Thank you for your expert advice Terri! I purchased this AV from Home Depot and unfortunately it had no name..... I think its fascinating that even its babies are growing babies! Will post a pic of one of its babies later today to show everyone how fabulous this is! I hope this is a trailer because then it would be my first one. When I purchased it from Home Depot last year it looked like a regular, standard AV. ~Melanie

Though I've never seen a trailer at a big box store, my experience is that most of the big wholesalers don't appear to pay that much attention to what they're sending. This sure does have the earmarks of a trailer, even from the way the crown appears to be growing at an angle. I'd be tempted to pinch the large crown and see what happens! :-) A couple of my standard trailers look just like that. Three weeks ago I pinched the crowns and boy are they sprouting! :-)

Have fun with it Melanie!

Best,

Judy

What do you mean by pinch? Remove? What about waiting a bit longer? It looks kind of leggy. That could be due to trailing? Joanne

Literally remove. It's the first time I'd done it-after reading a couple articles on trailers. It's never been necessary with the minis and semis I have, but the standards only each had one crown with no signs of producing more. Now they've taken off. It was an experiment for me but it did work. One of them-Cherokee Trail-responded by sprouting a bunch of babies, the other, Edie's Rosebud Trail, starting dropping roots from up higher along the single crown. I put that one in a small pan pot to let the roots go into the soil.
Of course-there's no reason not to wait.-it's just me-I'm always curious to see what happens! :-)

Best,

Judy

Hello! Here are two pics of the baby plant. Thank you everyone for the comments! I've learned new things about AV's! ~Melanie

I will ask a friend with experience with trailers to visit the site to give you an opinion. I don't have that much experience with trailers. Joanne

Thanks Joanne! Any new insights will be greatly appreciated!

The mother plant has 3 babies that very easily took root when I separated them last year. This is the most successful I've been at keeping AV's alive. I'm very happy with them. Recently one of the babies was almost eaten by my cat. I saved it and it seems to be recovering nicely.~Melanie

It does look like a trailer, however, since you got it at home depot, i kind of doubt it is supposed to be one. (doesn't mean it can't be)

what do the blooms look like?

some of the optimaras grow rather shrubby (little crystal comes to mind)

in any case, since you will probably not get a positive ID on it, you can choose to grow it however you like.

if it isn't blooming, then i'd try prying out those little leaves. if it is doing fine, then decide what you prefer - i would probably let one do as it pleases, and would try to groom one of the others into a single crown.... (and if you have more, you can pinch the top, or remove the larger leaves to allow more light to the new crowns - fun fun fun ;-) )

Karin

Trailers do grow more easily than other violets. Joanne

Hi everyone:

This is very interesting because when I purchased this AV in May 2014 it looked like a standard AV. However, I noticed that it had a lot of babies so in November 2014 I separated the babies from the Mother. At the time I didn't notice if the mother plant had any of these little leaves at the base of it's leaf stalks. (I planted the babies in 100% perlite; they were VERY small.)

Now in August 2015 (!) I finally noticed those tiny leaves on the mother plant and at first thought the plant spontaneously grew them! I also noticed those same little leaves on the babies. I thought maybe they spontaneously grew those little leaves because I moved the plants to the windowsill for natural light. But I have other African violets on the same windowsill who don't have those little leaves....

So that's why I posted the question here because I have no idea what I have LOL! :O) I'm elated that these plants are thriving in my home. Some time ago, ten years I think, I had African violets that died from Aphids and root rot...I gave up on having these plants because of this. However, last year I thought of trying to have them again because I missed them. The thing I changed was repotting them in a mix of 1/2 African violet potting soil and 1/2 perlite. This mix has been working for me but I'm thinking about repoting them and adding vermiculite.

Oh, and I can't remember what color the blooms used to be...Sorry! I hope the blooms grow back! I'll post an update if they do.

~Melanie

Oh Melanie you have so many options with this violet! Could be a trailer, could not,,,,,,so much excitement waiting to find out.

Keep us posted not only on blooms, but how the suckers grow and what it turns out to be! Looks fascinating to me! Good luck!!!! Rosie

One happy plant.

It will probably stay in your collection as a NOID. I was thinking you can try Optimara.com for their varieties - but they do not do this "trailery" thing. They are bred to have very short internodes.

So far it seems that it is a standard, not trailer. Elongated stem was probably caused by lower light conditions. Right now it seems well grown and happy - whatever you do - keep doing it.

Now it is time to take an Xacto knife - small blade - and get them suckers out. If you want more plants of this variety - cut them accurately -= and you can root these baby crowns easily. If not - just try to get the suckers off with a minimum damage to to mama.

Good Job

irina

Ohhhh, I am so happy to see your pix and post! I can almost "see" you doing the Happy Dance!!!!! Isn't a great feeling?

But, Irina has just given you great advice. You dont seem to have a trailer and if you want maximum performance from your beauty,,,,,well,,,,gotta get those suckers off!

If I want to have a "clone" of my mama plant, I have been known to let one sucker get a little larger so I can at least manage it.

An alternative would be to start a couple leaves. But you still have to de-sucker!

I would do one or the other though. Violets are meant to be single crown plants (except for trailers and that doesn't seem to be the case).

At any rate, she is beautiful! And I love her frills!!!! Rosie

Here is the latest pic! She's still thriving! ☺

Nah - it is a standard, not a trailer - and it is one happy plant. Whatever you are doing - this plant loves it. You probably will never know what variety is it - plus it is a bit variable as is - the color of the blossoms differs from one to another - so it is probably a sport of something. But - who cares - it should make you smile.

So happy for you! I agree with Irina, not a trailer but a very beautiful standard! Good for you!!!!! Yay!!!!! Rosie