I was just looking at user photos on MyViolet and the Optimara facebook trying to be certain that I do have Pennsylvania! The thing is that it was in a 6" pot and mostly it is not supposed to be a 6" pot one. I would not have called the leaves round. It does appear to be Pennsylvania. On June 12, the Optimara photo of bloom types also shows Pennsylvania and Delaware side by side and there is a definite color difference and also a difference in the blossom shape. I would call Pennsylvania burgundy red (to my eye). Clementine looks shaped just like Pennsylvania in that photo. Delaware always looks a little more "ruffly" in photos anyway. That is helpful, Joanne, but they sure omitted a good many :) I see some ruffled one at Lowe's but since I don't collect reds, it doesn't matter. Maybe I see more than one ruffled one for that matter. Diana

Hi Begonia! Ok glad to hear they are near a window! Let me reach to my way back memory. Anyone else feel free to jump in if I misspeak, after all I am going by memory. Ok, here goes. When I raised violets strictly under lights (just normal 4ft tubes) I believe I left them on for about 12 to 14 hours per day. There was no supplemental lighting from windows as my 3 tiered shelf was in the basement. Now, as you know, some plants preferred the middle intense light of the tubes and some preferred the lower intensity of the ends of the tubes, and believe it or not,,,,,I remember setting up a little table NEXT to and smack up against the end of the plant cart for a few violets that wanted hardly no light at all!!!!! But they did very well that way! I let the violets tell me what they wanted and who was I to argue with them??? In your case, you had some supplemental light from your almost SE window. I would say (gulp here I go with memory) you may do better if you use your flourescent lights maybe just from morning until you get your good window light and at that point set your timer to turn off the lights. You realize that this arrangement will change with the day length as it changes. I don't know how frequent that will be. I haven't done flourescent lighting for over 30 years. Winter may see you adjusting your lights to where they will be on a lot. But the way the day length is now, I wonder if you could just use the lights for supplemental instead of all day. This would be an experiment, but what the heck? You have nothing to lose and everything to gain! You mentioned "the Optimara already starting to reach on one side" Ok, when you grow a violet either in window OR under lights (especially in a window) you still have to rotate them a quarter turn every couple days so they don't reach from one side only. It gives all of the leaves equal exposure to light, and they will grow symmetrically. And even when I grew plants (yes I had other things under lights also!) under lights I would rotate and/or change their positions somehow so every plant got equal (as I could make it) exposure. Light doesn't only have to fall on the leaves themselves to have the violet do well and blossom. The light (as I remember it) also needs to get waaaay into where the stem connects to the "neck" or trunk of the plant. This helps promote blossom. That is why we strive for symmetry. Light should get to all inner areas of the violet also. As far as the fertilizer. If you feed your plant for a week, and then give just regular water for a week you have NOT stopped feeding your plant! Bear with me here please,,,,,during the week your plant was "feeding", the "food" was in the soil, stems leaves blossoms and any other part of the plant that there is. Now, you start giving plain water. All of that residual "food" is still being used as the plant is now sucking up plain water. So by the end of the week of plain water your plant should be almost "filled" with the last of the fertilizer and almost with plain water. Fertilizer doesn't just disappear the minute you start using plain water. It went in first it will be used up as the plain water starts entering the soil, stems, leaves and blossoms. Like flushing out a hose that has colored water in it. Color was there first, now use the plain water and first the color comes out then faded color comes out then plain water! Gosh am I babbling or do you (or anyone) understand what I am trying to say? AND I learned this using Peter's fertilizer. It is blue and that is where you learn about color going thru a hose! Rosie PS. We used Peter's to water AV's at the greenhouse and I loved it! Do they still make/sell it anywhere? Ok,,,,,I am done finally. Hope some of this helps. Rosie

A lot of my AV's and some of my streptocarpus are color changers based on temperatures at time of blooming. So it has become something I am interested in documenting. Such as how some fantasy patterns nearly go away in hot summer but are super intense in winter, and then some other fantasy hybrid right next to it on the same shelves shows almost no variation at all. Some of my most dramatic temperature sensitive AV's so far are my Russians that have white on them. Wow, huge differences in color and sometimes flower form too, from summer to winter. For example, RS Roskina in summer looks like this: In spring or autumn, it looks like this: And in chilly winter or early spring, it's nearly all white with even larger flowers like this: All the exact same plant at various stages this past year.

Wow, you must grow yours much cooler than mine. I don't usually see that much white on them. But I am in the Deep South and we are well into the 80's. Mine is also in bloom (almost constantly year round) and you will tend to find the flowers throw more and more dark color the warmer your growing conditions. Here's mine - I just adore this plant and I have had it for almost a decade, I think. Yours is lovely too! I enjoy that this hybrid has so much variability so it's never boring!