Some nice plants you're browsing through ...

Thanks. Z says this is heart shaped. I sort of see it.

I can see it!

What a beautiful violet, I love the color and yes I see the heart!

Marianne

I have a question for you Jeff, I think I see that all your violet are installed on a bed rock (? sorry for my english) Can you explain me the reason and add more picture to for me to better understand?

Thank you very much

Marianne

Jeff,

I bought a Optimara a few weeks ago at Lowe's. It has the same coloring as this one. I wondered if it is Rita, but some of the pictures I saw online show Rita has red and white. Is the color in this picture true to the real color?

Julie, a few weeks back I had put some pictures here of some of my Optimara NOIDs. They were definitely Optimara plants, came w the plastic OPT sticker on the side but no name. I knew what I thought they were but I wanted some second opinions. Several very kind folks here lent their experience to the quest. At the same time I sent those same pictures to Reinhold Holtkamp at Selective Gardener via email.

Reinhold was very kind as well as helpful. He and his wife both identified my "myLove", " Millennia" and "Rita" with 100% probability. He identified a couple of others w less degree of probability. Several experienced folks here also seemed to think it looked like a "Rita".

At any rate, Yes, "I" am sure this is Rita, however, there are those who would argue w picture identification of plants, even if the identification was made by the grower. Ok, now you know the rest of the story!

Marianne, the rocks you are referring to are commonly referred to as river rocks. They are readily available at nurseries and garden centers. I did not think this up, I simply followed some helpful advice from some experienced growers.

The principle is to add moisture to your growing area. Without going w high tech misters and things of that type, a cafeteria tray w a layer of river rocks in it does the trick. Just periodically add water and let the evaporation process introduce your created humidity to your plants. It works great and my plants have told me that they love it! Put your planters directly on top of the rocks. (I wick water so there are no holes in the bottoms of my planters. If you don't wick water, be sure the bottoms of your pots don't come in contact w the water or you'll have problems.)

Incidentally, this increased moisture also requires a little more attention to ventilation. I accidentally caused massive powdery mildew issues shortly after increasing my humidity w/o increasing my ventilation. All is well now and wouldn't consider going w/o my rocks!

Ok Marianne, here are a few hastily taken pics of some of my trays. Sorry for the fuzzy pics!

Jeff,

Thanks for the clarification! Then I am pretty sure mine is Rita. I would like to trade something (Maybe the NOID one) for your MyLove in the future.

Sure, I have not propagated any of my Optimaras since not many folks have an interest in them. The next time I repot I'll put a couple leaves in a cup for you. I currently have 24 leaves in cups. I also have a half dozen named plants that were raised from suckers and plants that I bought w multiple crowns. I absolutely have to thin out the herd before some of my juvenile plants that I raised from leaves mature.

The next chance I get, Ill take some pics of what I need to get rid of and what it is. I don't want any money, I just need to find a few of them good homes. If you had doubles on something cool we could maybe talk trade on something too.

Jeff that is a nice set up. Your plants look very happy! Isn't it funny, we add humidity to aid our plants then we have to add a fan to keep away mildew! What a world!!!! Rosie