Irina, How long should she wait? I usually wait about 3 weeks to allow the store bought Ootimara-type plants to adjust. Some bargain plants are already on the way out, so 2 to 3 weeks is enough to know if the new additions will recover.

Lucille, I think the store plants sucker because they have been stressed. So that might be another reason to hold off on major surgery for a week or two

Anyway, in my limited experience, that has worked better for me. They also have to be isolated, my isolation area is limited for the number of plants.

Most people disbud right away. I also rinse the leaves in warmish running tap water to observe for thrips. If I see any thrips, the plants are isolated separately. I have found it is difficult to avoid thrips in store bought plants. Joanne

Were it me, and it never would be, (at least not any more) but don't bring them anywhere near your other plants. If the plants are of a size that you are comfortable working with, go ahead, separate them now. Put each in a 3 inch pot. If the plants are smaller and you're not sure if you can handle it, no big deal, wait a bit, but!

Repot, now. Just dump the old dirt out and put in your newly formulated, perfectly blended potting mix. No matter what you decide to do down the road, the plants will appreciate it now.

As long as it is a healthy plant - I would do it now - with all the precautions - disbud, wash, spray with something - at least with Safer soap.

Just delivered Optimaras are generally very healthy - thrips is usually the only pest you can get.

Would be a plant just delivered from a seller from the other side of the country - I would do what Joanne says - isolate - and give it some time to recover.

Thank you. The mix they are in is mostly peat, so very heavy, I will go ahead and separate the double ones and repot all of them. May I move the ones that are single and in six inch pots down to 4 inch pots? They are nice big mature standards but are not the really large standards one sees sometimes.

I would remove some of the outer leaves and move plants to 3.5-4" pots. 6" pots are right for 18-20" AVS - and I really didn't see them THAT big in a store.

The soil they come with is challenging - but you can keep them in it for a while if you water them really carefully - do not let it go dry or soggy. I am sure that's what they do at Holtkamp's Greenhouses. Timing and amount of water given is just so.

You need to remove a good amount of this peaty soil - but it could damage the roots. I heard a speaker at the AVSA convention - Catherine Thompson - a super grower - what she does - she washes the soil off the roots with gentle shower - kitchen sink I presume - and catching runoff in a bucket not to clog the pipes. This way you can get rid of a lot of the soil - and keep the roots intact.

They are all repotted, wish I had read your post about the showering before I got it done. What with the dividing and also a couple of little plantlets, I have more plants. I'm looking into buying another shelf.

Good for you Lucille! Ahhhh,,,,,just think how nice it will be to fill up 2 shelves??? And will we work on 3???? lol Rosie

We are kind of famous on this forum for doing first and reading advice later!!

Maybe so, but I asked the question two days ago, and carefully read all the subsequent replies except for Irina's last reply which was posted this morning while I was on the patio doing the repotting.

Considering the quality growers and advice here, I personally try to read first.

Rosie, between the cacti, orchids, misc houseplants and violets I already have 3 shelves. Only one is a light stand, the others are shelves with lights added, which the new one will be also unless I win the lottery and can get four or five of those Gardener's Supply shelves like my one light stand.

Lucille - it will work in any case. They will all thrive anyway.

I have 3 stands from IGS - and they are lovely - I got them from the retired grower for a fraction of a cost. Had to do some repair on light fixtures though. Still need to replace some ballasts.

The rest of my stands - shelving from Costco and shoplights. Works about the same and the price is significantly less. The only thing I do not like - hauling the box with a shelving from Costco. It is very heavy, The rest is doable. As an option - Home Depot has 5 tier 72x48 inches shelves - and you can get rollers separately. !8 inches wide or 24 inches - since I use trays- 18 inches is OK. They are pricier - but lighter - we do not need 500lbs per shelf capacity. I have couple of these - picked them when HD had sale.

Irina thank you. I found some wire shelves on Ebay this morning , 48x18x82 with rollers but they are cheap, probably because they are not as well made or substantial as Costco. I'm OK with that because as you pointed out I don't need 500 lbs per shelf capacity. I bought one and had my son buy one (for some reason, one could not buy more than 1) Mine will be delivered to my doorstep, the one going to my son's house will still come to my doorstep via him.

Probably both of these shelves will just only hold what I have. The little baby plants and plugs I just potted are going to need more room as they grow up. After my haul from the Lowe's plant dep't I have 60 violets so I don't have space for many more even with the two shelves.

Lucille, I agree. I just did not want anyone who did the opposite to feel bad!

Lucille - little babies in good conditions have a tendency to swell overnight ... to 12 inches. then they slow down a bit.

You will be shedding your duplicates soon. Your friends and relatives are going to love you.

Then you will be reassessing your collection. I have blue this - and I have blue that - which one should I keep???

(At that point I checked out noIds). It doesn't matter - if we have 2 shelves or 12. We do not have a football field size growing area. And we do not have enough hours in a day to take care of them.

My dear friend and mentor Nelly Levine - we lost her 3 years ago - had 2 shelving units and a small table with a light above. She turned best in Shows year after year. She hybridized. She grew Gesneriads. She loved trying new stuff - and she had several beloved varieties she treasured. New stuff was on rotation. Get a leaf or a starter, grow them to perfection - get blue ribbons and sell them off at the Council show - get something new for the next year. And if the new plant would be Optimara - next year we would see a super show quality Optimara with a huge head of blossoms.

So - if you have the will power to go for quality, not for quantity - 2 shelving units are plenty. I do not have this kind of discipline to my regret...

I think two shelving units are enough also. But quality means different things to different people. I do not want to show. To me, if my NOIDs turn out healthy and well grown with beautiful flowers, as opposed to the dried out lopsided sad ignored violets that I see sometimes, that would be enough.

I LOVE seeing the pictures of some of the beautiful violets people post here. and I enjoy both the plant and the pleasure that I see in the grower when he/she has put a lot of effort into a plant and it thrives and becomes a beauty. But I don't have to have one like it.

Each person is different. Your friend Nelly sounds like she was wonderful and talented, I'm sure she left many named plants for the world to enjoy, and as your mentor she left something of herself in you. We can't all be Nellys. Some, like me, are just ordinary people getting joy from the blooms of an ordinary NOID.

We meet very talented people once in a while on our way through life,..

You do not need to grow for show - but you can grow them for your own enjoyment in a way that they look good and bloom 10 months out of the year. Show preparation is - you do not let them bloom - and then you let them bloom for the show - and then you disbud them again. There are varieties that bloom pretty much non stop. Many Optimaras bloom in spurts. A lot - rest - a lot - rest, They are bred to be this way,

When African Violets look like you described - lopsided, covered with suckers, with long gnarly stems, almost never blooming... the owners are just not interested in them. May be they are interested in breeding dogs or in football or rock music ... but not in AVs, Nothing wrong with it.

There is no such thing as an ordinary NoID - they all have names - we just do not know them... store bought Optimaras are all named and they are masterpieces of a careful selection. The owners decided that most of the buyers care about the name as much as about the other side of the moon - and saved 5 cents on a label. Since they churn a lot of plants... they saved a lot of money.

There is no such thing as an ordinary NoID

True, some of my unlabelled plants are Russians and I have high hopes for them, and the plants from Lowe's are Optimaras and I am happy to have them as well.

Grow them for a year - and reassess. May be you decide not grow 5 pink ones or 5 blue ones, but only to keep ones that speak to you. There is a lot of look-a-likes. The flowers are almost the same - but leaves are less quilted - or more pointed - pop - another name comes up.

Lucille I am happy with my Optimaras, too. A couple seem to bloom constantly for me and they are very forgiving.

My roofer stopped by the other day (hurricane damage!) and asked if I'd sell him any of my plants. I gave him a resounding "No." But now that I've thought about it more... I Would part with some of my NOIDs after all to make way for some other pretty and high-performing new ones.

That is a very nice compliment your roofer paid you by his offer to purchase. Dviolet1 I think you should do what makes you happy. For me, all of my NOIDs hold promise because they have yet to bloom, Irina makes a good point too that we should keep only the ones that speak to us, but that can be different for each person.

Correct - what I like and what you like and what dviolet likes - we can pick 3 different ones out of 3.

Regarding selling the plants and when to sell them. My theory is that the plants perform the best first 2 years of their lives... then they slow down. Sometimes rerooting the crown rejuvenates them. Sometimes you can reroot the crown, keep the stump with several leaves - not all - but may be 3-4 to let the light hit the stem - and you get several high quality suckers to root in a month or 2. In any case - some plants slow down dramatically with age, some less - but if you have a younger replacement plant - let the old one go.

Yeah - I know - somebody kept Superman alive for 54 years until it croaked. But - it was a curiosity and - pardon me - an ugly thing to start with.

The only reason to keep the the old one - if it a really good line. Or original hybrid. That's what big sellers do - they select the best - and keep them as stock plants to harvest the leaves.

Lucille, I usually am happy to give an AV away to an admirer of my AVs. It can spark a new hobby for others. I do not sell them. I just give one or more. As Irina said, it is good to keep the collection replenished. Joan

You sound like a violet ambassador!!

Yes. I have donated my own violets to people who work at a garden center where they sold Optimaras.

That was how I was introduced, by someone else sharing and telling.

Just as an aside note here. In the last year or so, I have purchased 5 rolling shelving units off the internet. (I replaced my old hodgepodge of shelves.) The ones I purchased were heavier and better built that those available at Lowes or Home Depot. They were significantly cheaper and the UPS guy delivered them to my door.

If I ever buy another, I will get it from the same place.

I bought my 2 new ones that will arrive this week from Ebay, they too were much cheaper than big box prices.

Is it just me??? I was taking a walk down Memory Lane and started remembering when it was so incredibly expensive to order anything off of any ad from any magazine!! Shipping was horrendous and expensive. It was all snail mail! No overnight delivery, no nothing! AND not so much truth in advertising!

Then computers happened and it was still expensive,,,and now we have evolved to it being cheaper to get it from the internet! And a lot of time there is free shipping! AND we can hold them to their word that the product is EXACTLY as pictured and performs as advertised!!!! WOW,,,,what a circle of "progress"?!?!?!?! Not complaining,,,,just remembering! (getting old) Rosie

Indoor Gardening Supply is still cutthroat expensive. I can whip up a stand times cheaper - and plants do not care.