Loverly!

That’s gorgeous! I’d take it home too!

Sweet. :)

Joan

So pretty! I love the paler centers.

Harster's Ggreenhouses in Canada have a variety that look like it. Anthoflores Horacio.

I picked up one these recently, as well ...

If the pot has a label Product of Canada - it is it!

Hard to tell with screens, but Horacio looks more magenta or fuschia than purple. This one is definitely purple. Horacio also appears to have a bit of a ruffle to its edge. Looking around on the internet, Optimara Rhapsodie Lucia looks similar, though that one might be a bit more blue than mine ... again screens.

So there is a sticker that was hiding under the grocery store price sticker. It says "Grown in Canada for Key Floral, Inc." which is a wholesale florist in New Hampshire that supplies places like grocery stores in New England.

Optimara Lucia is a new introduction, so doubtful it is already produced in Canada.. Optimara (Holtkamp Greenhouses) usually puts their distinct sticker on the pot. Yes - Horacio is definitely magenta. The purples and blues are hard to photograph. Lucia seems more blue than purple to me.

Normally it is a bad idea to try to identify the varieties without a label. There will be always a doubt.

• Harsters Greenhouses had the gallery of their AVs years before, but not anymore. But the development never stops and they probably have a fresh line of AVs, As far as I remember they had Horacio - and another similar patterned AV with more of a rosy shade instead of magenta. The good news - they always had very durable and floriferous plants.

Honestly, Irina, you know everything!

Optimara used to publish a list of what they release each year to retail. There are only about 10 or a dozen. In addition they release a few unadvertized experimental AVs sporadically.

Joanne

Neat! Where did you buy them?

Okay.

They are available mostly in Bew England. Hard to get. Maybe Optimara has similar.

I do not mind messy foliage, as I also have curly hair.

Got several No I.D.'s. This one is mostly white with narrow edge color on ruffled edge.

Two colors, one plant

Same plant, another view.

Similar, more consistent edging.

Another No I.D.

I have no idea what it is, but I have one that looks like the first one you posted, too, fortyseven_gw ... it's not blooming at the moment, so this is the best picture I have of it - the middle one here:

(The one in the back scooted forward since this was taken, so it gets better light.)

It also came from a grocery store ... but a different grocery store. The other two in the picture were gifts, so no idea on names or origins (the back one blooms purple).

Blueberry, my guess is your white one is most likely from the Optimara company, but not named. The front one, semi-double pink with "girl" foliage is very pretty. It could also be an Optimara.

I believe mine are some version of unlabelled Optimara. The store where I bought them gets them from a local nursery that gets stock from Optimara and grows them out. They sell two kinds, genuine Optimara with labels at a slightly higher price. And unmarked of slightly different look in unlabelled pots. A few years ago I read that Optimara develops similar versions but selects only one to name and mass produce. I believe the white with fuschia or wine edge is similar to Chico. The one with the blue edge is similar to Maine II. The one with two solid fuschia blooms on one side and white with edges on the other is the best but is not blooming true so it could not be sold as a labeled AV.

The Optimara releases only about ten or 12 new varieties each season to retail stores but also releases several "trials" or "second choices." These were more expensive than usual, another reason I think they are "seconds" of Optimara. The purple one of mine is likely Lucia. Although we cannot technically label them, for our own information and based on what we know Optimara releases new each spring, we can pretty well guess.

Joanne

Joanne,

I think I've gathered this kind of information from you in the past, but in this last post you've laid it out very explicitly, with more detail, than any time I've seen in the last year. Maybe you've said the same before, but it's such good information that I would encourage you to repeat yourself any time such comment might be relevant. Not everybody reads every thread, and I think there will always be lots of noobs, like me, who don't know the lore.

Thanks for your willingness to keep giving.

Joan

Oh, Joan, it is great fun to share! Most likely, the info I shared was from before you joined. It took me several years to get that all figured out about the O company. I eventually learned that some older club members were actually retailers of Optimara many years ago. From them I learned "trade secrets." Now that some have retired, the "secrets" are more openly shared.

Joanne

Optimaras sport too, I am sure a lot of us saw Optimara Rhapsodie Cora with half plant blooming thumbprint purple and white and half solid purple even in Home Depot. I would think that sported plants go to the retail in the same boxes. Named plants blooming true can be purchased from Selective Gardener - you pay for the quality and they stand by their goods.

I am sure when they hybridize - they have hundreds of plants to select for naming, so they pick the best and most probably discard the rest. Only the the choicest are going to be named and become mother plants for the years to come, and they probably test grow them for quite a while before making the final cut. I do not believe they send their seconds to retail. It is such a well organized production, the contracts with retailers are signed year in advance and the workers stick leaves for babies already having their destination mapped.

Maybe i had a pizza dream!