African Violets and Gesneriads: Propagation pictures & such, Part II, 1 by VA_Wild_Rose

VA_Wild_Rose wrote:
I wanted to share something very special with you all tonight... and no, it's not caterpillars! LOL!!! But first, I must tell you a story.

My Grandma Rose was a dear, sweet woman... everything you can imagine a grandma being. Now I'm not saying that at least the majority of us haven't had or don't currently have the world's greatest grandma... but I was blessed with two in my lifetime... and one was my Grandma Rose. She was born Lillie Rose Brinkley, but when she married my Grand-daddy, she then became Lillie B. Rose, as my maiden name is also Rose... hence, she was and is forever grandma Rose. She lived alone after my Grand-daddy died, and lived on her own until her death three weeks before her 96th birthday. She died at home, where she wanted to be... but she passed suddenly, and I was with her the night she passed, and I tried to save her... as a matter of fact, she was my first "call" as a new EMT... and I worked with the rest of my volunteer ambulance crew to try and save her. I was pretty useless, all things considering... but I vowed on teh day of her funeral to become a medic, and never feel that helpless trying to save someone again. And I did... and became a pretty good one too... at least until my injury this past year. My Grandma Rose has always had a pretty big place in my heart and she has been with me, and "spoken" to me a time or two when things were tough.

Now you all know from some of our chit-chat that though I'm not too good with the AVs, I particularly like the variegated ones. I was at a friend's house one day, and admired a big ol' variegated AV on her windowsill... and she said, "Oh, that's Grandma Rose!" Well... I didn't know if she was serious or not, but I asked her if I could have a leaf from her AV, and she gave me one. At that time I only had three AVs, and they had run their bloom out, and just kinda sitting there (still are...) so I wasn't sure how much luck I would have... but I put down that leaf the way most of you all talk about doing it... on June 2nd. I also looked up my little leaf... to find out, sure enough, there is a 'Sonoma's Grandma Rose'! Not only is it described as a red-backed variegate, but also has fantasy bloom (Cool! I like fantasy too!)

After the first two months, while the leaf itself still looked good, I saw no sign of any "ears" as you call it... so I kinda quit looking at it very much. Tonight I looked... to check for water needs... the leaf had curled down to make a little umbrella... but I thought I could see something under there... so I pulled the leaf back, and then cut it back... because this is what I found!