Alexa - my guess it is "Optimara Romance". But it is just a guess.

"Romance" in master list is lavender blue and not variegated.

Irina

It does appear to be Optimara Romance and I don't think it's especially common. If you price it on Selective Gardener, I expect you'll feel quite happy with it ;).

That's interesting that this Canadian distributor is in Pennsylvania now. I found O. Romance and O. Modesty at Lowes a few years ago and they were both nice plants. They both collapsed in the midst of a summer heat wave and I lost Romance but saved Modesty. I could have replaced O. Romance later, but I had more pinks with variegation than blues.

O. Modesty is a very nice plant and I grow it in the window and under lights. It can be just a bit touchy at times so I now keep a spare. I think I've had it do the "collapse" thing once or twice again. No doubt it's something that's my fault. Other than that, it's an easy and lovely plant and Romance was a big, pretty plant when it went. As I recall, it was very hot in their room at the time.

Thanks for sharing your find. I suppose I'm an oddball, but unless you show, trade, or sell, the plants seem much the same whether you put the name on them or take it off.
Good plant with no name = good plant. Bad plant with name = bad plant.

Diana in PA

The prettiest pink variegated plants I grow is Christine and Cherokee Trail.

There are named plants that never do good in your house - they are not bad - just your culture doesn't suit them. So what - there are so many plants you can try. But...if I want to try one - I want to like one a lot and dream to have it ...in this sense - named plants are much easier to dream about...

Irina

Pretty plant - what a great find! After a little TLC from you, it should look awesome.

Irina,
Where were you when I was trying to find out what Christine was supposed to look like? :)

I think the one I bought was off but I got a variegated plant from it. The texture of the blossoms was exceptional but the plant was never quite there...nice but a little gappy. I recently discarded it.

I had a young Cherokee Trail that was gorgeous and threw it out when I panicked (long story). Now I have some babies so maybe I'll get to try again.

Diana

Thanks for the nice comments everyone

It seems to be pretty happy so far, so maybe it will like it here.

Alexa

Diana -

Christine should be very variegated. The pic on AVSA gallery is not.
Cherokee Trail pic - made by the same photographer Christel Collier. This lady makes wonderful pics - and if you search on her name- you can get on her website with thousands of violets on it. My only comment will be - plants grown in Florida - sometimes look differently if they are grown in cooler climate.

For me Cherokee Trail is never so compact, never so floriferous - but when it blooms - the size and the strawberry ice-cream color of the blooms - is something else.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gallery

As a point of information Woodhill greenhouses are in Canada,
At least that is what I found out from a post on the Violet Voice. They apparently get plugs from Optimara (Holkamp) and grow and sell them.
Fred in NJ

Here is a link that might be useful: Violet voice

Irina,
Thanks for the info on Christine. I don't know if that photo was available when I was looking - it was a couple of years ago.

The plant I got on eBay had some variegation but also had smallish, rather narrow dark leaves and was obviously never going to become a nice plant or "large" as in the description. It was only saved because the blooms lasted so well when it was sitting to be tossed.

I started leaves and found another small plant, either a leaf start or a sucker and had 3 small ones at one point. They all had variegated edges, but were not what I'd call "very variegated." Although the plant looked reasonably like the photo, it was not as full as that one although it bloomed very well and the blossoms are exceptional. I wish I could find a white that had that heavy texture and lasted like that.

I suspect it may be a plant where the original stock may have deteriorated and the plants currently available aren't quite what they used to be. I was never familiar with this one but there were others that I'd grown before and now seem to be difficult.

O. Romance (which started this) was a nice plant but I seem to recall that it did not like too high of a light level.

Diana

Cedar Creek Violets carry Christine.

Looks like the variegation depends on the temperature - and in my conditions it is very variegated - may be because of this - it is standard for me, not large.

Doesn't sound that the plant you got on ebay was worth the price. I had similar experience - I purchased Ian-Fuete on ebay - and it had just a bit of root mealies. I contacted the seller - and he checked the tray it came from - and found couple more infected pots. Can happen to all of us - so no big deal. The plant was stunted - so I restarted it from a leaf and rerooted the crown. I grew several starters - they all came looking off - the blossoms were very sparse but right - but the crowns were lopsided, sickly etc. Eventually they all got tossed.

Ian hybrids are exceptional, they all passed very strict selection by the hybridizer - but whatever mutation hit this specific clone -it was irreparable.

I.

My Christine came from Cedar Creek. After I got it "fixed," it was better and it had grown in the window (not everything will) but I have a lot of plants right now. My windows are cool enough :).

That's interesting about the mealies. I've poked a lot of perlite and never seemed to have them. Perhaps it's because I didn't normally buy plants, but started mine from leaves. Now it seems to be difficult to find leaves.

Diana

Diana -

would you have them - you would find them long ago. Yuck.

My secret - the best lamp I ever bought - i got it on sale - sometimes it is $29.99. It has a circular fluorescent tube - and under fluorescent light - the root mealies glow bluish - so you can tell them from perlite - which has a yellowish tint under this light.

I agree with your choice of leaves over plants - you always end with better plants if you grew your own babies.

Here is a link that might be useful: magnifying lamp