Wow PBL they are all so pretty. They seem to love those lights.

Yes most do, but some varieties dont. It is to strong for them,am trying to grow 'Golden Harvest', and it got burned on the leaves, have had to move it away from them and repot it and add some shade, to TRY and bring it back from near dead. But most are very easy and love light light light!! You get blooms galore and big plants. Was hoping Santa would bring me NEW LED light AeroGarden this year, to try those new lights on the violets, but looks like he cant afford one again this year:(

Very very beautiful! Thanks for the eye candy!! And it is no cal !!!!! lol Rosie

The reason i love fantasy bloomer violets.

I agree with pooh, they're shocking (the fantasy bloomers).

Thank you for taking the time to show your beautiful blooms. Its a sight for sore eyes to me, as I lost most of my collection due to my daughter being in the hospital(4 hours away) for three months, so I wasn't home to attend them. I have no blooms.

Well glad to give you something nice to see, after an experience like that!

Carletta welcome! Hang in there, spring is coming. That means shipping weather. Maybe by then you will have something to trade or join the Round Robins! Rosie

Poohbearlvr-

your Amour Elite is a sport. Missing fantasy. I am not going to propagate this thing - it it should be pink-white - blue fantasy - and it is good if one out of 10 babies blooms true - the rest of them - pink and white - or blue and white. Quite attractive.

If your Cosmicheskaya Legenda is blue - no way it will recover the puff fantasy Otherwise its sport it is a good floriferous blue.

I just took several sports in bloom and got them to my post office. Said Merry Christmas! And ran out fast! Just kidding - they will all find homes in 10 minutes.

Well these are the first blooms of the Armour Elite, So the blue part of the fantasy can turn up as it blooms the next time. Even if it doesn't, it is prerty, and the blooms are huge! I like the solid blue/purple of my Cosmos Legend 2, it grows huge and it blooms like it is on steroids. I have a new young Cosmos Legend from another grower, if it doesnt bloom fantasy, i/ will give up on trying to get one. I got a refund from the seller, for the one I got, that bloomed all blue, 6 months after it bloomed the first time! Here is a picture of my all blue Cosmos Legend-2, I took off like 8 flower stems, it was just to much for a single plant, just repotted. It is just putting out its next round of bloom stems now, and the first bloom is just opening today. It has 11 bloom stems! Not bad for a plain blue/purple:)

I think your Amour has a little bit of blue fantasy. What I would do - put a leaf down. Sometimes propagation brings more fantasy back.

Amour - like love - not like Armor or Armpit ;-)).

Your Cosmic Legend sport is a great blue! It sure delivers!

My Amour Elite has some tiny dots of blue. It is its first blooms. It is a starter plant. The next time if blooms, and grows some, it should be more fantasy in it.

I took of a lot of flowers from my Cosmos Legend. Like I said, it was in a 2in pot, a 'starter' like most of my violets, and it was so heavy with blooms, I had to remove some blooms, since I re-potted it to a 4in pot. It is double the size now, and putting out its first ring of blooms all around the plant. When it is in full bloom, I am going to take pics. of it.

Can't wait to see it! Rosie

It is so hard to find Silverglades. That top one is a beauty. Joanne

It is ? Hard to find. i cant recall where i got it. I know it was from EBay, i only buy there, and from 2 sellers. But I know it was a free gift. I didnt know anything about it. It is a 'weed' it grows so fast and big. It is covered in blooms now. I'd be happy to send you leaves if you want some. Let me know.

Yes, I would love that! We probably should wait 'til spring. I live in Calif, so the package would have to go through several hard winter travel zones. Joanne

well mine is in full bloom all the time, so it'll be here....i hope...in the spring.

Seems that Silverglades are on the way out - and in 10 years you won't be able to find them. So - collect them now. They were a hit - 15-20 years ago - when they started coming from South Africa - it was like a breath of fresh air - but novelty wears off.

Is there a 'series' of varieties? Or is this 'Cinders' the only one? I assume it is suppose to be a fantasy, because I really am looking to get fantasy and very odd blooms. Green and yellows. So...is this one suppose to be a fantasy, but mine is now all pink? Or is it suppose to be all pink like it is?

I still grow Silverglade Plums ... and like it quite a lot.

I have also tried my hand at Silverglade Slippers, Sprays, Shadows, and Jingles ... with less success ...

The earliest Silverglades variety I remember seeing advertised a lot was Silverglade Apples, ... but I was never into greenish-yellow blooms that much.

Poohbearlvr- Silverglades is a nik of Sylvia Harrison from South Africa - so it is not series, these are plants from the same hybridizer.

You need to consider purchasing First Class2 program from AVSA. There are over 10000 registered AVs - all registered are in this database. Most of the old ones are already disappeared from the cultivation - but this is the way how you an check the description, photo of the variety you are planning to buy. Means - if you got the plant - and it is in this dbase - you know what to expect - and if it is not it - YOU GOT A LEMON... AGAIN.

We all get lemons on a regular basis. Hybrid AVs are unstable... the other side of the coin - is that's why they are so numerous and luxuriously different.

Artificial plants are stable... but much less fun.

Chimeras are my lemons. Can't seem to hold their stripes! Funny enough, my chimera Love Potion is one of the few plants that survived The Great Overfertilizing Plague of 2017 mostly unscathed. I'm giving it one more chance to bloom true since it's a young plant...if that fails, am I better off lopping off its head in hopes of getting a sucker that blooms true, or just tossing it and moving on to bigger and better chimeras?

Aegls1000 That is one of the 3 Silver glades that I would LOVE to get a hold of. got to search for it online....gotta find a place that carries them. So far, nothing.

Hi, Several years ago I found one grower on the internet who advertised Silverglades and had many, many photos. She was in the U.S., I think. The grower's name was familiar to some folks on this forum who had bought from her. But when I tried to order, they did not seem to exist. The seller may have retired. So maybe the grower's website was out of date. Sometimes, sellers will keep the website up for reference. So, I never did get any.

It is interesting to know that Aegis was able to try his hand at growing several. Silverglade Plums looks great.

I enjoy trying out older stock or less common varieties to get a sense of the evolution because I came to violet growing late in the game. So it is one way to track development. Or because their genetics might have had less tampering. Or just to try something from another country that might be slightly more carefree and natural-looking, rather than some of our more structured varieties.

As for chimeras, they are a novelty and not stable enough for me. They do not look good in natural light. The blooms are small, few, skimpy. If I see a variety being offered by several sellers, then I feel it is more stable, so I will try it. Chimeras with blue in them grew better for me than pink or red. Joanne

I tried some Silverglades - 15 years ago - decided that the rosettes are not that great - long petioles and kind of floppy. If you feel this amounts to carefree - fine with me. Blossoms are interesting. I do not think that from another country means different genetic material. It still comes from Original 10. But good hybridizers develop their own line - and the plants are recognizable.

Vintage violets are usually a good bet - because they already passed the selection - whatever was not up to par - is already went out of culture... and they are pretty stable..

Chimeras - you are absolutely correct - they are NOT stable. To keep them going you need an excellent culture - stress makes them sport to solids - and constantly grow suckers just in case. Old plants sport to solids - yup - because old age stresses them. (We all know that getting old is not for the weak..).

Regarding chimeras being small, dull, unsightly, skimpy - this is not always true - there tons of chimeras - and there are good, bright and floriferous ones - and there are plenty of boring ones, stingy ones etc - just like the rest of them AVs - some are better - some are not. Absolutely all AVs look better under fluorescent lights. Reds and corals - look like dead meat under the natural light, but can be very attractive under a shoplight. Red in chimeras tends to bleed... in any bi-colors as well. Yucky, Blue/white shows well under natural light.

You are correct - chimeras do not pass the same selection as other hybrids - just to have a pinwheel pattern is so rare and nice - you overlook the negative features.

I was thinking - what will show well on natural light- Neptune's Treasure - lovely white and dark blue chimera. Lousy rosette though. Old chimera Chimo - large flowers - white and light blue - grows symmetrically, very floriferous - doesn't sport - xlarge one - will show well.

Bloomlovers carries several Silverglades varieties,

Due to the cold (she operates out of Quebec, I believe), she won't be shipping until the weather warms suitably. Perhaps this is why all of her offerings show as "Sold Out". I would check her out again in a few months.

My culture this summer was the absolute PITS -- I lost nearly every adult plant I had to overzealous fertilizing...and not just AVs. Frustrating and humbling learning experience but at least it cleared out some of the things I just wasn't "in love" with. I think maybe I'm just too casual and clueless for anything really fussy, haha.

You are not replacing them with artificial plants, are you???

The key is 'less is more', always err on the side of less.

Awww, so sorry about your loss. But there is a silver lining! Now you have time to "regroup", and get ready for the Round Robin that hopefully will take place and this time maybe get something you really would like to try!!! Rosie

Hah! Irina -- no artificial plants for me! I didn't lose anything that just broke my heart. Mostly a bunch of new Russians that I had been attempting and some years old NOIDs, and a few other very old plants with enough sentimental value to not toss when healthy, but not enough to replace now that they're gone. Everything I truly cared about had duplicates, fortunately!

I was ascribing to "Weakly, weekly" at 1/8 strength with a fertilizer that suggested only once monthly, and didn't pin down what the signs of it were until I'd totally crisped the crown of almost all the AVs. They might have eventually recovered...but I didn't have room for that negativity in my life. Lesson learned for next time!

I have a whole tray of babies just reaching the point of old enough to pot in their own tiny cups now, so I'm not toooooo sad. I probably will miss the spring RR though.