I think that you have Optimara Hiroshige.

I grew it for a few years and the bloom transitions between all white to white with blue-violet splashes depending upon the warmth of its growing conditions.

Your plant looks well-grown and should be ripe for a nice blooming cycle.

My problem with this variety is that I could never provide sufficient light to get the foliage to lie down like yours does.

Hi Begonia! Nice plant and well grown! I always love when someone can help out with names! Now I have an idea what Opt. Hiroshige looks like! Good job !!! Rosie

Aegis,

My problem with this one was that it was getting too much light sitting on the stand against a south-east window, plus getting some artificial light throughtout the day. Over the summer I tink it got quite a bit of direct light...sun rays straight on it.. Crown had become tight so I decreased the light and it finally shaped up.

I will update with a picture when all three blooms stalks have opened.

Thank you for the name guess!

I googled Hiroshige just to see how others look and the variations can be quite significant. Mine has a lot of white in it right now and looks more like a pansy. It is very pretty though so I am going to enjoy every bud. :)

I've grown a few of these. It took me a while to ID it.

This photo is from the last I grew it ...

At the time, I had mistakenly identified the plant as Optimara Glacier (although it is quite possible that Glacier is simply Hiroshige blooming white). The bloom color changes through the seasons. In cooler weather, it blooms solid white, and it's in warmer weather that it picks up the blue-violet splashes. (Also please note that my digital camera was displaying violets as quite blue at this time).

I would typically buy them blooming white, and they would pick up blue-violet coloring as the weather warmed. It can be a stunning plant, I think, though, as I said, I didn't provide enough light to get the leaves to lie flatter.

(BTW ... I am LEISURE500 on the Dave's Garden site)

hmmm not even taking into account the color of the two violets, the flowers are very different! I really like the flowers on your violet, Aegis. Looks like it has two many petals. Kind of not structured! I like that! Rosie

I am inclined to think it is not Hiroshige too. The wasp vs. pansy shape stands out. I wonder why Optimara doesn't identify the plants at the selling stage. It would make everything so easy.

I do not think it is Hiroshige either. I have 3 of them (!) and none of mine look like that. The flower is not the same. I miss the days when you bought an Optimara and it was identified.

roflmao,,,,,here we go about identification! Begonia, go to the homepage and find the posts about why Optimara doesn't ID their violets! We have covered it extensively.

You will find out you may not like it but you do have to accept it! grrrr! Rosie

FWIW ... there are (2) individual flower shapes on Begonia's plant. Her plant has one bloom which is kind of pansy shaped, but the largest bloom has the smaller upper petals (tinged white) and the larger lower petals (tinged blue-violet) which is typical to Hiroshige and give it the wasp shape.

Post a photo again when the plant has more bloom for a better chance at identification.

Hmmm....interesting details about ID-ing AV-s. I was not aware of them. I will definitely post another picture when all blooms open. Thank you all!

Montana II in summer colors :)

Montana is definitely a winner, ... and it's got the same varied coloration as Hiroshige. We'll have to wait to see how the petals shape out.

I mentioned that I had originally misidentified my plant as Optimara Glacier ...

Optimara Glacier

But I believe that I remember reading somewhere that Hiroshige and Glacier were very similar, with the exception that Glacier blooms pure white.

Here a statement from Select Gardener ...

"Hiroshige is a highly popular plant in stores, so we've made it available by popular demand as a full plant.The blooms are quite amazing, with long petals and many configurations on the same plant.

Bloom color varies depending on conditions & temperature, ranging from white to mixed to light blue.
Hiroshige is a vigorous, fun plant with a lot of similarities to Optimara Glacier and the mysterious Lunar Lilly White."

Bingo! I think it might be Montana. Thank you for all the brainstorming! :-)

Some of you wanted to see an update of the plant for more precise identification. More blooms opened so here it is. It looks most like Montana to me. As temps got less warm, I saw more purple showing up. When it was hot, the blooms opened up almost all white.

It's lovely ... and it's NOT Hiroshige.

Looks a lot more like Montana ...

Thank you, aegis.

This Optimara grew nicely in my conditions once I finally figured it out. At first it was showing signs of too much light - kind of stunted, small leaves on first row, tight crowns, etc.

So I reduced the light and it took off...and now it's happy and blooming. You can kind of see the break in culture when you look at the first row of leaves which were smaller.
So I will officialize it as Montana. It may not be exactly it but I guess it's Montana to me. :-) My favorite right now.

Her sister, Optimara My love, is blooming too but those buds can't seem to keep up with one another and come up at the same time. There are two bloom stalks sitting on one side and the plant looks like it's almost begging for one more bloom stalk in the middle to fill the space; but the third one and a fourth one are so far behind, still small and barely rising. I hope those initial blooms will not have faded by the time this third one catches up. I will pose some pictures on a separate thread I had started about My Love.

Thank you all.

Hey Begonia! Very pretty! Glad it all fell into place for you,,,the end result was certainly worth it! Rosie