Lovely Plant! The variegation is interesting. Well grown and it is large. I like standards. Nice to see one with the lovely double blue flowers. Christmas treat, certainly.

I also grow Wrangler's Winterhawk. Mine is even curlier - wavy leaves and frilly flowers. I have a theory that when you grow babies - you can select them by the degree of the leaf waviness - you get the most frilly flowers from the most wavy leaved one.

wwh

Irina, I had an earlier version of this variety which looked more like yours.

I: Egads, you get a leaf drop … send it my way. Nice...

I would love to - but it is too cold to ship. Mine came from Harmony Greenhouse - and these ladies collected a lot of good oldies in FL clubs when they were starting.

Those oldies but goodies,,,,,,,la la la la la" anyone remember that song? And you got it from Harmony (get the connection?????) Greenhouses??? hahaha! Oh I love those oldies. And the songs also! Rosie

Very pretty.

Aegis and Irina, That is a very nice violet. I like the vintage violets that tend to grow large and in that color range and petal formation with just a little variegation. After several years of growing various types and from various hybridizers, as a learning experience, that seems to be my favorite combination. I don't have the decades of experience that Irina and others do, however, I tried to play "catch up." Seems that only lately have I "discovered" the vintage. I hope Harmony is still in business, I might try them in the Spring. I am grateful you posted the photos, as that is what I value about this Forum. Otherwise, I would not have known about that violet. Joanne

I do not think Harmony sells directly to the public. Florida AV clubs usually use somebody with a commercial licence to buy in bulk for their shows. Wilsons from pjsviolets sell some of their plants on ebay. The great part - they maintain a lot of oldies with good strains.

We had Darryl Hoover from Hoover's Hybrids making a presentation for us on our AV Council. He stressed tha importance of keeping the original plant as your mother plant - rejuvenate it, reroot the crown - but hold to it. There is such thing as a genetic drift - you propagate from a leaf, then again from a leaf...and after 100 propagations - there are different strains - Aegis has Wrangler's WInterhawk with flat leaves and not very much frills on the flowers. There is Firebird and Firebird -2. Firebird-2 is actually close to the original one. Picasso - lost its white fantasy - but Harmony's one still has it.

Firebird 2 - wide frilly geneva edge - and VERY curly leaves

Picasso - very fleeting white fantasy streaks - tahat's how it should be.

Very nice

I can see from these that optimara's Cora and Manitoba are similar and easier to grow, what they lack in pizzazz they make up for in hardiness and availability. I've finally decided I'm not a serious AV hobbyist. I am more of an indoor gardener. I am content with easy to grow. At this point, over 5 to 8 years, I've grown hundreds of varieties from various hybridizers. I'm experienced enough to not be taken in by huge close ups of single blooms used for advertising purposes. It takes a while to get to this point and without Linda and Irina on this forum, it never would have happened. In my real life, most people are happy with a few optimaras. Only those who share the passion for the hobby understand the desire to go deeper. So I am back to my starting point of being content with easy to grow medium blues and along the way found some stable varieties from various hybridizers. With Optimaras, I can truly relax, they are repeatable, expendable and endlessly forgiving, suiting my lifestyle and non-expert status very well. There is room for every level of interest. Without the encouragement of this forum's human interest expressed by Linda, irina, aegis, Terri, Anne and others, I would not have given myself permission to be a serious dabbler to my comfort level. Merry Christmas to all, blessings, Joanne

Merry Christmas to you, Joanne!

The luxury of human companionship - exchanging ideas, knowledge, findings, funny AV stories - and OT stories - is half of the enjoyment of having this hobby.

Irina

Yes, and maybe one day we'll meet in person at an AV convention. Joanne

Albuquerque???

I can't make it, I have another commitment that weekend.

Unfortunately. Joanne

Picasso reminiscent of Wisteria

the colors of the leaf on P is what catches my eye ...

Wisteria has pale lavender color, Picasso - is more sky blue. W. has green leaves, P. - variegated...I guess it is not about the AVs, it is about good times with AVs when both of these vintage plants were sitting on the same shelf - and we were in the beginning of our hobby... we were a bit younger too...

I wasn't collecting back then so I'm delighted to be able to find vintage violets now. Even though I wasn't collecting a long time ago, I still had formed an idea of what violets are "supposed to" look like. The vintage violets fit the bill. Back then, I did grow episcias, so interesting leaves are always nice. Joanne