I'm not aware that the Violet Barn ever sold leaves; I thought it was just plants. I know Lyons sells leaves in addition to plants but they don't always have the same varieties as the VB.

For leaves, you might want to check Allegro Violets, Janet Stromborg. She only sells leaves. She uses a unique system of vacuum packing her leaves so that they stay crisp in sealed bags with air pockets. Once they arrive, they will remain crisp until the bag is opened, so if you order a lot of leaves, you don't have to pot them all up immediately. She has many of her own hybrids as well as other selections. Her prices are very reasonable. She is in Wisconsin, so her shipping times are dependent on the weather. Joanne

Joanne, that sounds promising... what is her website? I googled it and wasn't sure what I was looking for! Nothing seemed to come up for buying leaves from her.

terrilou, I must have been thinking wrong then...I have bought several varieties from Lyons! I bought six leaves last april, and they are all alive and well... except for "Blue Jeans Baby" didn't make it. I really liked Lyons service! They shipped fast, and the leaves were well packaged.

Melody Rose, thanks for the offer! Wow that's tempting. My problem is that I don't have enough of the named varieties to trade! I only have five that I KNOW what their names are.. the other fifteen are unnamed starts I've gotten from here and there, and then two are ones I just picked up at Home Depot... I'm pretty sure I identified those though. :-) I just wish so badly that I had more of the ones people want. I have ten mini violet leaf varieties coming from "Fancy Bloomers"... once the weather clears up.

Thank you all very much for your help!

Hi, I did not realize Janet Stromborg did not have a website. It was so long ago when I contacted her, I don't recall how I went about it. It may have been from another Forum where she posted information. Such as African Violet Brats. I can try to research this further.

Thanks! I'll look for the African Violet Brats one. :-)

5 sounds like a nice small trade. It would fit in the smallest priority box once it warms up a bit. Let me know.

fortyseven, are you joining the RR?

Janet Stromberg was The Violet Gallery but the website is down. I wonder if she's doing business anymore just not online. I'm going to make an order from BloomLovers. I've never ordered from her but she has a good history on eBay and an amazing list of violets on her website. It took me hours to go through it all. Leaves are available as well as plugs (baby plants without pot) for great prices and reasonable shipping. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

Hi Dixie,

Thanks for asking, no, I am not going to participate in the RR. However, in the late summer or early Fall, I can let you know what I have for trade. It would be a small amount.

At this time, we are moving. My collection needs to flourish a little better than it is now--it got a little cold and neglected during a very busy winter. I lost about a dozen babies or leaf starts in the move, and gave away about half a dozen. I have a few previous requests to fulfill with Forum members once the plants are strong enough to be shipped and we are a bit more settled into the new place.

Melody, I have heard very good things about BloomLovers. I never ordered from her. I read that she crosses the border and mails from the Niagara Falls area.

I will try to look up my older records for Janet Stromborg. It might take me a few days as we are right in the middle of moving. Anyway, she is in Wisconsin, so she won't be shipping until the weather there improves. Joanne 47

melody wish i could but i should probably wait till my plants are bigger! have fun with the rr! :)

oh no... another place to drool over??!! :-P i have a full cart at lyndon lyon and a 14 leaf order with fancy bloomers... and now im gonna go check out bloom lovers. :-D

No problem, I'll get ya next time. You're going to be amazed at Bloom Lovers website. I don't think I'm going to order my Lyon's cart after all.

whats her shipping like?

$8 to the U.S. for up to 9 plugs or 30 leaves

This is NOT good. I am determined not to even start looking at her standard sizes, because I know I'll have a wish list a mile long! I did manage to narrow it down to TEN minis... and I already have TEN coming from Fancy Bloomers! Yikes. The thing is, I can justify minis because I only have two now, and they take up just a tiny fraction of my kitchen window sill... and I can just picture that window sill FULL of gorgeous little miniature violets! I'm gonna run the idea by my husband.. but I think I know what he'll say. :-P

Here's my list there... and really, at about $2 a leaf, and with $8 shipping, it's NOT that expensive!

Gleeful Elf

Golden Dawn

Hyla’s Little Lira

Lemon Drop

Lilian Sparkler

Prancing pony

Ness’s Satin Rose

Rob’s Cotton Ball

Rob’s Fuddy Duddy

Rob’s Pink Satin

I believe Janet Stromberg is AVJanet on Ebay. She was never associated with the Violet Gallery which was located in Pa. Janet is an administatror on the Brat Pack forum.

Oops! I must be remembering wrong, sorry :o

I'll be your enabler then. Order them, order more! Hey it's way less than you'd pay for Lyon's, right? So really you're saving money, yeah.

melody - lol! yeah - my man would just look away and clear his throat politely if i told him that i would b saving money. his way of saying "and you NEED more violets??" :-D no he just tells me to do what i feel right about and i almost feel guilty about ordering more... but i'll sleep on it.... :-P

Oh, that is a shame to cancel the Lyon's! Just cut it down to a few! They are not shipping now so you still have time to consider. I usually make out my wish list then narrow it down to my drop dead list of about 8 or ten plants or about 20 leaves, whatever I can get for the minimum shipping. A friend of mine says it is easier to do what you want and apologize later rather than ask permission! However, I learned on this forum to be moderate. Also, for the sake of my DH, my visiting grown children. I want them to admire my collection and not think I have turned into a nutty plant lady, as my growing indoors is only in the past couple of years. As a kid, I went through that with my family. My dad raised too many tomatoes, and other veggies. My mother would have to can everything and also go door to door to give away tomatoes and was kidded a lot. We lived in a suburb, not on a farm, so she was teased. However, love of plants is genetic, because my grand daughter cannot get enough of flowers, nor my DIL, so my son and DH are very happy we tend to the gardens and they watch football. The only one who really teases me a lot is one cousin I travel with. For her, plants belong outside. But I do not comment to her on the number of cats she has .... Now that we live in an agricultural area, it is more normal to have lots of plants of all kinds.

I am putting in a plug to order from Lyons and my reasons why I go there first. Then if they don't have something I think I "must have," then I go elsewhere. I was trained that way by the person who first mentored me. Giving them most of my business over the years has enabled me to build a customer relationship. They are a professional grower, one of the pioneers who started this business. They have been involved in all the major developments, such as the reds, the double pinks, opening up the Russian markets, selling at conventions, and so much more. This is what they do, they have outlasted numerous hobbyists who come and go. You will consistently get bigger, sturdier plants than anywhere else that will survive and you will not have to repot them for six months or more. You pay a buck or two more, but the plants are guaranteed to survive. And are labelled accurately. If not, they will replace them. They are my hands-down best place to order plants and even leaves. They send big leaves, two of each. They have been at this a long time, decades, they are one of the founding vendors who created this business and they are not making much of a profit. I will always have them as my first choice. I want to support their business. So, this is just me, if they are the original hybridizers of a violet, then I will prefer to buy it from them. They are selling many more leaves now than they used to and many of their oldies but goodies are no longer being offered. (Other vendors have them instead.) I worry that they might eventually decide the mail order business is not worth their trouble and only sell at conventions. Since I don't go to the east coast conventions, I would be out of luck.

Yes, I think that was it, AV Janet. I don't buy on EBay but somehow found a way to contact her, I think on the Brat Pack or Violet Reflections. She raises her own so she does not always have everything in stock. Violet Gallery is a different company that went out of business with last year's nasty winter. I may have also found her on Violet Reflections Yahoo Groups. I belong to both but in reader mode only.

I can be just as happy to build a collection slowly as to feel I have to have every new thing that comes along. That little slip of a plant is soon going to be a 12" beauty in the round that is going to need a lot of shelf space. So my best suggestion is to be discriminating and just get a few at a time from one vendor at a time and give them the care they need. You can't really know what you like until you grow out a few.

When I first joined the forum, there was a major discussion going on with some old-timers who has massive collections who warned newcomers to go slowly. I have personally known of many people in my area who had to get rid of large collections when they moved to a different State. Or had some other major life change. Or even passed away, their family members got rid of the plants very quickly when they had to sell the family home.

For myself, I built a collection systematically, and slowly, trying out various hybridizers and types of plants to learn what I liked best and what did well with me. My DH appreciates the plants, when in a plant room, it is a quiet place to sit. I also read on the Forum to make sure the plants are kept tidy. Because for myself, when I look at a plug vs. a blooming plant, I honestly do not see a difference. That is why I am a grower more than a shower. So I have to force myself to see the plants through non-gower eyes and keep it tidy and appealing.

Now, only the attractive or ornamental plants are in the display areas of my house, with all those not ready for "show" in the plant room. (In California, we don't have basements, only garages, which are usually unheated and space heaters don't work well.)

That was why growing in an office did not work for me, because people always expect plants to look well. Whereas I tend to turn any area into a nursery, such as when leaves fall off and can root in a glass of water.

In closing, those who live in the winter areas probably just have cabin fever. My best advice is to try out one vendor at a time. When those plants or leaves arrive, you wll have to tend to them immediately. I also budgeted in the time constraints needed.

When I was a kid, we could never bring Dad on vacations with us because he had to tend his garden. We had to stay close so he could come on weekends. He had a vegetable garden, for him, the flowers were an afterthought. He had a lot of flowering plants as a hedge around the garden or borders. The flowers were my job to tend. My mother called herself a "garden widow." So I am aware of this genetic affliction and looking for a plant sitter to spare my family.

Well, I must be procrastinating, avoiding packing up boxes and lugging them around. The plants have all been safely moved, aside from the casualties. That alone was enough to convince me that my last order of leaves from three different vendors six months ago close together was too much. I ended up with more leaves than I could keep track of, then when I moved them to larger pots, the labels got mixed up, and then I ended up losing about 15 of them at the plantlet stage due to the move. So I won't really know what I have until they bloom. Funny thing is, I knew the move was coming, I was just in denial when I ordered, thinking they would be bigger. DH does not "share my pain" as the leaf pots are so small, he just points out all that are thriving and budding up. Maybe that is a better approach to take. However, when I look at a leaf pot, I see the future plant, not the present! I enjoy the present, but I know what is coming. Joanne

Joanne,

Those are very wise words. We all need a cautious voice of reason. :-)

My husband also appreciates my plants.. he has said multiple times that he thinks they make a house into a home. But it's good for me to keep in mind that when he gets annoyed is when it starts looking cluttered. Our house was not built with plants in mind... it was built economically.. so we don't have wide window sills, and the only places I have to put plants is on strategically placed furniture... and too many plants crowded in can look uncomfortable and messy. I have been slow to get standard sized violets for this reason... because there are only two places they will fit, and either place could get really cluttered looking really quickly!

I agree with you about Lyons! I have appreciated and admired their service and variety. One reason I liked "Fancy Bloomers" and "Bloom Lovers" is their variety of miniatures! Lyons doesn't have quite that big of a selection on miniatures... and that's what I love. I didn't realize that miniatures actually stayed as small as they do, and when I finally woke up to that fact, I realized that it opened up a whole new world for me! I can fit twenty miniatures on a narrow, sunny, east windowsill next to my sink that is good at dispersing humidity! And that window sill wouldn't fit even one standard sized violet. So... that's my excuse for being so snap happy with violets. :-] *blush* Caution and taking it slow never hurt anyone though!

And one thing I've thought of is if we are gone for a week (which is very very rare for us) would it work to place all those little violets in a glass aquarium and put saran wrap over top until we get home?

Once more, thanks Melody for your exuberance and Joanne for your caution! we need both in this world. :-)

Hi, I'm new to this site, but not to AV's. I often buy leaves (& plants) from a couple of sellers that I really trust on eBay. Great leaves from jpviolets (& plants). She ships in styrofoam & heat packs in winter.