Lucky!

Details, please!

Linda

Ah, details...

We have
Wranglers boot stompin'
Optimara little crystal
The madam
Sunset serenade (?)
Snowy egret
Trail along
Peppermint girl
Hearts delight
Irish flirt
Alan's fallen angel
Frosted fantasy and a sport of it
Milky Way trail
Fairy fountain
Mystic green (sport?)
Pixie blue
Rob's slap happy
Mini minx
Jersey girl trail
Blue pearl (?)
Flamingo (leaves)
Species (leaves)
And about six that she was going to send me the names of later (including which species plant it is)

Now I need to find another shelf for another light fixture...
:-)

You are indeed in business there! Congratulations :)

Diana

Congratulations, couldn't happen to a nicer or more deserving person! And lots of future photography models for close ups. Joanne

This post was edited by fortyseven on Tue, Jul 15, 14 at 15:50

Wonderful!!!! Enjoy!

Where did you get all of these? Did I miss some details?

Linda

Linda,
I forget how much of the story I actually told :-)

I was bored one evening and went 'kijiji-shopping' putting in all sorts of searches, and finally typed in 'African violets', which actually turned up a person looking to sell named African violets, just twenty minutes from where I live. We got talking, I offered to help her with photography and setting up a website, and before I knew it, she had loaded up two boxes and was looking for more to give me.
She gave me some forbid to take care of my thrips as well, so I am a happy camper.

It appears she is struggling with the photography (and I had to remind her not to borrow from the internet) so I'll probably go back and photograph her plants sometime next week.

Anyhow, it's a work in progress, but the site is up, just needs more content...

Here is a link that might be useful: Toronto Violets

Here are some pictures of her setup:

And that's just the one corner...

I wish I could go there :) I did want.

I know this is really OT, but I enjoyed looking. However, that Arctic Frost, although beautiful, looks like it's birthmarked. Is it hers? If it has a good leaf, she should set it or just start a new one. I've been fooling with that variety for quite a few years.

Diana

Thanks, great photos. Are the pots set inside large plastic drinking cups for height? What size pots are they in? Your photos for her website are also terrific. Joanne

She's actually got quite the wicking system. her 4" pots sit in the large drinking cups, which serve as reservoirs.
the smaller plants are in 2-3" square drawer organizers from the dollar store. 4 to a tray. it's actually quite decorative (i'll post pics tomorrow).
the containers are shallow, so it seems to work ok for her, though i am tempted to re-pot the smallest ones into a size container i am used to. her potting medium is also much denser than what i typically use. it just worries me thinking of them being on wicks even though the soil is rather dense - i brought them home on Sunday, and they still haven't dried out, even though i never watered....
goes to show no two setups are alike.

as for the photos, i am not happy with the ones i have yet. i'll put up what i have for now, but will groom some plants for better flowers and symmetry for a future photoshoot.

Karin

Karin,
I loved looking at these photos of her set up.
Thanks for the explanation of her wicking.
This is such an exciting project and you are the perfect person to be doing this. I look forward to any and all photos.
You are just enough of a "perfectionist" to do something really special and unique for her.

I am just getting ready to try some plants on wicking.
I am in the process of slowly doing the annual
repotting, just a few plants a day is all I have time for.
I still water by hand, so my plants get a lot of personal
attention.

In the past, I had such bad luck with wicking, when I lived in a dark, humid climate, that I have been reluctant to try. Now I live in a bright, dry climate, to probably wicking would be
ok. But they also have to look attractive.

Personally, I like square pots, they are so organized looking on shelves and in trays, but they hard to find in larger
sizes. I have found that the plants grow fine in square pots. They still make a round whorl. Joanne

Joanne, you just made me think of "what if the plants grew in the shape of their pots?" - with the follow-up thought of planters in all sorts of cookie-cutter shapes.....
That's what you call an overactive imagination :-p

let me grab my phone and post a pic of the trays...

I emptied the water out of the bottom to let them dry out a bit. I've had too much rotting going on to feel comfortable wicking with anything other than my new perlite-soil mix ratio.

You see how it's sort of pretty, but doesn't really work with the traditional soil-plant-ratio. (Which is why I am fretting, of course).
I am debating putting two long trays atop one another and just placing my normal small pots in there, feeding the wicks through holes drilled in the top tray...

Karin

Diana, I asked her about arctic frost, and in her experience even a birth marked leaf will produce only white blooming babies. To propagate the purple blooming version, only suckers work for her.

I guess that's opposite to what your efforts yielded...

Karin

Actually, i don't set birthmarked leaves. However, I wouldn't buy a birthmarked plant. I believe there is a chance that you can get a good plant from a birthmarked leaf but it's lower than from a "clean" leaf. I think Nancy Robitaille tried it and had some figures on it.

It's not Arctic Frost, but Iceberg is another Lyon's variety that tends to birth mark. I just got new leaves and one of them put up a baby with birth marks. I pinched it off since that isn't what I want.

The solid blue Arctic Frost is called Evening Splendor and isn't birth marked at all. Those funky looking ones are just funky Arctic Frosts, I guess. As I said, my one just got bluer and bluer until I suppose it is Evening Splendor.

My birthmarked Arctic Frost is going to bloom but I never know what it will do. It was half solid blue the last time. At any rate, I wouldn't buy one although a chimera got by me that is birrthmarking and now I see it had a small dark spot on the outer leaf too. Yuck.

Diana

Karin, How long has she been growing? Does she do some of her own hybridizing? What a lucky break for both of you to meet! Perfect timing for you, with your growing hobby, and now hybridizing! Joanne

Congratulations! They are beautiful!

Joanne, not sure how long she's been growing av's probably in the neighbourhood of ten years, but that's a guess until I get a chance to ask her. Her sister grows Av's as well and has tried her hand at hybridizing once without success. I guess I might have given up if I had only had the one seed pod to try, which didn't grow. It is disappointing to wait half a year and then nothing sprouts...
It's great getting to know someone local who grows AVs and isn't twice my age :-)

Yes!!! On all accounts! Bet you can't wait to meet her sister!
Could be the start of a real partnership!