I really like your Rocky Mountain! I guess this is the season for blooming. I just did send my girlfriend a couple pics of some plants that have really turned on in the last week. I'll try to attach them here.

Very nice plants ...

Thanks for the kindness. I have 3 or 4 more that are taking their sweet time. They have had bloomstalks for nearly a month! Wont be long now though!

I love the island Hideaway. Wait for mine to grow up. I can take Secret Rendezvous off my wish list. Thanks for posting!

Nice looking plants from both of you! I like Tomorrow's Pink Ice. I grew it in the past and it was a strong growing plant for me.

Jeff,

I use the same dollar store food containers for a lot of my reservoirs. But you cut your holes much nicer.

Melted them.

Julie you are killing me!!! My Wish List is growing longer every time you post! lol Beautiful!!!!!

Jeff yours are also going on my List! Rosie

Hey Julie, do you suspect that your Rocky Mountain plant is an Optimara? Is the Optimara name "Rocky Mountain"? I really like it.

Plant a few leaves and I'll trade you.

I don't think Julie's is Opt. Rocky Mountain.

Rocky Mountain: Optimara variety. Large, standard African Violet (4-inch pot size) with frilled, semi-double, bi-color flowers. Flowers are white with a red center.

Optimara has released a new Rocky Mountain with double/triple flowers. I don't see this original RM on their website only RM 2016.

Ohhhhh nooooo not another 1 & ll like some of the other Optimaras!!!! We need a scorecard to keep them straight!!!!! Rosie

Such pretty ones by both of you. It is always great to see everyone's blooming violets.

Jeff,

Sure, i will plant a few leaves. I would love to trade with you in the future.

Rosie,

You can have whatever leaves of the plants I have. Advantage of being near me. Haha.

I did suspect it might be an Optimara. After seeing the picture of new Rocky Mountain, I named after it. But the shape of the flowers are slightly different. So I am not sure. When I bought it in a local nursery, it's pink, no white color. I was hope it would be bi-color. I got my wish.

Yes, Rosie another I & II. You'd think Optimara could come up with a new name. I know there are over 10,000 registered violets, but come on! Optimara Rosie has a nice ring to it but then people might confuse it with Optimara Rosalie & that might add more confusion in the Optimara world!

Awwww, I caught that! But you are right, there already IS Opt Rosalie. And we certainly don't want anyone else confused with ME now do we???? hahahaha. And certainly NOT in the Optimara world! I mean can the world tolerate 2 of me????

Note to Julie,,,,,Make sure you put NOID on any plant you are not sure of or you only THINK it may be Optimara something especially if you assign it a name. Rosie

Sorry Julie for the abrupt response w regard to the el cheapo plastic containers. I had folks knocking at my door while I was responding.

I had cut the holes in the lids of my first ones. The plastic was brittle, cracked and tore as I was trying to cut. I found a scrap piece of pipe out in shop that was the right diameter. I sharpened the edge up a bit and heated it up. Worked.

Since then, I have painted the outside of the tubs w white paint in an effort to reduce algae growth. I put a strip of tape down one side before I painted. Once the tape was removed, I was left w a little window to see water level.

Some updated pictures of my blooming plants and a couple of new blooming ones.

Ohhhh Julie you are killing me!!!! I am running out of room in my Wish List Book!!!!!! My pen is running out of ink, and I need another bookcase to hold all of my Wish Lists! Ahgggggg!!!!!

Your violets are beautiful!!!!!! Rosie

Haha, love to cause trouble for you. Just get your bookcase ready!

Very pretty! I hadn't seen LE Golden Lion before. When temperatures cool off the yellow may intensify.

Terri

Yellow's are just about as elusive as red's! I went to a nursery a few weeks ago to look at a new shipment of AV's they had come in. Some cruel person had put a small yellow "AV type" plant in w the AV's. I couldn't believe my luck! Beautiful little yellow flowers! Turns out, my luck was holding out about normal because it was not an AV!

Oh no,,,what a let down Jeff! so what was the little "not so african violet"??? Rosie

Might have been a Primrose ...

Unlike some of you, I am illiterate when it comes to plants. In my younger days I could recognize a marijouna plant but thats about it. It was only recently (relatively speaking) that my girlfriend received a AV as a gift. We enjoyed caring for it; fast forward a year or so and here we are.

The semi-mini plant at the nursery had flowers that could have been AV flowers and leaves that could have been AV leaves. (Kind of hard for me to tell these days. So many different leaf shapes on AV's these days.) The flowers were small pansy type flowers, but then again, it was a small plant.

I was suspicious though, and even though it was a noid, I called the proprietor over. She assured me that it was NOT an AV and suggested that somebody had changed their mind during a purchase and just put it there.

And now, you have the rest of the story.

Hey, on another note, have you guys had any exposure to a AV called "Botanika"? I can't decide if it's just to ugly to put in the fold or if it's unusual enough to make up for the ugliness?

I have never seen one in person. . . don't want to see one. Its just too scary for me!

Not my style.

I live for bloom ...

Ha! I like the thought! Well, I have seen pictures of them on the internet and they just look ugly to me, not to scary though. I just thought maybe such an ugly/unusual plant would make the others on the shelf look all that much nicer. I remember a few of the girls in high school doing that w some success, at least as far as I was concerned!

It is unlikely I will be getting one any time soon anyway. The prices are crazy stupid for those things. To much to take a chance that I won't like it. I saw a pair of leaves for that plant on Ebay go for over $20!

Funny you bring up this plant! ebay seller lana4111 has it for $8. I don't know if she offers leaves but her leaves are $2 each.

And I do like that violet! I love the different things!!!! Rosie

Yes, I saw that. I tried to snipe one a few weeks ago. In the last minutes of the auction it went from $12 to $26. Needless to say, I was not the high bidder.

Isn't it one ugly plant? Oops, run...

At first I wasn't sure what to make of it. I had to enlarge the photo to see the flower detail. But you know I do like it! I wouldn't mind having one or a leaf to grow one! (Yes it IS on my "Wish List"!)

It reminds me of the "Ugliest Dog Contest" (which I think is in poor taste but yet they exist). The dog may be voted #1 but there is still something inherently loveable about it! And if you look at it long enough it becomes attractive! Rosie

Regarding Botanika ....That one is simply fugly.

Really like the contrasting darker pink picotee on Pink Ice.

I don't disagree with either statement Paul ! But there is something about it that appeals to me. But maybe by the time I get a leaf, grow it to bloom size I may agree with you in every letter of the word!!!! lol But,,til then? Rosie