If you have any extra I would love them. Donna

coculo4 ... please contact me at c.rent@att.net

I just sent you a message.Thanks Donna

I would like some as well if you have any left. Please sent me a note at twest@dslextreme.com. Thanks, Terri

I lost nearly all my plants due to medical problems. Would like to start rebuilding. would appreciate anything you can spare. thanks

Woodsidetrader, I do not have much in the way of AV's but I have a couple of babies I could send you if you message me? I have a whole mess of lavendar blue NOID babies, a small rooted sucker of Optimara Michelle and I might have an extra of a dark purple NOID. I could also send a leaf of what I believe to be Optimara Maine. All are very small but healthy and would make for easy shipping if you are interested.

Currently, I have exhausted my supply of all of the African Violet starts that I feel are ready to ship.

Thank-you for your interest ...

Charles

Anybody getting any bloom yet from the starts I sent ???

No blooms, but lots of buds on Optimara Harlequin and Optimara Yellowstone. Harlequin's buds are much closer to opening.

Glad to hear it.

I have one Optimara Yellowstone blooming (see new post) .... and my Optimara Harlequin has 1 bloom, currently.

Mine are not doing too well. One died a while ago . You actually gave me two red ones. I separated them and then they have been sicker and sicker. One of them looks dead today. There is one doing good, the remaining two are still the same size as they came.

sorry, wish I had better news.

julie

I'm sorry. I probably should have provided you with a care regimen.

When you received the plants, they should have been placed in a spot where they could receive sunlight from a window from a foot away or so) ... or light from a fluorescent fixture 8-12 hours a day.

The plants should ONLY be watered if their soil is becoming dry. Most of the time, that works out to about once a week. When they're watered, the plants should not be allowed to have water sitting in their base, as this is about the easiest way to kill them.

Check with your water provider to see if they use Chloramine. If so, you will have to have another source of water, as Chloramine will kill African Violets. My water provider has used Chloramine for decades (I found out a few years ago). So I now use Spring water from my grocery dispensary which will filter out Chloramine. You can also find jugged Spring water available on your grocer's shelves which won't contain Chloramine.

Hold off on any fertilizer .... until you get your first blooms.. And then begin to use an African Violet fertilizer AT HALF STRENGTH nearly every time you water.

So ,,, give this a shot, and let's see if you get better results with your remaining plants..

Come Spring, if anyone has some extra Optimara Harlequins and is interested in a trade, please announce.

Mine are doing well but no buds yet.

Aegis,

i am going to water from the bottom to see if it helps. At least one Russian red is still alive as of now.

Watering from the bottom shouid be fine, ... just be careful of overwatering.

Also, ... to grow, plants should be WARMER, rather than COOLER. Make sure that your plants aren't getting a chill from somewhere.

Raspberry Glitz is the only one in bloom so far. I can't get a true color with my camera. The bloom is actually a pretty pink with a dark pink edge.

AVs · More Info

The others are doing well, but no blooms.

Thanks for the update. I'm glad things are going/growing well ....

Aegis,

how do you find out when optimara ships to your lowe's?

I scored a near dead Yellowstone in September. It's the most beautiful plant in my collection. It's blooming none stop. The flowers last so long. i also got a baby from you which I plan to give to someone special in the future.

Register to receive notifications of local deliveries of Optimara violets at the link below ...

http://www.myviolet.com/register

Aegis,

Thank you! Now I signed up.

So far so far I haven't had much success with Optimara notifications. They've notified me twice now that they are shipping to our local lowes and neither time did any violets appear. Checked for 2 or 3 weeks while watching a previous shipment wither. I suspect that it wasn't Optimaras fault, more than likely our lowes employees. They didn't seem to know or care what they had in stock. Envisioned boxes of violets expiring in dark boxes in a cold warehouse.

Should have mentioned this yesterday ...

Obtaining Optimaras (or any other brand) African violets from a retailer like LOWES, Home Depot, WalMart, or a local grocery is just not the best idea, ... UNLESS you have a GOOD ISOLATION plan.

The problem, from my experience, with these violets, is as Ken states, ... you don't know WHAT they've been exposed to in shipping, storage, and worst of all ... in the retail indoor garden department.

Because of such wide exposures, ... these plants will inevitably become exposed to Thrips. It used to be my practice that I would walk through the African Violet display in these outlets ... and see if I could find any plants that did not have the tell-tell spilling of bright yellow pollen on their blossoms that indicated the presence of Thrips (or, worse yet, evident Thrip damage ... shriveled, damaged, and streaked blooms ... caused by Thrip feeding). Even on those plants where I could find no evidence of Thrip presence, .... blowing a bit into the blossoms would more often than not, result in mature Thrips emerging out of hiding.

My biggest nemesis to African Violet growing has been Thrips. Twice, I have discarded collections of 50 plants or more because of them. The last problematic plant I purchased from a local outlet was a stunning Optimara Millennia in full bloom. I just had to have it. I blew on its apparently pristine petals, ... no Thrips emerged, .... maybe I would be safe. So I bought it, and took it home to my other violets.

Now this was also prior to the time that I REALLY LEARNED the lesson of ISOLATING NEW PLANTS. (I have bought a couple retail plants, since then, which I have successfully ISOLATED by the upstairs bathroom window for MONTHS ... before I let it join my other violets). But in the case of this Millennia, I was so desperate for COLOR, during a non-blooming period among my downstairs plants, ... that I plopped it right with a few plants next to our sliding glass door. The nearest other collection of plants was two rooms away, in the dining room (about 20 plants or so). Sure enough, in time (maybe a week or so), signs of Thrips showed on the Millennia. So, then the question became, ... HOW LONG would I let it remain .... before I either tossed it, ... or stripped it of its still beautiful blooms and buds. Eventually, I did get rid of the flowers and buds, .... applied what insecticide I was using at present, ... and crossed my fingers hoping that none of my other plants had been affected.

In the mean-time, two rooms away, I had a Picasso that was finally coming into bloom after a LONG struggle to finally get it to grow well. Its blooms opened ... and they were beautiful. It was only a few days later ... that I saw the Thrips. The long and the short of it is ... ALL of those downstairs plants (probably 25 or so), were eventually discarded, all because of one beautiful Optimara Millenia that was carrying Thrips.

Since then, I have much more careful with plants (maybe a couple) which I have obtained from a local outlet. I think that I have purchased, ... maybe an Optimara Modesty, ... and an Optimara Hiroshige. But these I ISOLATED by my upstairs bathroom window (and kept the door closed), so those experiences went a lot better. BUT, I still have obtained Thrips, at times, from other sources (online vendors). I do have a viable Thrip treatment plan now. I use a little Merit (from Bayer Tree/Shrub Treatment) in the saucers of plants where Thrips show up. And, generally, within a few weeks/months, I am seeing no more Thrips. Now I have to mention that some of my plants haven't taken well to such treatment. I lose a few out of every batch that I treat.

But, ultimately, I've found that it is so much better to start with leaves and/or plugs (from someone like Bloomlovers). Bringing in plants which are already blooming ... or in bud ... is a risk, if you don't get the ISOLATION piece right.

I've found, that, once I got my water/Chloramine situation in hand, raising plants from a leaf or plug is not hard at all, and, ultimately, will protect the plants you have (and all of your hard work and dreams) from the risk of Thrips (and/or or some other pest ... Mealybugs, Mites, .... I've had them all).

Leave the retail violets to the first-timers, ... who will throw their plants out soon anyway. If you want your Violets to provide you with beauty fro months, and maybe years, ... steer clear ...

Or ... if you see a plant that you just can't pass up ... have a good ISOLATION plan to protect your OTHER AV's. Doing so can save you weeks and months of having to fight against the Thrip scourge ...

My Optimara Harlequin bloom is opening. It is pure white, so far no sign of color on this flower or any of the other buds. Maybe on the next bloom cycle. For now I will enjoy the beauty of the white flowers.

I suspect this will stay white. Harlequin is bicolor - so the sport can go red or white. Usually white sports have pale green leaves as well - and you cannot scare them back to be red and white.

I suspect this will stay white. Harlequin is bicolor - so the sport can go red or white. Usually white sports have pale green leaves as well - and you cannot scare them back to be red and white.

That would be wonderful if it would stay white. There is something about a pure white flower that I have always loved. This one just keeps getting better and better.

I agree Katy. White adds a little spark to the collection.

The flowers just keep growing and growing.

Wow ... I wonder if that's really Harlequin ...

Loving that pure white flower! So pretty! This sport is a "happy accident" for sure!

aegis1000 - Since this is one of your leaf propagation extras and I was very careful to keep each of your labels with the proper plant, could this be an offspring of anything else you propagated? Regardless, I am sure enjoying it!

The other leaf propagations were ...

Optimara Yellowstone

Optimara Montana

Optimara Rhapsodie Loretta

Russian hybrid Ogennyij Tsvetok

Of these, Optimara Montana can be white, but it is a star, I believe.

I've had a start of Montana to bloom, and it bloomed as a star, with some violet-blue shading, ... with blooms not nearly as large as yours ...

In my non expert opinion, with those choices, I would definitely have to go with the Harlequin sport. There is a tiny new bud so will be anxious to see if it will be the same.

Hey Katy ...

I just happened to be looking over some records I kept on my Violets, ... and I see that I had a leaf down for "Ghost Dance" from Bloomlovers. I lost track of it, ... but it looks a lot like what you've got ...

Ghost Dance

Interesting, wish those tiny buds would hurry up and grow so I can see what the second bloom cycle looks like.

aegis,

the MyDelight is blooming for me. YAY!

That's Delightful.......

Hey aegis - guessing this is not Optimara Yellowstone as labeled.

That's a beauty.

Yep ... that's Optimara Harlequin.

Obviously, ... my labeling of my starts was a dismal failure ... ;^(

On the plus side, ... you've grown the starts you received beautifully ...

That flower is drop dead gorgeous!! Love it. :)

I have to say I loved the surprise as each one bloomed, each flower is beautiful and I thank you again for the propagation extras!!!! I have one more to bloom and seeing your pictures of Ognennyi Tsvetok, I am pretty sure it is labeled correctly. Here are all I received from you.

What a lovely group! Rosie

Every time this pops up I jump beciase I think "oh! Someone giving extras?!?!" :D lol!

But Su! Really???? Aren't you agonizing about violets as we speak??? lolololo Rosie

Hey that's future! Has nothing to do with TODAY. or even This summer! :D *giggle* ah... Aren't we a crazy bunch?

Btw those plants are absolutely gorgeous. I can tell you've grown them well!

Btw. . I want optimara harlequin! That is amazing! Much prettier than other pics I've seen of harlequin.