Great, thanks irina. I will be watching them closely for any changes.

And do not forget to talk to them nicely ;-)).

I always do even though they so far haven't listened so haven't bloomed. But their leaves are beautiful! I'm glad I've read on GW that Rob's violets can sometimes take quite awhile to flower because I was getting discouraged. I bought three Lyndon Lyons this week so hopefully they will be better listeners. :)

My understanding is standard green leaved AVs are the most productive - the smaller the plant and more variegated it is - the longer it takes it to accumulate the energy for bloom.

I was lucky to visit Violet Barn. All his minis are grown under lights and on mats and they do bloom earlier than on natural light. But still the tendency is the same.

That's good to know. All the waiting makes me appreciate them even more in anticipation of them blooming. They are sweet little plants. I am looking into different LED light setups. My space is limited so have to get inventive.

I have not made up my mind yet but for now, I won't be picking up any new mini's. For the reasons irina laid out and a few others, the rewards just don't seem to match up well with the effort.

Additionally, it has become apparent to me that mini's can get powdery mildew at the drop of a hat. I struggled with pm amongst the minis for a while. I had to move all of the minis to my largest racks (they also have the largest fans). I think Ive got the pm situation under control finally. Never had a problem w pm amongst the normal sized plants.

Don't get me wrong, they are pretty but I may stick to the smaller standards/semi minis in the future.

All mine are semi-minis except for one mini. I've had them only since Spring but so far no PM. I will be getting some standards once I get more room.

Semis aren't bad to take care of, however minis and micros are challenging for the beginner. Must handle them so delicately, suckers are impossible, and under my growing conditions they are slow to grow and bloom. On the other hand...I do have the room for growing the combo of 10 semis, minis and micros they sent me. And would not have had room for 10 more plants if they were all semis or larger!

Conservation of space. That is the one true aspect of minis that got me started on them in the first place. Since then, I have learned a bit. I still like minis and until my dozen or two die off, I will likely have them for some time in the future.