Thank you everyone for your guidance! I appreciate it and will stick with 1 fixture per shelf for the time being. These hang from chains so I can adjust them up and down a bit as needed to fine tune the lighting. Irina- I was growing Paphs (rarer types) from flask to single pot size with the goal to sell some to make the whole thing pay for itself. Worked for a while, but now there are lots of others doing it, and that flooded out the market. Besides, I just want to have fun right now. And I have always admired African Violets. Friday I expect the first box of babies and I cannot wait! I have a few grocery store rescues here right now I have been working with, but it will be fun to get some of the named varieties in here this weekend :) Take care, Tom.

Thanks for the replies! I looked over my plants in my wish list and and just couldn't cut it down anymore. So I was naughty and got all of them BUT I will be giving many to my mom and aunt who have been growing AV's successfully. So I will have about 5 in my personal care until I think I'm ready to have them all. Cus taking care of that many at once when I'm still new does seem like a lot. So don't worry, I'll take it slow! (: I'm also thinking I'm gonna rig up a shelf for them with artificial lighting and everything. Because by the window is so cold and I want them as happy as possible since they are little babies! Here's the list of the ones I bought. Any pointers if you know anything about the specific plant would be awesome! 1 x Lyon's Zoe 1 x Scandal 1 x Golden Autumn 1 x Cosmic Art 1 x Optical Illusion 1 x Marina 1 x Sierra Sunrise 1 x Private Dancer 1 x Beauty Goddess (EK-Boginia Krasoty) 1 x Gem Flower (Kamennyi Tsvetok) 1 x Mystic Mermaid (Russian Name Pending) 1 x Winter Smiles (Zima Ulybaetsia) 1 x Evening Splendor 1 x Sequins 'n' Ribbons 1 x Midnight Sun (Lyon's)

Hello Felicity and everyone! I'm new to both African violets and this blog too. I've just acquired my first AV last week, and have learned a LOT in the past few days from reading the old posts. Thanks for everyone again! I especially want to say hi to Kiwis on this forum; I myself have moved permanently to Auckland from the U.S. this year. Where do you obtain your "novelty" AV's (i.e. anything other than the supermarket variety)? I had found Karen Panek's website and tried contacting her, but none of her email addresses seem to work. Otherwise, I absolutely cannot find any AV hybridizer in NZ. While many people on this forum have found novel plants in U.S. grocery or hardware stores, I have no luck in NZ (Countdown, Warehouse, King's Plant Barn, random florists, etc.). I'm just a beginner, so have no intention of buying overseas and dealing with import permits yet. Felicity, roughly what AV's do you have in your collection, and where did you get them? I'm mostly interested in variegated / "girl" (i.e. scallop-edged) foilage; I'm not picky about specific named varieties. Maybe you could give me some pointers or sell me some leaves / plants! Lydia

"Isn't it Rob who named one Suicidal Squirrel ? I hate that name but if I liked the plant I would get it anyway and wonder what ever possessed him to name it that horrendous name! Rosie" And again, something that may indicate a difference of the sexes mentality or perhaps differences in people's sense of humor .... personally, I got a chuckle out of that name. (But then I was a big fan of FarSide, too. heh) "Orchid hybridizers came up with a very detailed Grex system to describe the plant ancestry. I though do not believe that by repeating the cross you can reproduce it exactly. It is like throwing the whole bunch of dice twice and expecting that everything will coincide. But the results of the repeat cross will be very similar even if you won't get the same pick of the litter again" Orchid breeding is very detailed and regimented which keeps it very organized. In short, lineage does matter. How likely repeating a cross will be to give rise to duplication of an outcome, depends largely upon how complex the cross is. If one is creating a primary hybrid -- crossing two species -- the diversity of phenotypes (physical differences) which will be evident across all the offspring is typically fairly limited -- unless some mutation occurs. Under these circumstances, recreating a particular hybrid phenotype is definitely in the realm of possibility and may even be highly likely. The more complicated the cross (and with some hybrids, their ancestry may include 5 or more species), the harder it can be to reproduce a certain phenotype. This is particularly true if the traits in question do not lend themselves to simple dominance- recessive rules. However, if one does wish to reproduce a specific phenotype of a complex cross, utilization of the same parental hybrids generally gives the best odds of success. (And particularly if it is a hybrid no longer in circulation but has once more had a resurgence of popularity it may be worthwhile to recreate it.) The emphasis on keeping track of lineage, in turn, gives rise to a very organized naming system. With orchid breeding, all the offspring of a particular cross are given a common grex (group) name. For example, all offspring of the cross Cattleya sincorana x C. walkeriana are named C. Love Knot. It doesn't matter if Rosie crosses her sincora & walkeriana, and I cross my two plants, while Irina crosses her two plants. Because the same two species (or hybrids) are crossed -- even though they aren't the exact same two plants genetically) -- all offspring will be Love Knot. But what about the fact that the offspring may have different phenotypes (physical appearances), one may wonder? That's where the next level of naming comes into play. Let's say Rosie has a resulting Love Knot that has an unusual red blush to the flowers. She may decide to have it registered as C. Love Knot 'Rosie's Blush'. This new addition to the name is referred to as a cultivar name and it is used to distinguish her fine specimen from all the other Love Knots out there. No other Love Knot -- unless it is an exact clone (reproduced by division of the mother plant or by tissue culture cloning of the mother plant) -- will be allowed to have that same cultivar name. In addition, keeping track of lineage serves another purpose ... that of judging. While anyone can decide to register their plant, it costs $ to do so. That being the case, most people don't bother to register plants unless it is either for sentimental reasons, or has been judged worthy of being named. In the US, the judging body would be the American Orchid Society (AOS). When judges examine a plant, they compare it to the parents (in the case of a new hybrid) or compare it against the other plants sharing that same grex name. If the plant is deemed a notable improvement in some aspect or unique appealing trait, it will be recommended for registration. The plant owner may then decided to pay the necessary fees for registration or elect not to have the plant registered.