LyndonLyons.com
Has a large selection of very healthy plants with excellent customer service. They have their own hybrids plus selections from others. The plants come in a good quality potting medium and good quality pot. You will not have to repot for a long time. They are having a 15 percent off sale during the month of August. Their plants are usually easy to grow and will get you off to a good start. They are one of the larger vendors, so it makes one stop shopping easy. If you do a search through this Forum on minis you will get a lot if information. Some people like the plants of the MacDonald line. Some reds and other colors.

I like to combine minis with semi minis and small standards for scale. The two m's I grow are Old Fashioned Rose from Lyon's and Rob's Love Bite. However, there are 3 or 4 Macs that are recommended. One is called Just Jeff. If you look on the Gallery , you will find some recommendations of MacDonald red m's by a member who grows them.
I personally grow mostly standards and small standards.
So others will chime in with their favorites. One called Little Sweetheart is appealing but it might be a semi.

This post was edited by fortyseven on Tue, Aug 19, 14 at 13:42

Violet Barn is well known for their minis. I've been quite pleased with the little ones I received. Sometimes the quality from various vendors is affected by season. My first two orders were earlier. I have a few plants coming this week.

I got two from Lyndon Lyons and one had been stripped and had a trunk, the other was overpotted for the size of the plant. This was about a week ago. YMMV.

I think I've listed some long time favorites elsewhere. I've ordered leaves from Fancy Bloomers, but she also sells plants. Many carry the Pittman Jollys and I've grown Jolly Jubilee for awhile.

I have grown Mac's Just Jeff. Although it is a red with mosaic leaves, it didn't shape nicely and I discarded. It didn't grow nicely for some other people either. Fair warning there. I'm trying a few more Mac's now though. I usually grow from leaves for the cost and selection.

I should have another order coming and can let you know how that one works out too.

There's not really a good one-stop shopping now. There's eBay too, although I really think Violet Barn has done a very good job and costs no more than eBay generally on Rob's plants and other nice small ones.

Good luck. It sounds like a nice setup and idea. It's a shame I can't stick to it!

Diana

When ordering by mail, do keep in mind the postage costs and calculate the maximum number of plants you can get for the minimum postage and handling cost. With Lyons, I recently calculated I could get one dozen standard plants and one leaf set for a specific rate. With minis, you might be able to get 15 or more. The postage cost varies with zip codes. Some people like to try out various vendors for comparison to learn which ones they prefer.
If you are interested in joining a local AVSA club in your area, or going to a meeting, they usually have copies of the AVSA magazine where member vendors are listed on the back . Joanne

Thank you all for the vendor info and thanks for the ideas on the postage.
I'm working on getting everything set up before I order. I need to go to Home Depot, I guess, and get maybe some perlite too, my AVs will be on watering mats so I want a very light soil. I guess I need to reread a lot about keeping AVs, it has been a few years and I've forgotten some of it.

Be aware that Miracle-Gro perlite, which is the most commonly found kind in the box stores, has added fertilizer. This has created problems for many of us.

It didn't have that at one time and suddenly they stuck fertilizer in everything some years ago. If you have a garden center, they may have another kind. It can be hard for some of us to find coarse perlite locally.

Postage is murder now, no doubt :) I have not ordered from her but there is Jo's Violets in Texas and she has miniatures listed. You might try a few from her.

Diana

Diana thank you. Jo has a HUGE mini list, reasonable prices, reasonable postage, and right here in Texas!

Thanks for the heads up about the perlite and fertilizer, I had no idea.
In the spring I made some raised beds outside and bought a bag of Hydrofarm 100 liter coarse perlite on Amazon.com and I was pretty happy with it. I think one can get smaller quantities.

After reading one of the threads on the gesneriad forum I was checking out streps. Those are some pretty plants!

And pretty easy! :-) Certainly something to consider!

AVs and streps are not mutually exclusive - they are both bright spots in life!

There are some strep minis, though I don't have any at this time and I'm not sure that the clubs recognize them yet. However, they do have a few scented varieties, and the regular strep blooms vary between smallish -about an inch across-to quite large-three to four inches. And they always seem to have this beautiful cascade of blooms, like the phal orchids!

There are even some strep flowers that look like orchids (but the plants don't need the fuss!). Currently have some babies of those (WOW is one) and I have great hopes! :-)

I love them both, so I try not to be biased!

Dave has some recommendations on Ebay strep growers so if you're interested, post a message on the gesnariad forum. He's wonderfully helpful!

Best,
Judy