Hi Everyone,

I messed up my registration name and have asked that it be changed. So...before we get to know each other I want to clarify that my name is Shallon (without that s at the end).

Happy growing to you all!

Welcome!
I will defer to the "experts" to give an opinion.
Forty is a respectable number! (No need to go beyond
that.) Joanne

This post was edited by fortyseven on Fri, Nov 28, 14 at 19:02

Hi Joanne - and thanks :-)

This is my first online chat / forum - it took the AV's to get me talking...on line, to them, to myself. LOL!

Actually it has been interesting to read all the common issues from such a diverse group and the forum community seems very nice. Searching online for answers has been helpful in some ways, not so much in others.

I'd post a picture of the misbehaving bud phenomenon but I groomed yesterday and removed all of them. Mostly the stems are so short they barely come above the crown, so it would be difficult to get a good picture anyway. If another one comes on, I'll let it get as big as possible and try to take a good photo for posting to help with diagnosis.

Of my 40-ish plants there are two doubles: Feather and Vintage Lace. I'm waiting for the second plants to bloom so I can decide which I like best and then will rehome the others.

Shallon

Hopefully, if you wait a few days, the "regulars" will see your request and weigh in. The weekends are not very active on this Forum. It could be temperature related, as one possibility. "Feather" is an older variety, worth holding onto, however, as a vintage plant, it might have some earlier genetic issues regarding blooming that were resolved in later developments.

Could the problem be too much light ?

I say that because you say that the buds are not really emerging from the leaves (i.e. on short stems). When I've had that issue, I've repositioned affected plants so that they didn't get as much light. The more mature plants might be able to handle excess light better.

Do the leaves in the center of the plants seem stunted, pale, overly hairy, or deformed at all? If so, the issue with the flowers (and the above symptoms) may be due to cyclamen mites. They are only about 1/100" long, so you can't see them without a magnifying glass. They can be treated with various houseplant-safe sprays, or a good systemic miticide like Bonide. A word of caution: always try out a new miticide/insecticide regimen on a few plants first before applying it to all of your collection. Better safe than sorry. Even so, I've found that certain hybrids and species are more sensitive to the chemicals than others and you might still wind up with some damage even if your trial group tested fine.

Mark

I don't think the problem is bugs of any kind. It's possible I'm wrong, but there are no other indications - new growth is normal on the crowns and there's nothing visible moving anywhere even under close scrutiny.

The light isn't likely the problem either - the leaves are fine and there's about 12" clear space between the bottom of the bulbs and the tops of the plants - all of mine are standards.

Really the one plant I've had the most problem with is Lyons Kaylih Marie. It's a starter/young plant that had one bloom about 1/3 the size it should be, with undeveloped pollen sacs (anthers?) that were kind of non-existent. There were two other buds on that stem - one that looked like it might be close to normal and one that was the odd stunted mini-petaled boom.

It had other bloom stems going with two or three buds that were dwarfed, with buds that developed into something that was essentially anthers only.

I'd had some small amount of powdery mildew with our weather change but it was very minor and is under control now. I never saw any on bloom stems - only leaves and none now. I spot treated first with a mild bleach solution and then with Chlorox disinfectant (same thing as Lysol).

Thinking that it might help with the mildew, I let the plants get fairly dry but then read that too little moisture can contribute to powdery mildew as well...so all the pots are rehydrated. There's a small fan in the plant room to keep the air moving and there's plenty of room between plants too.

My main ideas were nutrition and moisture but thought someone might have other possible suggestions or an "I've seen that" kind of response. I sure appreciate all your input!

That variety is harder to grow and get to bloom. It needs extra TLC. It is very sensitive to extremes of light, temperature, too much water or too little water. Of the highly variegated violets with pink blossoms, the Apache series are the best performers. Lyon's offers several varieties of Apache. They are all good. With some varieties, they only offer leaves. The hybridizer of Apache series is Munk. They take longer to grow out than solid green leaf violets due to the variegation. Apache Redcoats is a popular one, it is more of a deep pink than red. There is not that much variation in the pink blossoms, so it doesn't matter which one you get . It is often difficult to try to start a new plant from a leaf of a variegated plant that does not do well. It is better to just order another plant or try a different plant. If there are problems with your growing conditions, they will show up in the heavily variegated pink plants first. Don 't worry too much about the first bloom cycle. The plant needs to grow out its leaves first. Hope this helps. Joanne

This post was edited by fortyseven on Tue, Nov 25, 14 at 13:32

Actually, that makes sense Joanne ... and is very encouraging. I know the first set of blooms is often different than subsequent blooms and that even with an established plant there can be variations between bloom cycles.

I'll keep watering and cooing and coddling ... and wait for that next bloom cycle.

Well, I've seen what you describe twice. I think.
One plant was fresh from the garden centre, and then took over a year to bloom again. The other was about to die of stem rot.
So, I attributed it to stress. (Possibly chloramine). There were other, single blossom occurrences, but those i just removed and waited for the next ones, which turned out fine.

Considering it takes probably a month from first visible bud to full bloom, any mishap along the way can probably cause deformities. - I suppose that is why "they" speak of "consistent care"...

Karin

the leaves are fine and there's about 12" clear space between the bottom of the bulbs and the tops of the plants

==>>>

3 to 5 inches.. in my experience ...

and that presumes all plants.. are in the same height pots ...

older plants might be able to cope.. better ... if they tend to have more leaves ...

learn to post us some pix.. i would like to see your set up ...

the first thing that always comes to my mind.. with lack of flowering.. is lack of light... especially on heavy blooming plants ...

there is NEVER.... too much light ... if so.. your leaves will burn from the heat of the lamps.. laying on them .... IMHO

ken

i was thinking of my fluorescent shop light setup ...

i suppose there are other high intensity lights systems.. that would require your plants be further from them ...

forgive me .. if i confused you

ken

duplicate post

ken

This post was edited by ken_adrian on Thu, Nov 27, 14 at 9:21

Deleted because posted on wrong thread. J

This post was edited by fortyseven on Fri, Nov 28, 14 at 19:05

Karin - I do hope you're right! Probably I failed to appreciate the amount of stress generated by being shipped from a nice cozy greenhouse (Lyons, for Kaylih Marie) in a cardboard box, by the post office, repotted and placed in an entirely new environment.

If I could find anything wrong with the plant other than the misshapen buds it would have offered a better clue to the source of the problem. It has new buds coming again. If they are also distorted I'll take pictures and post them.

I've tried to read up on things like soil and light and nutrition, etc. and there is a rather broad range of advice where light is concerned. While lots of it is the consensus, distance between bulbs and plants varies. I can certainly reduce the space on mine and then there would be room for another shelf...and more plants. Hee hee.

Here are a couple of pictures...

This is a side picture and shows the largely obstructed window. The evergreen is not right up against the house the way it appears in the picture, but this is an northeasterly facing room so the light is minimal.

Wow! A picture is worth 1,000 words! Great set-up!
Lyon's plants do not need to be repotted for quite some time, six months or so. If a plant arrives with buds, they often fall off from the stress of shipping. Joanne

Hmmm maybe I coo them back on. :) So far, I've not had the experience of losing blooms post shipping, but maybe it's because I don't give them a chance to drop.

Generally, I leave a flower or two for a week or so if a new plant comes with one, but then I take them off and give the plant some time to get settled into it's new home. I like my plants to have healthy, uniform foliage and a good start on life here before putting much energy into blooming.

There have been a few I couldn't bear to disbud right away... I got a Princess K Rei from plantmaniac on Ebay and it came loaded with blooms and buds. The plant was small and nearly dwarfed by gorgeous flowers. I kept telling myself I should take them off, but waited a month before having the strength to do the deed. Since then, the plant has grown by about 30% and is working on another round of buds...just barely visible along the stem.

Thanks for the thumbs-up on the light shelf. It makes taking care of the plants easy because I can move it away from the wall to get at both sides. My thought was that as the plants grow it will be difficult to get them out over the top of each other and I'd hate to break flowers moving things around overhead. Those are "daylight" bulbs in cheap fixtures from Home Depot - the bulbs cost nearly twice the price of the fixtures, but the violets seem to like them and that's the important thing. Most of them have nice flat growth patterns, so it looks to me like the light is sufficient.

There are a couple...Arabian Nights (another Lyons) which seem determined to grow upright (bottom shelf, center right) and Apache Sunburst (Munk from PJ's Plants N Things on Ebay, also bottom center but on the left). They are both immature plants with new growth coming on, and I'm hoping they lay down over time.