I had been wondering about plants lately and after reading the post about user database, I thought I'd post a question.

Of the thousands of registered violets, lets say up to the year 2000 (cause it seems more people than ever have new hybrids to register), how many of those plants or what percentage do you think are still being grown in someones home..or even in a greenhouse somewhere. The number of people growing violets is dwindling, violet clubs are dissolving.

Are the number of vintage violets being found and made available - are there a lot of them - compared to how many were originally registered?

I've also heard horror stories of people needing to move into assisted living or passing away and their families just throwing out the plants into the trash. I know no one in my family (especially my daughter, go figure) is going to keep my plants, but they would give them away.

Just wondering. At one time I had about 300+ different av plants/leaves/baby plants -about 2 years ago. It was more than I could manage and then I discovered kohleria, sinningias, chirita's, and a few other gesneriads I like too, so I had to downsize the violets...space actually isn't an issue, but I can only water and repot so many plants! It's supposed to be fun after all, not work! tish