You correct -the Russian AVs were never bred for symmetry. Even now the way how they judge their plants shows that the preference is given to plants with abundant and spectacular blooms. New Russian varieties bred with both American and Russian plants in their breeding programs seem to have improved foliage.
You can grow lots of LLG plants to be less leggy if you use 4 lights. I actually think that the best plants are already there - if you look at the plants that were bred in 60-80s - hybridizers of these times - Irene Fredette, Jesse Munk, Don Ness, Winston Smith, Max Maas, miniatures from Hortense Pittman - they are proved winners. I think we should all try to grow best vintage plants to have a golden standard to know how to evaluate the new ones.
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Hybridizers, Russian African violet standards
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