This is indeed an African violet. The lovely foliage is called girl leaves. The name has nothing to do with gender. The first girl leafed variety was a mutation of a regular leaved Violet. Years ago, normal looking leaves were commonly called boy, so thus when a different type arose it was called girl. Today, we don't call plain leaved violets boy, but the girl term as stuck.

This type is generally slower growing and often stay smaller than those with standard type leaves. In fact, violets with this type of foliage are usually minis or semi-minis. Your plant is very lovely. I think it was a good buy!

Terri

Thank you both for letting me know! I've never seen them anywhere and am very happy that I bought it. It came complete with mealy bugs :( but the plant was big and very beautiful. I took some leaves from the original one and that's what you see in the photo. I'll move one away from my light source and see if it grows better:) cheers

Jon NY, I viewed your album. Wow! Impressive! What is your growing area like? Love that Mac's Pizza! Joanne

Once upon a time I was told that, typically, white blossoms don't last as long as others. I don't have too many plain whites, but with the av on, they brown up pretty quickly...

Karin

SOME white blooming AV will partially brown fairly quickly (within a week or two), but others I have found will hold their pure white color for a long time without Browning.

Some of the more successful whites have been ...

Candy Swirls (pink streaked)

Sansoucy Julie Marie

... and, Jersey Snowflakes, ...

Jersey Snowflakes

...

Also, iceman's white violet on the other thread ... which all seem to maintain an attractive (i.e. non-browning) head of white bloom ...

Oh that plant is beautiful! I love girl leaves,,,,,by any chance did your plant come with a name? Rosie

Aegis1000: I love the last plant photo you posted. Im not a huge fan of the white flowers but that's impressive:)

Rosie: When i bought the plant it didn't have a name:( Usually they put a number on the pot at the store and then you can cross reference it with photos that they have including the name of the plant. There wasn't a number on it and no photos with leaves of this kind. I bought it anyways because it was the only time I had ever seen one like this in Hong Kong.

Here are my AV that I have with names:

Silver and Gold

Kei-YokiLouisiana Lullaby (I like it when it first opens. But then the colour fades and the blooms get so big that they end up laying on the leaves or falling over:P)

They are all gorgeous!!! I also would have bought that girl leaf plant anyway. And probably a lot more if there were more! THEN I would have worried about getting them thru customs! lol Rosie

Emeregency (I only have one leaf with roots at the moment. I don't want it if anyone is interested....)

Pixie Runaround

Sp. Ionantha (this one blooms quite a bit but it NEVER produces pollen sacs. Is that normal?)

This is one of my favourites. This one was called blue bird but i haven't been able to find it online:P Wonder if the name is wrong? The photo after this is a leaf from the same plant but the flowers changed colour...

Just realized i posted these photos in the wrong spot:P sigh

justinhaled ....

I got turned on to Jersey Snowflakes through the beauty of Annie's plant from the linked episode of the podcast "All About African Violets".

Have a look ...

All About African Violet Podcast 87 link

I'll definitely take a look at that. Thanks:)

rosie: that was the only one I had ever seen in HK. I brought a leaf back with me and that's the plant You see up above

I would be interested. Click on my name above this post and message me. Rosie

So I was away for a week and got home yesterday. My violet had some more blooms but they were different???!!! Went from pure white to a very thin purple outer edge and the inside white. The only thing that has changed is the water I'm using. I was using reverse osmosis but now I have to use city water. Could that be the reason?

Color variation may be caused by a change in light intensity or a change in ambient temperature.

Be careful about city water. If it has chloramine, it will damage the leaves. White violets often get a violet edge in warm weather. Joanne

I think it is very (much MORE! ) pretty no matter which color it turns out to be! Rosie

Wow, you have a stunner there now, Justinhaled. I loved the girl-leaves in your first photos, but the violet edge on it is gorgeous. (And as Joanne says, these types of variations can be temperature related.) What a lucky find!