Beautiful ...

I've had Amour Elite, ... and though it bloomed beautifully, it made for a kind of scraggly plant. I finally discarded it.

Is the Snow Edelweis a better plant ?

So far, yes. The blooms aren't so ... stuck out there, easier to keep around the top of the crown and more upright. It blooms more frequently too. Also, though the leaves are pretty tidy on both of mine, the leaves are much darker and more attractive on Snow Edelweiss. All around I think it is the superior plant.

There's also a third version out there that isn't Russian but is most likely a cross using Amour Elite that is variegated. It is called K's Dancing Spree, but I haven't grown it. And yet a fourth 'version' that is on my personal wanted list but is actually another kind of fantasy, is Cajun's Ethereal Fairy, but I don't have it yet to compare it to my other two. Alas, I do not know what the breeding is on that one but I will try to find out. If you have grown either of those I'd love your input.

I've only grown Amour Elite, ... and the less elite Amur.

I've seen the beautiful Cajun's Ethereal Fairy ... and I intend to try Snow Edelweiss.

I just trimmed mine and repotted it. I put down 10 leaves for making babies and even if two of them were iffy and maybe too old, I should have a lot of leaf babies ready for new homes by late spring. And leaf pots before then. If you don't have one by that time, I'm sure we can swap something or another if that interests you.

This is lovely! Thanks for posting pictures!

Here is a brand new flower just opening but far from expanded to it's full, large size. The flowers on this one get fairly big.

Yeah - Hyn - I am dying to hear the particulars. Besides the fact that the plants are super, the composition is great, the way you play with a depth of focus adds up... Your colors are amazing - so what kind of camera and what kind of light???

I have a brand new Canon DSLR T6i I got for Christmas to replace my 13 year old Canon XT Rebel. I love it. I do not use a tripod generally though I do have several different ones I could use.

The first photo was shot with my old camera in my hotel room at the Dixie AVSA Convention in Atlanta when I purchased the plant last March. The second two photos are also my old Rebel but were taken outside, and the last photo is with the new T6i under the shelf lights. The lighting doesn't really matter as long as you reset your white balance on the camera, as long as there is enough light. If I were using a tripod I could play with the ISO more than I do but I am often lazy.

Afterwards I do post processing in Photoshop, mostly to crop and resize down to 72 dpi at roughly 900 pixals for the web because the original files are much too large. I may adjust color or contrast slightly if the colors look off but I do as little as possible. Always better if I can learn to adjust the camera correctly in the first place because it saves me a huge amount of time in post processing (such as white balance).

I tried to use a grey card to select a correct a proper white balance ... but if the light is low - the colors do not come as vibrant as yours...

Thank You!

Then adjust it in post processing. I often place the plant I just photographed right next to my screen to try and get the colors as exact as I can. It's REALLY easy to over saturate so you don't want to do that. Sometimes though you can't get the photo as vibrant as the real plant, or as rich but dark, without looking like crap. So all we can do is our best and it won't always be perfect. Dark colored flowers are my hardest to photograph for me.

Having enough light is key. Right up under my high output T5's, or outside in natural light seems to work best for me.

Thank you for your answers and tips, Hyn. Much appreciated!