I've seen them at several nurseries. Some even at a grocery store, but you had to buy the $7 decorative pot with it there....

Bloomlovers has some. And I am sure they are floating about "out there". Maybe check with your local club, or the Facebook trading pages...

Karin

Wish I could help, but I just don't see minis other than our local nursery & their price is now $3.99. I thought I'd read that Optimara may start to supply them to more of their outlets but I'm not certain of that.

Terri

thank you Karin! :) when i went looking at bloom lovers i got on a search for moonstone because that was the one i most wanted and they did not have it.. then i found it and several others on my wishlist at bluebird greenhouses!! now if only i can convince my DH that i 'need' ten more varieties... hmm. :-P

Better than ten more shelves ;-)

lol - that'll be next! :-P

Terri i wish i would see them at our local greenhouse and lowes. i can barely find the regular size let alone the minis.

while we are on the subject of minis...

can i keep all of my semi-minis and semi mini trailers in 2" pots permanently? like as long as i repot them (into the same pot) once or twice a year will they be ok to just keep leaves plucked and keep them small? I have little 2" wide and 1" deep condiment cups that I have been using for semi minis.. and 1.5" pots that I have been using for the minis. I just want to make sure that I have the right size pots in mind for the semi-minis! I don't want to hurt them by being under-potted... I didn't know if it's possible to kill a plant by underpotting? I thought I could just take off the big bottom row of leaves and repot the violet into the same pot, covering the neck.. but I wanted to be sure that this was indeed OK to do. :-)

Su

Miniatures and semi-minis can stay in 2 to 2.5" pots forever with occasional freshening of the potting mix. The 1.5" pots should be ok for minis, but I personally wouldn't go any smaller than that. As for trailing varieties, this is a bit more complicated. The terms standard, semi-mini, and mini only refer to leaf sizes when it comes to trailers. The leaf blade of mini trailers are about 0.5-1", semi-mini trailers are 1-1.5", and standard trailer leaves are larger than 1.5" when mature. The overall plant for any size trailer can grow to be quite large if you allow it to, or you can prune them back to keep them more manageable. I know a person who often grows semi-mini trailers to at least 12" wide, and it's a single plant. Some trailer varieties are more compact than others, and I find many of the popular Rob's varieties to be more open-growing, sprawling types.

Mark

thank you Mark! thats all very helpful. :) so my miniatures might actually be ok in a 2" condiment cup? i have lil balerina here and its leaves just barely cover the edge of the 1.5" pot... and its not blooming anyhow, so i was tempted to move it to a 2" pot so i dont have to water it so often!

http://www.violetbarn.com/faq/faq_page_13.html#What%27s%20a%20mini?

Violet Barn on miniatures and pot sizes.

http://www.violetbarn.com/faq/faq_page_12.html#microminis

Info on "forced" micro-miniatures.

Last year I got 13 Optimara "minis" at Lowes. They were a mixed bunch. Some were true minis. Some were much larger. I just guessed at the pots (they came in a very small pot which is actually a nice thing to have). They were under $2 each and were in a colored plastic cache pot. It didn't seem like there was much interest in them. This was a week or two after Mother's Day. One was a white Little Ottawa. One was Little Azurite but it didn't hold its edge. One was Little Crystal but it gets big. I think one that's small may be Apatite but I haven't asked for an id. There was one I didn't keep because it was a shy bloomer and another small one (red) , plus Little Maya and some larger ones.

Diana in PA

WOW... if you find something like that at your lowes again, would you get them for me and I'll pay shipping and everything!! ;-) I kinda decided that the only one I would actually order from somewhere is Little Moonstone... but if I could get a-hold of some of those at Lowes... wow. I sure would. :-)

I will look at those links. I read some Violet Barn stuff on miniatures a few months back.. but a refresher is always good. :-)

Su

My only concern with a 2" condiment cup is that they tend to be extremely shallow. They would be more like a 2" pan pot. A 2" azalea pot (these are between pan pots and regular pots in depth) is generally used. Pan pots are often used for trailers once they need to get potted into 4-5" pots or so. I've even seen people use the drip tray from 12" pots for potting trailers as well.

OK... so where would I find 2" azalea pots? I thought that shallow pots were a good thing, but maybe I was mistaken. Mine are maybe 1.5" deep.. the 3" ones are about 2" deep. Maybe a shade less.

edit: found some 2" pots on ebay! and the condiment cups are 2.5" across and 1" deep. its a bummer if those arent the best cause i was going to wick water using a 1/4 pint canning jar and these cups... and it works perfectly. but if they would be happier in deeper pots than i deffinitely want to go that route.

My Violets · More Info

I don't get to Lowe's very often and that was the only time I've seen minis. That's why I bought 13 :)

Diana

Diana - oh bummer. ;-) Well, I'm considering placing an order for the things on my wish list this fall... so I'll probably get some Optimara miniatures then. You made me want to go check out our Lowes and Home Depot next week, after Mothers Day is over! ;-)

I don't know. I mean I would have thought they'd have gotten them for Mother's Day. But I know it was after. At least if you order, you know the name. A few were obvious but I have several with guesses and an "O. I have no idea." I meant to get them blooming and get photographs and try to get ids from Optimara. I think I have Tourmaline and Little Creek, maybe Coral but they are guesses. As I said only about 4-5 were really small. 2-3 had a distinctly differnt habit like they were a different line entirely. I did not get Oneida although it was there.

I expected if I saw them, they'd be in teapots or something but they were in these little plastic wicked pots with the colored outer ones so I was happy enough. I guess I'm not the only one, but I haven't gotten any annoucements yet this year.

Diana in PA

I just went and looked at her auctions. She's got Little Maya up now and she probably has others if you ask her. I bought 5 from her and 4 are doing good, one lost its crown so I'm waiting to see if a sucker will grow in to replace it. Of course, it was the one I wanted most, Little Cheyenne

I've done a leaf exchange with someone who wanted some leaves from my collection. We sent each other a bunch of leaves by priority mail. It just takes a while to get an actual plant...

About the mini's and Lowe's. I have gotten to know the people who work the Lowe's garden dept and now I am starting to bug them to get "different" things in like mini's and streps. I told them the orchids although nice and I do buy them are wearing a little thin. I go in once a week and just in the general course of looking at plants I will ask when are they gonna get some mini's etc in and he says "workin' on it!" Even they agree they are getting too much of the same stuff and it gets thrown out!

Guess all we can do is bug them a little! They had mini's in a couple few years ago and never again.

So I am asking everytime I go now. Squeaky wheel gets the oil!!!!! Rosie

I have been chatting with this person, ny4216350, who loves mini and micro mini's and she is looking for more of the same. She is trying to navigate the new gardenweb forum and I am helping her. Her name is Motoko.

She wants to trade for more micro minis (she can't do larger because of room) and I told her I would keep my eye out for some of the things on her list as I don't have micro mini's to offer.

If anyone is interested get ahold of her and "follow" her so the two of you can message! She has some really nice want and have lists! Rosie

Just wanted to put it out there for anyone looking for smaller pots. Repotme.com has 1.5", 2.25" and 3" and all other bigger sizes. Agree lowes and such stores need to start carrying more items!

Watch Little Cheyenne. It has a tendency to birth mark. It's nice though. You just have to take a clean leaf and start over.

whats wrong with a birthmarked plant? is it less healthy?

Good question! I would also like to know! Rosie

Plants that birthmark, get dark splotches on their leaves (stemming from the red reverse of the leaf randomly occurring), and may eventually turn into solid purple blossomed plants.

they are no less healthy, just vary from the original / don't meet description or expectation.

So if you like your plant, and it starts birthmarking, you re-start it from a "clean" leaf. that way you get to keep the same looks.

froeschli is that what they used to call "reverting"? As when a plant goes back to its original parent and not what it was bred to be? Rosie

I don't honestly know. I thought reverting would be a chimera losing its stripes for example....

they can't exactly revert into either of their seed parent plants - the genes are too jumbled for that, but if a variety was created through spontaneous mutation (sporting) then i guess it could revert back to (something that looks like) the plant it originally started out as.

I am still questioning, if there is so much sporting, how much of the genetic material, that doesn't affect appearance, actually remains the same, and how genetically identical all the clones out there really are... (that just screams soap box, doesn't it?)

now where the line is between birthmarking/sporting/reverting - you're going to have to ask someone else, because i never got a clear answer on it either....

Kairn

Wow, this ASKS more questions than it actually answers doesn't it? I know back in the 60's when I was learning about violets, when a violet didn't propagate true it would be unstable and maybe go back to looking like one of it's parents. I really don't know much more than that because it never happened to me. I bought plants, raised babies from leaves and got what I expected. I didn't do seeds. I always wanted to have a "sport". Then I figured I would propagate it thru several (3 or more) generations and have my own registered variety! What a pipe dream!!!!! Oh well,,,, Rosie

so... i just discovered that my Edge of Darkness is NOT edge of darkness... its a sport! but.. is this what is called birthmarking??

notice the dark spots on the top of the leaf? those are exactly where the underside of the leaf is red.

heres a pic of the leaf undersides.

every single leaf on this plant has those dark spots except for one leaf only has a tiny spot at the base of the leaf. if i took that leaf off and cut off the dark spot and rooted it....? is this even birthmarking though?

i do have a seed pod growing on this plant.. i am toying with cross polinating just for fun. would all the babies of those seeds be prone to birthmarking then?

Wow, I can't wait to hear the answer to that question! Does anyone know???? This is fascinating!!! Wait,,,wouldn't you leave the leaf whole to root it? I don't think I would cut out the red spot. The leaf may die. I think I would root the leaf as is red spot and all and I would root another leaf with no red spot and see what falls out of the tree! Rosie

with your edge of darkness. the appearance is what birthmarking looks like - though if you go looking at the description, it mentions red backed leaves.

not sure if it has a different name this way around or not... i'd try and propagate a mainly red backed leaf....

no idea if birthmarking is inheritable, i self-pollinated a sport, which could just be birthmarking, and am just growing out the seedlings :-) give me six months and i may have an answer, or not.

Karin

I don't think birth marked plants that have turned a solid color have reverted. I am basing this on the fact that Lyndon Lyon's sells several as separate varieties. I'd have to check their catalog, but I know there is Evening Spendor (you get it when Arctic Frost goes blue), Spectacular Blue (Spectacular goes blue) and, I may be wrong, but it seems there may be another one.

Taking a bloom stem of a birth marked plant produced a birth marked plant. That's all I know. Some plants have a tendency to birth mark so they already seem to have that programmed into them, IMO. I wasn't aware of it but I just had it show up on Chanticleer (I think that was it). Most often they have been blue/white but not always.

Diana

rosie - i have actually had great success with cutting off the stem and rooting the top of the leaf!

diana and karen - thanks! i may just leave this plant as is and just call it my EOD sport. i gave a plant to my mil and im eager to go look at hers now and see what it looks like... cause it was from the other leaf in my order.