Joanne
The big boys, Species and Russians.

Anything old and big, Tommy Lou, Private Dancer, Tiger, Fisherman's Paradise perhaps.

A few variegated and singles in bright clear colors, red, blue, white.

I saw a big collection of variegated, plain, single, semi-dble, dbl, yesterday at a nursery. All Mini's, every one. I didn't care for them. A few leaves with a small clump of flowers. Not impressive at all.

I like the big plants with leaves that drape down to cover the pot.
I have a semi-mini, a stunning single flower in a blue velvet with fantasy streaks of lavender rose. That one is a glow in the dark charmer that is doing very well and is the current best of show in the house but mostly I like Big!

Keepers for me are pixie blue and pixie runaround sport. Actually, most of my mini trailers. Next are the variegates. Champagne pink and pacific pearl.
There are varieties I'd been looking for for a "long" time and I've finally found, Tina's april fantasy, Tommie Lou and happy Harold. Though I don't know how those three will do - I am barely seeing plantlets so far.

Ah heck, if I absolutely had to cut my collection, I'd go by health, not variety.

Karin

I am working on reducing my collection at this time. I have cut down some but would like to eliminate about 25 more. Many of my varieties are in leaf pots so I will decide on them when they bloom.
My preference runs to large plants will variegated foliage. Yes, I know they take more room, but minis are just not my thing. I also grow a number of species which are usually immune from culling, but perhaps I will re-evaluate that policy. Otherwise, I consider ease of growth & beauty of both the flower & it's leaves. Included is a pic of my Wild Irish Rose, sorta a model of my ideal violet as far as leaves go. Now if I could have a shelf full of these type leaves with different color flowers, I'd be a happy violet person!

Your pink Optimara is beautiful ...

Aegis, This Optimara is a more sensitive than most O's, I have lost a couple. However, for those that survive, it ages well and continues to bloom in clusters on bloom stalks as it matures. I have a few of these as it is a look I wanted. Terri, That is a beautiful plant! Did you get it from Lyon's? You are a good grower. I also liked the photo of your blue plants on another thread recently. 25 seems like a good goal and number to reduce for an initial pass. I mostly grow standards. Seems that people tend to grow ether standards or minis. I also have many in the leaf status. They would be easiest to donate to my club. However, the labels tend to disappear once I progress from potting from one stage to the next. Many leaves were special orders from Allegro and Lyons, so I will wait a bit longer. Now that everything is organized neatly on shelves and groomed, fed and awaiting spring bloom, the clutter does not seem so overwhelming. I think we have the same carpet! Joanne

Joanne, I grew the plant from a leaf. I don't recall where it came from, but it wasn't Lyons. I counted about 75 different varieties in my collection so I'm hoping to get that number down to around 50 eventually, but that can be difficult as I already have my eye on some others I'd like to try. I think this is a familiar story!

Your violet is lovely. I think it is My Delight, is it not? I have grown this one along with its family members, Trinidad & Yellowstone. They were all nice plants, but I just couldn't keep everything. Terri

Terri,

With this new Houzz format, I get an email when a new post arrives. I was sending an email and saw your post. So, that is convenient! Wow, from a leaf! It is hard to grow a variegated plant from a leaf! The hybridizer might be Lyon's, they have a lot of varieties with "Irish" in the name. It is hard not to want new ones to try out. Yes, that is MyDelight! I also had Yellowstone! That was a cool violet! I gave it away when it was not in bloom and forgot what it was! I think I have Trinidad now! I was trying to figure out what it is! The O's this past year included some unusual ones. But they seem more tender and need more TLC than the usual O's.

75 is a reasonable number. The last time I panicked and reduced the collection, it was up to 75. I don't count but my cousin, who thinks I have too many, counts when she visits! I got it down to 50 favorites with no duplicates. Then we moved to a house loaded with sunny windows and a spare room. I got back into growing for my club. Not enough members were bringing violets to share and sell, so I started growing ... and growing ... and ...

We are getting ready to move again, so I counted, as they multiplied when I wasn't looking. I was supposed to bring 25 to my last club meeting/sale, but did not make it. So now I am up to about 150 with about another 80 babies in the nursery. Many do not look too great and not too many are in bloom because we were away a lot in the winter with the house unheated. Some are duplicates. A few of the variegated pinks did not survive the dry-then-overwatering winter season. I don't like to give them away when they don't look good. And the babies need to grow out more. Everything is groomed now so they will perk up soon.

Joanne

Shhhh Joanne, collections seem to grow when you're not looking, don't they....

2-4 leaves of new varieties each club meeting, now I am out of space, but still bought a noid at home depot today - couldn't help myself, it is obviously sporting :-)

I have Trinidad ii, and have killed about 5 instances of it. So fussy may be an apt description.

K.

Joanne,

Wild Irish Rose was hybridized by Sidney Sorano, who was married to Paul at one time and therefore saying the variety was developed at Lyons is indeed true. I tend to like her hybrids & its too bad she no longer works with violets. As to variegates being more difficult from a leaf, I'm not sure thats true as most of my varieties were started from leaves. Of course, a few are tricky, but then some solid greens are also.

I like your comment that your plants multiplied when you weren't looking. That seems to happen in this house also!

Yellowstone was an easy grower for me, but I didn't have Trinidad II long enough to judge as it kinda slipped out the door on one of my purging rounds. The flowers are very pretty though, so maybe some day it will find its way back to my stands. Terri

We are all so amusing, aren't we? Talking about what shall leave the nest in one breath, and discussing what we plan to adopt in the next! Thanks, Terri, for the info on Sidney. That is too bad she is no longer hybridizing. I do recall reading their bios. They are kinda like celebs in our little AV world, aren't they?! I am thrilled to have now identified Trinidad! I swore off looking at the Optimara site for months now. I would get all cross eyed and squinty eyed staring at it. Then when I saw this lovely violet blooming in the plant room with O leaves and habit, I did not quite know where it came from. The color and bloom shape is lovely. Hybridizing sounds like so much work but those who do it all the time probably find it easy. I can think of several hybridizers in the past few years who are no longer active.

Karin, how is your crop of seedlings doing? Did you end up keeping most or donating some? Glad you found a club you like. My sense is that clubs ebb and flow, like forums, with the interests and pursuits of the members. Joanne

I truly have determined that my numbers must come down.

I don't know why I thought I thought that I could handle 100+ plants. There's just too much to do in terms of their maintenance and upkeep.

So I am currently weeding out the plants that are not really growing well.

Some of what I hope to keep is ...

Red - Hot Spot, Pow Wow, Red Rocket, Red Lantern,

Pink - Cabbage Patch, Elizabeth, Irish Lullaby, Kris, Love in Bloom, Maggie Lee, Okie Easter Bunny, Pink Summit,

White - Cool Mint, Early Spring, Ghost Dancer, Harmony's White Lace, Pure Serenity, Sansoucy Julie Marie, Southern Sugar

Blue - Anastasia, Austin's Love, Blue Dragon, Blue Mist, Easy Breezy Day, Quiet Riot, Snowy Skies

Violet - Apache Jewel, Carolina Ariosa, Heaven's Reflection, Pearl Lake, Pretty Miss Kelly, Private Dancer, ShaZam, Trinidad

Dark Purple - Black Swan, Lyon's Black Magic, Apache Midnight

Variegated - Optimara Modesty, Pow Wow, Private Dancer

White/Violet - Bloomlover's Fantasy, Iceberg, Island Hideaway

White/Red - Frosty Cherry

Of course, now I am strongly considering Optimara MyDelight as a new acquisition ...

Welcome to the reducing group! You have some lovely keeper varieties and I like the way you have them arranged by color. If I did that, I doubt I'd find any whites on my list. I think I will have to remedy that. Wait! Isn't that moving in the opposite direction? Oh well, I think I've lost control of this boat a long time ago so I will eliminate a number & then add no doubt. . . just like you are thinking of doing!

I watch with envy at this group oh to have some that I no longer want. I still want to save them all.

Joanne, I threw out most of the second batch, I had had them in the window and forgot to water them more often than I remembered. Kept about a dozen of the better looking ones. With the first batch, I am still waiting for blooms, of the ones that have bloomed, I only kept the first. The star was a dropper AND it only had one blossom per stem. Trying not to be too sentimental. Plus, I am double-stacking my shelf right now, and expanding to non-lit areas.... Oopsie.

Karin, The photo is stunning.

Terri, I would also love to have plants with leaves shaped and colored like Wild Irish Rose.

Aegis, Thanks for taking the time to post your lists. They are very interesting. As Terri said, it is so organized! The number of violets needs to be what gives pleasure. The MyDelight might be available in local stores if there are places near you that carry Optimaras. I got mine at Trader Joe's, if you have that kind of grocery store in your area. Usually, when stores get a fresh shipment of assorted Optimaras, there will be only one or two of MyDelight. It costs around $3 to $5, depending on the store. I have also ordered it from the company. The buds are pale green as they open, like a rosebud. The edges of the open blooms are silvery green and ruffled, and the centers do not open completely, giving it an antique rose look. It is a lighter pink than it looks on the Optimara website. The leaves are a nice, medium, true green with a satiny finish, long, spoon shaped. It holds onto its blooms for a long time. In my environment, as it matures, in later bloom cycles, it loses some color, the pink is softer, the silvery green band is less wide, with less ruffling, the flowers open wider, so they are flatter rather than cupped. Still pretty, with a lot of bloom, but less of an antique rose look.

I also have some maturing plant starts which are just now budding to bloom.

In the madness of trying to deal with other collection-wide issues (thrips), I lost track of what plant was what.

So I'm now looking for imminent bloom of some of these plantlets, ... and the interesting task of determining which of the plants that I've propagated from leaves or grown from plugs ... I still have ...

The combination of battling thrips and the plants not being at their best in the winter might be what makes maintaining the collection not seem worth the trouble right now.

I have never sent for plugs. Well, maybe once. I hear trying to grow them out can be more difficult than growing out leaves.

Today, a new person who has not see my collection before asked me how many plants I have. She was looking at the ones in bloom in the rooms of the house visible to guests. I took her to the plant room where very little is in bloom and where the nursery is. She got a huge, delighted smile on her face and thought everything was charming. I asked her if she wanted a couple, she eagerly nodded and asked many intelligent questions about their care. So I saw the collection through "new eyes." She especially liked the nursery. I have just gotten all the shelves cleaned up and all the plants groomed.

I believe that I'm winning against the Thrips.

I'm just at the point where I recognize that my unfettered acquiring of new AV's is not best for my existing collection.

I've probably fought against every known AV pest at this point. And I'm realizing that I must be more selective in whom I buy from .... and leave more time (by having fewer plants) to tend/check my plants to head off any problems early.

I have just about decided to limit my plant acquisitions to plugs and/or leaves. This was a recommendation of "All Abut African Violets" Annie that I resisted up to this point. But for the sake of the collection, I think that it is best.

I've never had a problems with growing plugs. They are sort of the in-between step of growing from leaves and starting with blooming-sized plants.

I do want to reiterate that I have perfect faith in the plants I've received from Lyndon Lyon and Jack's Violets, and the plugs I've gotten from Bloomlovers. I also feel pretty good about the plant starts I've gotten from Bloomin' Jungle, Blue Ridge Country Baskets, and Blue Mountain Violets. I realize, through my own experience, that ANY grower can have a pest problem from time to time, but I seem to run into more problems when I buy more more full-sized plants.

This is my 10th year or so of growing AV's. I'm at the point where it has become more important to grow my plants well, ... than to have every new variety that come around the pike.

That being said, MyDelight is on my list for next year. But so far, it's the only item on my list. Being an Optimara, I should be able to grow it from a leaf ...

Hi, Ten years is impressive. Thanks for the list of vendors. I would add Donna Brining, Fancy Bloomers to the list of vendors I like to work with. She will send leaves or plants. Also, Janet Stromborg of Allegro Violets has a unique vacuum pack method that keeps leaves crisp. She has a load of pale blue violet she has hybridized. I have leaves down of a dozen or more, just waiting for more growth. I am trying to get together a collection of pale and mid-tone blues.

(Last year, it was double pink variegates, I now have enough of those.)

Did you bring in thrips from a store bought plant? Any idea how you got them? Insects are much more of a problem on the east coast. I remember when I lived in NJ, bugs, PM, mold, spindly growth, etc., were a constant battle. In those days, I did not know about flora carts. Nor would I have gotten one.

In the spring, when my other plants of MyDelights improve, I will send a leaf or sucker if you want. I have a short list of two others on the Forum who also want a leaf or sucker. I sent leaves to one member, but they did not grow for her. It is a bit harder to grow than the purple Optimaras. At one point, I had four pots of MyDelight. It might be only three now. Once they are back and doing well, I will let folks know. I might try to start some leaves as it does not sucker easily, unlike other O's.

Looks like you have a workable system in place Aegis. I understand the battle of the bugs. I have been growing violets on & off for 40 years and have met with just about every malady that can affect them. I would say I've never experienced nematodes, thank heavens!

Most of my plants have come via leaves from various places, some of which you've mentioned. I would also put in a plug for the Round Robin exchanges. Some people fear them, but I've never had any problems with leaves in an exchange. Plus its a great way to add to your collection without much expense. I can't participate this year because I already have too many plants. . . some from the result of being in too many RR's last year.

As I've said, I usually grow from leaves, but I'm developing a hankering for finished plants. Must be age as I'm losing patience with waiting. However, I notice that I will take a leaf from the mature plant purchased & usually will grow those offspring and eventually discard the original. I guess I'll always believe that the plant grown in your conditions will be the most adaptable, but its still a pleasure to have the instant gratification of a mature blooming plant on occasion.

Culling the herd can oft be an agonizing dilemma. Personally, I prefer having plants (whether they be Av's, orchids, broms, cacti, or what have you) that are mini's. My tastes are so eclectic and my space limited enough that I value space saving properties of mini's and micro mini plants. That's not to say I don't admire some of the beautiful big monsters out there, but they would greatly reduce the array of plants I can keep.