Summer time high heat causes plants to stress out in the GH resulting in insect invasions; one must be on constant guard. Heat and lack of air circulation is also the cause of propagation failure. Do you use at least a 50% shade cloth in the summer; have circulating fans/exhaust system? One inexpensive system I've seen for containing mist is to place clear plastic shower curtains, just as one might see in the bathroom, around the mist bench to contain moisture, yet allow some air circulation without blowing the cuttings away. Unless you have a water wall in your GH and shade cloth you may have to abandon propagation there during the brutal summer months especially if your GH has western exposure. Another system may be an inexpensive propagation set up under shade trees outside where temperatures are more moderate, just as the person above suggested. Do you keep a notebook recording details, successes and failures? Do you have a set up for min/max temperatures in your GH?

Yes Scott, I would do that! My tents for rooting cuttings are only opened for inspection once a week. At that time I mist them and may find a leave or two fallen off, which I take out before these start to rot. As you may know from my "Own Root Gallery" my minis are ready to transplant into larger pots after about 20 to 25 days. Some even earlier when I see new roots growing out of the drain holes. Good luck George

Hi, Terri, Yes, I recall Irina posting that she restarted her plants from leaves, as often as every year! Begonia, 3 years does seem somewhat mature for a violet. In my limited (time wise) experience, the Russians seem to put out a big display at first, then taper off over a few years. Because yours is bi-color, it eventually showed more white than blue. It could be a cultural cause, but I would not know what. Maybe while you were away, the care was not as consistent as you would have hoped. Maybe it got dry then overwatered. Were you able to salvage a leaf or two? You can soak them in sugar water to perk them up then plant and dome and hope for the best. If all else fails, Lyon's is having a sale in August and I believe they have that plant listed! Aegis, personally I would like the flower if it remained a solid blue, but I have not seen it. A friend of mine is always in search of the "perfect" light double blue of her dreams from the past. I keep trying to raise a blue for her, but it is never "quite" the right shade that she remembers! Anyway, this experiment really got me hooked on the light blues! For myself, as a relative newcomer, compared to people like Terri, Irina, and Aegis, I keep the plants going for as long as they want to keep going. I have a few plants that got large and stayed symmetrical. They look nice when they bloom, and when they don't, the large amount of foliage looks dramatic. So I have a few of those in the living room for guests and family to admire. They are too large to try to repot, so I just freshen the potting mix that I can reach. Eventually, they might develop a sucker, which I remove and repot. Every now and then, I take a leaf or two from the lower rows and start a new plant. The larger leaves take longer to reproduce than leaves from the growing layers. One of these is Starry Night Blue, another is Powder Keg, another is Maui, and another is Patricia by Optimara. I had a few Russians that got large but eventually demised. The older Lyon's and the older O's I suspect have similar stock and are designed for the long haul. Joanne

Very happy to find "Ace Hardware pine bark mulch", which are well-composted this Oct, and have plenty of pine-fines inside. I make my rooting-area in advance for next spring .. by that time the pine-mulch/pine-fines will be more decomposed & less acidic. The rooting powder that Bluegirl mentioned helped TREMENDOUSLY. Things take roots much faster. Do you make a slit at the side of the lower cane like Connie of Hartwood? Or do you slice a piece of outer-layer off like Kitty of California? I'm too lazy, so I do it California way, scrape a vertical piece off from the end, with my paring knife. For indoor & winter: I still don't like covering the plant with a plastic dome, it goes against my logic: cover anything up, and it will surely rot & get moldy !! My kid sprouted some mung-bean in a plastic cup, she covered it, and within a few days white mold grew on it, so gross !! This winter I plan NOT to cover with plastic, and simply squirt the soil lightly with a hand-mister. My neighbor kept a geranium through the entire winter. In freezing March I visited her: she kept the geranium on the window-sill (morning sun), and squirt it twice a day. And it was blooming tons !! I kept house-plants indoor in the winter and was foolish to water it, that was messy: water dripped on carpet, then whiteflies, then rotted stem (too wet). Hand-mist lightly is so much better, since leaves do take up water & nutrients .. same with stem I also put hydrogen peroxide inside my hand-mister to prevent rot. Bluegirl shared how Josh in TX put a paper towel on top of the rooting area to hold in moisture, great idea !! I'm convinced that hard-wood and thick cuttings NEEDS MUCH LESS MOISTURE. Versus the "greener & thinner" stems which dry out faster, thus need more moisture. The "alfalfa sprouts" type of root need constant moisture ... folks do keep alfalfa sprouts in a plastic pouch at grocery store. But the woody & chunky Dr.Huey-rootstock rots easily in poor-drainage clay. As own-root matures from "alfalfa sprouts" to hard and woody roots, they become more sensitive to standing-water and acidity.