That is really cute. It would work especially well with miniatures. I just got a notice that my Lowes got an Optimara shipment but they are 2" miniatures. Oh well.

It's a nice idea.

Diana

Wow, 2 inches you say? That's so small. I think I saw some like that at my local K&W.

The ones I have are pretty small...less than 5 inches across. But the parent plant must've been twice the size. These guys have stopped growing much since starting flowering, which is fine by me! I like them small. I didnt know they would flower before they reached full size. It was such a nice surprise :-)

I like your terrarium idea! :)

Diana, I'm so jealous that your Lowe's has miniatures--wish mine would get some! But I can't complain, they really have had some nice selections and variety this season.

Don't get jealous just yet. I've never actually seen a miniature at my Lowe's and every time I've gone there after one of these announcements, the display has been really sad. True the weather has been awful.

There are some very small violets though. Smitten Kitten is one that is blooming for me at the moment.

I'm sure you're careful, but that reminded me of when I was at home and had cactus in a fishbowl. They did really well in the sun. However, the sun wouldn't be good with the glass and a violet. I assume my bedroom window was too hot for violets or my mom would have had them there :)

Diana

Why is shoplifting and vandalism an LOL? Most of us, the only plants we can find are the once in a while shipments at. grocery stores and big box stores only to find the plants damaged by thieving varmints.

Nah, the plant I got the leaf from wasn't healthy or beautiful. It was clearanced and wasnt flowering. I wouldnt have ruined the perfect symmetry of an ideal AV. Sad thing, though- most the time I cant afford to buy the beautiful ones. It must be nice for you, lucky, to be able to rush to the store every time you hear they have a shipment of flowers. I cant remember the last time I bought a plant that wasnt at least 50% off.

Quimoi- none of my AVs get direct sun. The flower up top is actually grown under a fluorescent bulb. I just set it on the windowsill to get a better picture. :-)

I do think the employees and shipping do the damage to the plants at my stores.

Lauraeli,

I didn't think your plant could be in sun or it would have fried, but I thought I would mention it in case someone else tried it. I hadn't remembered my bowl of cactus for a long time anyway :) I never grew cacti after that.

Sometimes the sun can appear unexpectedly at my house. It frightened some of my plants the other day.

Diana

Lauraeli,
Perhaps the question is, why did you not purchase the entire plant? Removing a leaf from a weakened plant weakens it further. Or you might have asked the store manager to reduce the selling price of the plant by half. Then you could have taken the entire plant home and restarted it with leaves you removed yourself.
Joanne

I have to say I agree with Joanne. There have been so many times i walked past a display of AV's and was ever so tempted to "just snip off a leaf". never more so than at the AVSC convention show room. But if I wouldn't do it with the perfect ribboned show plants, why would i do it at a store? even if the plant is half dead and "not worth buying", it is still not your property to do with as you please.
Some of these plants even have a tag prohibiting vegetative propagation.
look at it this way: each plant that is stolen (not paid for) takes away from the grower's budget to develop new ones. and if too much of that funding disappears, the hybridizer has to find other sources of income, where people don't steal the food off of his/her table.

Yeah, you may say that the plant would have died anyways. but if you didn't steal a leaf, you wouldn't have been able to grow two plants, so you would have had to buy them.

if you appreciate something, pay for it.

Karin

The plant was already clearanced. Still I didnt I buy it, because I couldnt afford it. I was just there to pick up some groceries.

Although it isnt really a thread for discussing my finances, or my moral standing...Im sure there are worse things in the world than taking a leaf from a clearance plant. When you consider both the potential negative effect on the parent plant or it's possible new owner, and weigh it against the health of my two AVs and the happiness i feel in caring for them, I'd say there is more happiness in the world now than before. Unless you would take it upon yourself to frown about it.

Whether or not the plant was weakened...I'd say it benefited- it became two brand new, healthy plants, after all. Plants, lacking a central nervous system, are just as much themselves in a single leaf as they are in the whole plant, wouldn't you agree? Anyway this is unusual territory for an online forum about plants. We are here to benefit each-other by sharing knowledge. If it were not, I could tell my whole life story- then I would never stop talking...and everybody would suffer :-D

When you count all the plants in my apartment and their price, it equals out to less than 2 dollars a piece. If it werent so, then my apartment would not look like a jungle, and there would be less happy plants in the world.

I see your point Karin. In my case though, I would not have bought them, I would have gone without- like always- as I hadn't the funds. I spend a lot of time looking at plants, and rarely buy them. Why? Because I can't.

However, now that I have had the chance to enjoy AVs, and know that I like them, I am MUCH more inclined to buy them in the future, at a time when I may be able to afford it. For instance, I just bought one the other day for $1.70. Previously, I'd have walked past without noticing.

This is the reasoning with which many companies give away freebies :-)

I could be a thief that just gets off on stealing things. Actually I just love flowers and happen to be broke. Sometimes I do things that arent 100% morally upright. One time, I stole a carton of eggs. Ok, that one wasnt me. But did I make him go back and pay for it? Nope. And there was that time I went out of turn at a 3-way stop. On purpose.

I probably wont be taking any more leaves, if that makes you feel better. Ive got 3 AVs, and a house full of other plants. Im running out of window space. And I dont have any extra lamps.

Nah..Lucky Me
The Two Legged Leaf Cutting Scissor Bug got there first!
Here is the Only violet I have found in a store in this area since October, last year.
I saw this violet when it first came in to Walmart at the last of the month. It had blue bells like Annabelle. I had to wait for pay day. I went in a few days later and look at it. The only damage on this plant is from the Two Legged Leaf Cutting Scissor Bug.
At least Laureli is a honest. I see post here about "leaf I Found on the floor." Who has ever found an African Violet leaf on the floor?
This was the only plant to buy.

oh, great, we now decide when we are "given" "freebies" - i better go tell the mecedes benz dealership!
i may enjoy my freebie enough to buy one next time, if only i could afford it. but wait, it would be so inconvenient seen as i only have room for the one...

Lucky,
Now, "urban legend" has it that the stores will have lots of violets for Mother's Day, coming up. Just watch out for bugs
with any plants that have been in the store for a while,
and consider repotting it in your own mix in a couple of days.

Karin,
Love your Swiss wit and ethics!
Joanne

This post was edited by fortyseven on Thu, May 8, 14 at 16:40

Lol Joanne, i am obviously a bit touchy on the subject. it's purely remembering the time my business was struggling and a $2 sale meant I could have lunch. Else there was no lunch and i had to walk home, not take the bus at the end of the day. People who are struggling with money themselves ought to understand better how much even small items are worth and respect that.

LOL the two legged scissor bug! Come to think of it, Im sure thats what happened to my clearance plant that I bought the other day!

Anyway, there is always room for 'just one more'. Such is the nature of an addiction. But I only mean that I am not looking for any immediate additions. I took one leaf over a year ago, and that hardly makes me a seasoned thief. What was the point of the leaf? Well, tbh, I just wanted to see if it could grow. And grow it did. Now considering the time from leaf to flowering plant, I would be better off waiting for a clearance plant..which is probably the real reason I wont bother with leaves anymore.

Good luck at the dealership, froeschli :-) they wont agree to it, if you ask. But I'm rooting for you. And if you forget to ask, here's hoping you dont get caught with that 'freebie'. They normally notice when things like that go missing.

Also...dont propagate your violets :-D the stores might miss out on a sale...

Look guys! The Two-legged Scissor Bug got mine too! Darn. At least I got a discount.

"The plant was already clearanced. Still I didnt I buy it, because I couldnt afford it."

I'd like to have a T-Bird but I can't afford it. Maybe I could get one if I just take it piece by piece.

Linda

Hi, Karin,
I understand. A friend of mine has her own business that
I help her with now and then. I see first hand that a lot of work goes into having one's own business, the owner has to pay for everything.
Joanne

You could, Linda. It would be worth a shot. I heard of somebody taking a steering wheel off of a corvette. It had been in an accident so it wasnt in good shape. Anyway, they made up a mix of gasoline and motor oil in a bucket, and then put the steering wheel (with the steering column of course) in it. It started to sprout baby cars within 3 or 4 weeks, with a whole vehicle growing within an 8 month time period. Unfortunately, most of the babies didnt make it, and the only one that survived turned out to be a minivan. So I guess they dont reproduce true to form...

I'm just joking around, everyone. I agree with you. That's why I believe with all my heart, that everybody who is complaining about this should stop propagating their violets. Every new plant you create is taking potential business away from growers, who sell plants for a living. For every new plant, a professional grower goes without dinner twice. Statistics show this. :-)

Or, I want an apple but can't afford it so I just take a bite and put the rest back in the bin
Give it up Lauraelli
Theft is theft, my mother used to say, whether it be a penny or a pound.
I forgive you BUT don't do it again.
And repent of your sin. Stop defending yourself, you confessed, make amends by growing and sharing good plants with someone else and don't do it again.
The Universe does not require that you regret anything, it only requires that you change.

This post was edited by lucky123 on Thu, May 8, 14 at 19:58

Just for the record, when I first joined this forum, I was concerned about how vendors feel about our sharing leaves and propagating plants. The Optimara plants are often patented and their labels sometimes used to state that propagation was prohibited. So I checked this out thoroughly. I also thought, seriously, that if we were all sharing leaves, were we taking away from vendors. I learned that this is an acceptable practice for a plant a person owns. The hybridizers do not object at all. Otherwise, I would never have joined this forum. I also often purchase directly from the growers themselves, preferring to purchase a hybrid from the original hybridizer, if possible.
Joanne

Joanne
I suspect that with everyone selling "named" plants on ebay, that at some time, the original hybridizers are going to start checking for propagation licenses.
I think if you have a plant and you share with your friends, fine. That is a good thing but when some people are making large businesses online with what are patented plants, I expect the day will come when the hybridizers will start enforcing the rules.
I also notice a plant on ebay, named by the seller that doesn't match the description of the plant on Optimara. It was a red reverse on Optimara but on Ebay, plain. Buyer Beware.
I don't buy from anyone who doesn't have a license but I share and as you are aware, others have shared with me.
Then we don't have to "find a leaf on the floor" at the grocery. We can ask our friends and be glad to send it along.

HI Lucky
I wonder if those who sell named varieties on EBay have permission from the vendors. Optimara is ok with people propagating and selling small quantities.
Years ago, when I first began to share plants started from leaves or divided crowns, I always gave them away, partly because of that prohibition. It was only after being on the forum that I learned it is ok to sell privately for a small amount. Even if just to cover the cost of the pot and soil.
J

This post was edited by fortyseven on Fri, May 9, 14 at 10:48

It was a violet leaf from a ratty plant. Not a pension swindle for heaven's sake.

Plant patents are rare. Optimara had some but many of those have expired from what I read. There's no "license" required to propagate most african violets. If you want to use the Optimara name you may need to license that for advertising (just my guess since I see some advertised without it).

(And, yes, my family was self-employed and people owed us money too. One business had a big farm and never did pay it. There were others like that too.)

Diana

This post was edited by quimoi on Thu, May 8, 14 at 22:09

Lauraeli,

I already have a Corvette.

Linda

So I went to the store today, and took a bite out of a couple apples. They were delicious. :-)

Linda...What a lovely corvette. It would look gorgeous with a bigger whitewall imo.

And Diana, you are so right. Pension swindling, embezzlement, and money laundering...all just weekend endeavors. I only steal AV leaves during the week. ;-)

But seriously, you guys are giving me such a hard time! If I called the store and confessed, they would, at best, laugh at me!

Nobody missed a meal because of that leaf. My conscience will never expand to include victim-less crimes. Ive no reason to be so hard on myself.

Now I am being told to 'change' as if I go around stealing little pieces of every plant I see.

If the eyes of God are on me at this very moment, He accepts what he sees. I am a kind, giving person. I dont even mind the leaves that are missing off of my new AV. Because I know somebody is enjoying having a small piece of a plant that I now own. And that makes me happy.

Doing what's right in the world is not about following a set of rules. It is about what creates the most joy. It's trading 49 cents for an ice cream cone.

When i shared, I only meant to express my joy at having turned a single leaf into two beautiful, blooming plants.

Guys Ive got another issue im dealing with. Nobody is active in the aroid forum, but I need a way to kill mold on a rooting plant. The cutting is enclosed in a bucket and covered with plastic wrap. It was initially in water but I was concerned about rot. It is growing an aerial root now but it keeps getting a little spot of mold on the growing tip and im not sure what I can put on it that wont harm the root. Ideas?

Lauraeli,

When collecting antique cars, it is desirable to keep them stock. So no bigger whitewalls.

Linda

Lysol? Not my favorite thing, but others have used it for powdery mildew. There is Spectracide Immunox but I'm not so sure that it didn't stop my leaves from rooting - another issue there.

Somewhere there is a "recipe" for using the Lysol in the bottle rather than the spray which might be advisable. I think you dilute it and paint it on. Or try my perlite fix, which is a cotton swab with rubbing alcohol. It might work and won't hurt.

Diana

Hm. I was wondering about hydrogen peroxide, but i didnt have any on hand.

I just pulled the cutting out and looked at it, and no mold this time. Yesterday I scraped it off gently with my fingernail and then rinsed it. Today it looks like it is calloused over. So I dabbed some honey on it and put it back. Honey is supposed to be antifungal, but I forgot about it until now.

Normally Im liberal with the cinnamon, but it can inhibit root growth...so no good for use on a root!

Crossing my fingers!

Hopefully the mold doesnt come back.

It's not working. Im going to go pick up some hydrogen peroxide and mix it with water, and sit my cutting in it until tonight. If the mold keeps up, it will damage the root too much and my cutting will fail. Im also going to pick up some rubbing alcohol as you suggested, Diana.

If anybody has any other ideas, let me know. I usually try to steer clear of chemicals. I do have some neem oil insecticidal soap (states it can be used as a fungicide)...not sure if that can be used on roots.