/2" below the two little leaves. push it into the soil down to the leaves. and pray.

i didn't have that advice with shortening the stem and pushing it in down to the leaves. it may have made a difference. the reason for doing it is, that the plantlet is supposed to develop from the bud at the leaf axil (is it called that on blossom stems?), and if it is "up in the air" it cannot make roots into the soil.

i saw someone planting the blossom bit as well (without the petals or other flower parts, except for the tiny leaves that frame the peals) - no idea how that is supposed to work....

best do some of your own research too ;-)

i just tried it to be able to say i propagated chimera via bloom stalk (i have teensy tinsy leaves growing!!!). never had much riding on the outcome though (plenty of suckers to go around)....

Karin

Karin,
I think that would only work (re the leaves) if the plant had ever bloomed as "Edge of Darkness" at all. I had gotten the impression that this one didn't so probably any leaf would be fine and would tell if it was a regular sport or possible a chimera (chimera, you would get something else). Bloom stem propagation might get you the same plant but we still wouldn't know if it would come true from a leaf. Try both if you like.

Go to Violet Barn and look for bloom stem propagation. That's what I do. :)

Diana in PA

True Diana, that's what I meant to say :-)

It did make sense in my head, somehow....

This is what my Edge of Darkness blooms like...

wow. thats really red! well i wonder if this is why lyndon lyon only sells plants anymore... because they discovered how unstable ege of darkness is. mine look a bit more red in real life tgan tge pics show.

That's what my blossoms looked like too. I had a couple of plants bloom. It's the variegation that I can't get to show up or hardly at all. Big flat dark red-violet blossoms. It's probably just me, but I think the cameras do it a favor. It photographs well.

I don't understand what's with this plant. It sat there, they had the convention and there was no fuss about it, and suddenly I was seeing all these beautiful photos around (and people said they couldn't get leaves). I also saw some photos with quite heavy variegation although at least one other person had one with no variegation.

I have a small plant marked "Edge of Darkness" with totally different leaves but I would think that somehow got mislabeled. I had the leaves set in flats so it could have happened there. I expect when it blooms, I'll know what it really is. I did potting too late at night, I guess. I forget what it was marked but I looked at the plant and it was very obviously not what it said on the side, even without blossoms, you could see it was Optimara myDarling.

Diana in PA

Hi, Irina said to decide on a bloom that you like, propagate the leaf that the bloom stalk came from. The fewer parents a plant has, the less likely it is to change.

Diana, you wrote, "If you want to learn about genetics, then I think you'll have to go somewhere else and I hope no one here is offended. Even on groups with long-time growers, their knowledge sometimes doesn't go too far in that area. Jeff Smith writes a column in the AVSA magazine (I'm not a current member) and he is an expert. I doubt he's the only one on the planet but he's the most frequently cited source."

I don't think that info is easily available, except among the hybridizers.*

*Someone posted that Anthoflores made a "dig" at Optimara. Then Optimara cleverly came out with the Fifty States, so maybe there was more going on than just a really clever marketing plan.

I have never gotten a mislabelled leaf from Lyon's.

Joanne

Usually It's fantasy, but there are other varieties that don't come true from leaf reliably. when it's known, some growers tend to keep a large number of baby plants until they bloom.

I have one i was told was optimara natalie "doing her funky thing" - it compares to natalie the way this one does to edge of darkness, so you may just have a funky version ;-)

Funny, i bought two playful spectrums at a sale and gave one to a friend. mine was in isolation with not quite enough light until a couple weeks ago, so it hasn't bloomed yet, but my friend just wrote and said hers didn't bloom true (no white).

i thought it was live wire that did this, and was upset when i bought playful spectrum by mistake. maybe it wasn't, because the variable one was the plant i wanted :-) (besides, i just saw live wire at the show and didn't like it)

Karin

There are a number of plants known to be "changeable" or unstable if you prefer. I've never grown "Playful Spectrum" but I always assumed that the name acknowledged this. I think it is Bloomin' Jungle that sells "Snow Jewel" and says no two blossoms are the same. I bought it just to see what it looked like but it hasn't bloomed yet. Apparently the fantasy in many fantasies is unstable. Karin, I believe Live Wire is an unstable one too if my memory serves. Or we can just say it can be hard to get one that's right; how about that? I'm growing every copy of Splatter Kake I can manage in the hopes of getting a nice one. Irish Flirt is supposed to be another one that sports regularly. I'd better quit before I think of others.

What Anhoflores says on their website is this: "Anthoflores® is
the only African violet entirely tissue culture bred, propagated and
grown in North America and is guaranteed free of overseas pathogens." Now who do we know who has overseas facilities? Hmm. Could it be... Optimara?

Well all I wanted to say was remember above when I said I'd found the pot marked "Edge of Darkness" and it was obviously "myDarling?" Tonight I was going over some badly neglected trays of plants. I got too many leaves last year and what with the heat running all the time, I've just been trying to keep them alive. I found this pot and I thought, "That's the worst looking plant of Optimara myDarling I've ever seen!" Then I realized what had happened, lol. It was Edge of Darkness. To be fair, it had been neglected so that probably accounted for how lopsided it was but it was sure green. No variegation there. I'm not sure how I did that because it's just those two plants. All the other copies of both of them are marked right. I don't know why I'm letting them bloom - I don't think they'll do anything different.

I have gotten a mislabeled leaf from Lyons. It can happen from anybody although I'm sure there are places where it's more likely than others.

I'm still not 100% that is Edge of Darkness. Why don't you ask Lyon's what they think? Take the whole plant's photo. Edge of Darkness does have a very dark blossom with the Geneva edge and dark flat leaves. I just don't like reddish purples so much. Apparently it's not a show stopper here because it sat on the island and DH never mentioned it either. Now Kei-Yoki is blooming single and he thinks that one's great. I have another strain so maybe it will be semidouble/double and save me the "what to do." The single is pretty.

Did you get other plants from the leaf that are true? You got two leaves, right? It seemed to be fairly prolific. I had enough of them to start marking them "Optimara" :D.

Since neither Optimara Maui nor Starry Night Blue is supposed to be variegated, they aren't quite the same since EOD is supposed to have variegation. There is no rhyme or reason to what will show it where either. Top shelf is just fine for some plants; others aren't showing it at all. I may have to wait until I can free some window space.

Diana in PA

Gee, Karin. Who keeps all those baby plants? Or do you just mean nuts like us, not vendors? The vendors just seem to sell us the lemons.

Diana in PA

loblaws just posted a good one on their website: "if life gives you lemons, add sugar to your shopping list". sorry, but i thought that was rather neat.

i've quit growing too many plantlets, unless i plan on taking them to a club sale. after a whole year of growing them, i have had to learn to let the runts go.

maybe if i was more "into" ordering leaves and showing plants, i would care more and actually research my varieties. as it is. i am still researching how to fix problems...

thrips, chloramines, root rot, now mealybugs. learn something new all the time....

Edge of Darkness seems to be the new "it" - yeah it's nice looking in photos, but seriously, AV fashions? i also don't "get" the hugely ruffled russians. give me a single star bloom any day :-)

by the time i change my mind, all that stuff will be hard to obtain again....

Karin

I'm only growing so many because now I'm panicked that they won't come true. All these fantasies and things like that. Harbor Blue - don't need 6. Some of them though, they hardly look like the same plant. I'm not into what I call the "ball 'o stuff" ones either. Maybe years ago they would have appealed to me more. Edge of Darkness is okay, especially if you were to get a variegated one. As I said, the color just wasn't my favorite.

I'm waiting until I see everyone here showing off those fantastic Ukrainian blossoms. I have a few russians now and they seem nice. Some are rather large. After saving about 20 Pink Watercolors, I have one that bloomed nicely.

Diana in PA

diana - oh my word you must have SCADS of space! i have to keep my violets down to one violer of each variety .. and Ive been known to pitcj half grown plants because 'i already have one'! i gave my other edge of darkness baby to my mil... along with the extra instant attraction one. im curious if hers bloom true.

karin - love that saying. in my case it would be ...add stevia to the shopping cart. :-P

oops.... i absolutely love the huge double+ blooms! :-) but im sure they arent for eveeyone. i love how they look like mini peony blooms.

joanne - do you have pics of starry night blue and maui? im scared now to go by what comes up on google images... :)

Su

Hi Su, I don't have pics of starry night blue because I do not know how to upload photos to this new format, even though it is in bloom now.

8 Comments

thanks Joanne!

i have several similar to that actually... they are just in leaf stage right now but Blue Mist is similar to starry night blue isnt it? (i looked that up on google images). not identical i kmow - but they are both big double blue blooms. thank you tho!

i am sticking to the conviction that this is EOD. sorry. gonna stick to that. :) really it inly has had the one bloom so far that is totally off... and that happens. all of the other mature blooms look like the picture on the website... and match the desciption. :)

(please excuse the typos!)

Su

Most likely, it is EOD. Blue Mist, a Russian, is much more full of petals and a much lighter blue. I don't have it yet, but it might be on order, or on a wish list. Joanne

In that case, I would love to have Starry Night Blue... but I'm not sure what I have that you would be interested in to trade? Here's pictures of what I have available...

http://www.houzz.com/user/shihtzu4su/

Click on the ideabook, "My Gesneriads".

Su

Sure, I would be happy with a leaf of your plant you are trying to i.d. If you are just getting back into violets, you might want to wait a bit longer. Your Optimaras are also pretty and some of them could be identified by looking at the Optimara identification chart. They have a big poster that displays their most recent violets. Some of yours are probably on it. Starry Night Blue in my opinion is similar to Edge of Darkness but has more petals and I like the color better. I have found i don't care for violets that are so dark, the color does not "pop." It is all a matter of personal taste and experimenting with different plants. Joanne

.

Updated:

It is AMAZINGLY hard to get the color accurate on a Edge of Darkness! This is fairly true to bloom color, because I edited the picture... but the leaves are NOT that olive colored. It really doesn't have much purple in the blooms at all... it's mostly a reddish color, with just a tad of slight purple between the white edge and the reddish center.

Once more... this is fairly true to bloom color... but NOT leaf color! :-)

Hi, it is pretty, whatever the color looks like in person. As Diana sad, Starry Night is not a fantasy so it can't really compare. It is hard to get the color right with a photo. It will also look different on various monitors. We have had discussions on the forum about how the colors photograph with cell phone cameras as compared with cameras with filters and how the camera eye sometimes sees things the human eye misses. Someone even did a study of the same violet photographed in different lights and in different filters. It probably is EOD. Hope you like it. Joanne

Maybe it's me, but I'm not sure those pink/blue fantasies photograph very well. What do you think? Some blossoms photograph better than they really look.

Diana in PA

Just got done reading this entire page and boy did I ever enjoy this discussion! Who can ya trust as far as the big companies anymore? My feeling is.....if I order a leaf then THAT is what it is. (within reason). Course if I order a red and get a white I am gonna wonder if I got a new leaf OR am I lucky enough to have a "sport"?????

I enjoy growing my violets and I love reading all of the threads and posts and different opinions and seeing photos of violets I drool over and will never own! (geeze that was a long sentence!)

It is fascinating how we strive for growing perfection, accuracy in names and all the rest of our issues that are never resolved. But we keep on keeping on!!!

Just read my post and I am not sure if I am making sense or rambling. Either way,,,,I am glad all of us just keep talking, giving opinions, sharing different views and post LOTS of photos. This group really educates me!!! Rosie

Oops, forgot to say that the EOD & SN are two very beautiful violets!

The comment made by Diana about Lyon's Hinky Dinky (yes I know she made that up!) made me laugh. I do believe Lyon had a violet named Inky Pink back in the day. In fact I am almost sure of it. And it was a pink splashed with purple ink type spots fantasy! I owned it for a long time, one of my favorites!!!! The similarity in reference just made me giggle!!! Rosie

diana - no it didnt photograph better than it is in real life! the COLOR of these blooms really blows me away! i think it has a fitting name - instant attraction. :) the foliage isnt as compact and orderly as i like. but its not bad.... and getting better. :)

thanks for the comments everyone!

Starry Night Blue. One of my favs!

oh wow! gorgeous!

linda, did you get the message that i sent replying to your PM? just making sure it went through...

Su

No, I didn't get anything.

Linda

Just a thought in reference to Diana- As a degreed and practicing professional Horticulturist, I have to disagree with your statement about no one knowing genetics here. Genetics are an area of expertise of mine as well as tropisms.

Linda

could you message me your email address?

Oh! I was just looking at the Lyndon Lyon website... Could my "Edge of Darkness" be COSMIC BLAST?????

Website Description: "WOW! Very large, dark purple (stick-tite) single stars have delightfully frilled edges, which are outlined in white. Bright fuchsia/red fantasy puffs illuminate the flower face. A slight red blush glows in the flower's eye. Each leaf is perfectly outlined in white variegation. The standard growing, large foliage is dark green, with a red reverse."

Su, that is stunning! Rosie

thanks Rosie! the flowers are absolutely HUGE. :-) they are almost as big as a flat Ball canning lid!

Ohhhhhh,,,,,,Must you tempt me like this??? I have SUCH an addiction to violets!!!! That is a HUGE blossom! What are you feeding that plant? lol Rosie

Since we are playing show and tell, here are photos of the two new ones I have to look up. Bought them at Meijers...,,,,,Optimara's???? Any guesses????

Photo shows true color, purple color came out good.

The blue should be just a hair bluer in both photos but it is pretty close.

Here are the two side by side just for giggles!

As usual, there are a couple sucker babies that are pretty large that I have to get off. AND I am sure I will break leaves by accident doing it,,,,I always do so If anyone wants leaf I will trade ya for something!!!!!

Most of the flowers on both violets have 4 petals. White or mostly white on top and 3 lower ones. But there are a couple flowers that look like they want to split on that top petal. And there can be a little shading on the top petal also.

For now I will list them in my trade ideabook until I run out of leaves. (they will also be in my other ideabook that shows my violets (on my profile page).

Su, It looks like you are having fun with your violets! I have found that a lot of the Lyon's purple/violet colors tend to look somewhat like each other. They are different, however, the photos in the on-line catalog are small and show only one leaf, so it can be really hard to tell which is which. I find that with other colors of Lyon's, too. They sometimes have slight differences. Even the "registered" ones. I guess that must come from their doing a lot of hybridizing and trying to improve their existing stock or coming up with new ones. It seems that sometimes the new ones are only a little bit different from the older ones. Joanne

Did the rest of the buds open on Instant Attraction yet?

There's still a few more to go... the flowers fade pretty fast, so I've been pinching them off... and there's still only about four flowers on the plant. This is another one that I like, but I'm not sure it's one I will keep. Who knows. :-)

Su

Is this the first bloom or maybe the humidity is low? It might act differently next time. It's so pretty! I love the Geneva edge.

yeah its the first bloom... is that why its more sparse?? ahha... lightbulb. :)

NEWS FLASH.

I heard back from Paul at Lyndon Lyon Greenhouses, and he said it is NOT Edge of Darkness... and that it is nothing like anything they have on their website! SO... he said EOD must have sported! So whoever got a leaf from me... well... you just got a one of a kind leaf from a noid never before seen violet. :-P

WOW! Now I can't wait to see what happens!!!! I will love it anyway,,no matter what it turns out to be! Rosie