Yours is wonderful. I did not have good luck with the one I got. When It arrived, it had been jostled around in the box. It never fully recovered. It is one of the prettiest of the optima's. Joanne

Beautiful plant! I agree this is a great variety from Optimara. My plant is also looking good. This must be the best of their Victorian Charm series or the others besides it and Romance would be in stores. I have a very young plant of Friendship so hope to see how well it performs. Terri

Well, if I ever have anything of Optimara worth trading, I might ask you about this one in the future, Terri. Joanne

Beautiful! :-)

Your plant is beautiful.

I have a Modesty that is growing quite well, but not blooming yet.

This variety is a bit sensitive, I believe, because I lost a couple of my other starts of the plant.

Glad to hear that although it is difficult, success is possible.

it blooms, roots and reproduces easily for me, but i can't seem to get a plant bigger than a mini out of it...

a friend told me she had a huge one, sold it (there was actually a fight at her sales table because everyone wanted it) then lost her backup leaves. she has never found one that grows as nicely since. so i guess there are various strains of it "out there" ...

That is helpful to know, as mine grew as a semi. I had it for about six months, but it never thrived. Optimara is always tweaking their formula. They go for strength, volume and endurance for mass production all over the world, rather than "hothouse beauties." It is interesting that a fight broke out, because I thought I was the only one who has been striving to find that exact combination in another plant by another hybridizer. I finally decided to order Private Dancer from Lyon's. It was my first Lyon's given to me by my office manager years ago. It was the most popular one in our office. But once we lost our plants to mealybug, I never replaced it. Joanne

The bloom continues ...

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froeschli , has yours grown larger now?

That is very encouraging because I just purchased one at an AVSA club sale. The two top photos look like Modesty, with odd variegation, some leaves are nearly pure white with green dots, other leaves are pure green and others a combination. The photos above, 3,4,5, must be of some other plant. The variegation is dark pink and very even. The other photos following and showing the blooms look like Modesty, the one I got. I was wondering if it would have a full head of bloom like other Optimaras, so judging from the photos, that seems likely to happen. The one I have has very large leaves for the green ones and small leaves for the white ones. Frankly, it is a messy looking thing. All misshapen due to the uneven variegation causing unequal growth in the leaves. I will just let it be and not put down a leaf. The grower where I got it is a very good grower. Eventually, I will put down one of the solid green leaves to try to restart it. The grower had another plant for sale that looked about the same as the one I got.

fortyseven_gw , I only have one pot of this Optimara. All photos are different angels and times of the same plant!

It certainly looks a lot better than my plant

Nah, mine is still scruffy. I have a baby plant on a wick, which seems to be developing better, but the "original" plant is not liking my conditions much....

I got some lime and superthrive samples to try when I repot though.

Karin

My old one was very nice and I had it for quite a few years. For some reason after I'd neglected things and started them over, it went an awful shade of pink. Now I'm seeing pink in their variegation. I'm working on getting one back.

I do believe it's one of the nicest Optimaras and very distinctive. O. Romance is nice if heat doesn't bother it. It got mine twice but others don't have that problem. I grew it in the window so probably another plant that doesn't like real high light.

Very pretty plant there!

Diana in PA

Really?? It is probably the only O plant that let me down, but maybe my expectations were too high. I first got it because it reminds me of Private Dancer that many of us in my office had many years ago. Then I had to toss mine out when the person who gave it to me got mealy. I found one mealy on my plant and it was all over for me. Once a plant has mealy, I never want to see it again.

But Private Dancer is a real favorite, I always had a thought to get it back one day. So when O Modesty appeared, the O's have such a great track record, I decided to try it. I ordered it from Selective Gardener. It did not last.

The one I have now I got at a plant show recently. It is very well grown, the white is very white, the greens very medium-dark green. As I walked around with it in my box of plants I bought at the same, many people stopped to admire it. It is large and distinctive when compared with all the other starters that resembled a bunch of lettuce in the box. It is sitting right next to my computer near a bright window where I will look at it every day.

Glad you mentioned yours developed; that pink variegation because the photos above show a lot of pink. there is an aura of pink glow emanating from Jujujojo's plant.

Mine was green and white until whatever happened. I wonder what made them start going pink. Maybe you got the start of an older one? Just guessing here.

Some Optimaras are better than others. At one time they were made to be window plants. Holtkamp Sr. had an article in an old AVSA magazine about their preferred lighting, but now I think they've gotten away from that somewhat. Some are still that way but maybe not all.

I don't know what happened with mine but the newer ones are starting out with pink. Mine was just ugly, esp. after it bloomed with those blue-violet blossoms over the pepto pink foliage. It had been severely neglected and restarted but then that was what happened to everything I had left.

Diana in PA

HI Diana,

That is encouraging information. I think you are correct.

On the one I have, the underside of the dark green leaves are dark pink. The underside of the white leaves are white. One of the leaves that are green and white has some pink on the underside. It seems to be the sun that brings out the pink. Jujujojo above would most likely have one of the newer strains and lives in an area where there is a lot of sun. So that would explain why the plant above, which started out white, turned pink. Joanne

fortyseven_gw ,

quimoi , froeschli,

They bloom for such a long time. the first pictures were taken in mid February, posted in March. They are still blooming at the end of April. I took some pictures today.

The real thing looks lighter and more blue under afternoon sun. Also compare the size of the flowers to my fat fingers.

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Lovely!

Mine looks like a snowball. The oddest looking plant ever! Joanne

fortyseven_gw , snowball is white though?

Sorry, I should have explained better. The inside rows of leaves are mostly white. Only the outside leaves are green, and mostly all green with no white. It is in a white pot, so when I look at it, I mostly see pure white with just a few green leaves.

It is a new plant for me, so I am not going to root leaves. I will just let it grow on its own to see what it does. It had a few blooms, but once I removed them, the effect is mostly of pure white.

Joanne

I'm sure that sunlight is what makes the difference, as I have one Modesty in a south window and the variegation is very pink. Others in less sun are white.

Mine is blooming a ton and seems to have TL variegation (edge only) but the center has more so it might get wider. Love it!!

Thanks for the update

If there is improvement, I want the flower-ball taller.

Different varieties have different length of the bloomstalks. But the length of the bloomstalks as well depends on the light - in a lower light - they are taller, but then you do not have as many bloossoms. IMHO - yours is just right!

Irina, thank you for your answer. But I still think some AV's have longer flower stalks than others. I really think there is some genetic to it.