June IV gessie flowers

I also love pictures!! I am hoping to have a few more in the next week. I know Persian Carpet is blooming and some of my tiny little starts of Nemanathus are in buds, (whoops I meant Columnea)as well as a few others.I have not been able to get to my plants for a few days.I frantically ran around with my battery filler and doused a few,but I have some catchup to do when I get from work tommorow.I am doing dinner right now.

Lynn

Okay, Girls...show and tell time. I will share a pic with you. Here is a bloom from my Columnea (now that Lynn has mentioned it) This is Julia. I know, I know...it is not as pretty as the other pics but we are trying here. Please give me A for effort LOL!

Good for you!!! I love all columneas.

Great Aspen. A very pretty picture!

Pretty pics from Turtle and Rain. I can't get enough photos.

Thanks. I can't get enough of the pics either. I haven't seen one yet that i didn't go :ahhhhh" over.

I, too, love the pics. Get my daily "fix" of gessies here each day. I'm giving up on streps, as they don't like me. I guess I kill them with kindness. So, I really liked the pics of the other gessies. I'm going to try to start collecting some of them and see if they like me better. I seem to do ok with episcias and alsobias and violets , so maybe the sinns and pets with do ok for me. Thanks, again for all the beautiful pics. Lurker Lou

I had no idea that David Thompson's Stoplight is so nice. You can't really see how much black is in the bloom. She doesn't have any orange in the red so I don't understand what my camera is doing ?

Smooched by David T.

Heart of Gold really does a center of a yellow gold color.

OOOOOHHHHHH, AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!! SInce I can't have any right now these photos help me pick the ones I want when I get my lights set up! NOT! How can you choose when they are all so pretty LOL!

Take it from me, you can't choose!! LOL!! You get one...then another...then another.....then another!!!!

Aww, Gail got Smooched by DT! lol ^_^

Stoplight looks red to me, Gail.

I'm hoping to have a few pix this weekend. I've got a trailer that is starting to bloom . . . I'm going to give it this week to get more blooms, then take a few pix . . . I LOVE this trailer . . .

How hard are trailers to grow, groom, etc? I have always liked them but just to scared to try. I really hate to lose a plant!! LOL!!

I think Trailers are the easiest of all.........you don't have to worry about how many plants are in the pot and symmetry, etc.............

Off to pot up av babies and then repot some african violets.......

I am really having fun with Chirita leaves. This 'Patina' was sent to me, but i want to tell anyone who wants to grow them that Cedar Creek Violets has a good selection of leaves.

This leaf with the shiny pink and silver running through her is in such good shape, I am going to stick her again after I take the baby out.

I can't do anything that involves my knee today so you are seeing a lot of pictures........here is a mother leaf stuck for the SECOND time. She is still looking fine so I am going for a 3rd time in soil less mix after I take the babies away from the mother leaf of Copper Knob.

Fat and healthy babies!

Sally, I am so excited because by tomorrow or the next day I will have flowers all over my first 3 african violets in over a year and a half!! Can't wait to show them........also very surprised that I am excited over avs (smiling).

Loving episcias , too. I saw your Ember Lace and what a beauty.

I love stopping in to see all the great pictures!! Connie,your picture looks great!! Lou,why do you think Streps. don't like you?? Nice pictures Gail!! That Chirita is a beauty.

Lynn

It is hard to wait when they are almost blooming! I'm looking forward to seeing your blooms.

What did you do to your knee, Gail?

Does Chirita 'Patina' have pink and silver through the veins of the mature plant? If so, I'd love to grow that one. Sell or trade me a leaf or plant, please! LOL

I'm getting excited about AVs again, too! I'm determined to grow the silly things. I'm going to get a couple of species to try. And do you know what else I've determined to do? I'm going to try to grow the "original 10" AVs. I'm still hunting for a list of them, but how awesome would that be to grow those? Anybody have any of those "original 10" that you're aware of? I'm going to try to find the list of them right now...

I am bidding right now on two vintage violets over 50 years old..........

The reason I can't give you a leaf of Patina (yes......she has pink and silver running through the veins). This chirita leaf was given to me by a good friend. I just ordered a lot of chirita leaves from Cedar Creek and I showed them Patina.......so I have promised them the first plant. They are also trying to increase their offerings of species chiritas, so I told them I would try some by seed.

I just stuck her again so eventually we will have lots of Patinas. Bill Price showed her at the national convention in Canada (I think). Anyway, she won Best In Class.

I will look for the original 10 avs and see what i can find out........probably nothing (smiling)
Have to leave a picture of some kind.
Rainbow's Quiet Riot has some blooms. My first african violet in a couple of years.

That is beautiful, Gail!

Once I saw Glenda's Rainbow's Quiet Riot win something at our annual show, I just kept thinking about those beautiful blooms she had on hers. I think that was 2 years ago.

RainGazer and everyone else,
Marjorie Bullard, our club president just sent me this information. How much fun is this!

Well this has been an interesting search -- from "African Violets - Gifts from Nature" by Melvin Robey.

Admiral
Amethyst
Blue Boy
Commodore
Mermaid
Neptune
Number 32
Norseman
Sailor Boy
Viking

If you REALLY want excitement -- the 34 cultivars entered in the FIRST AV show:
Amethyst
Blue and White
Blue Bird
Blue Boy
Blue Eyes
Blue Girl
Blue Boy Improved
Bicolor
Blush Beauty
Blushing Lady
Commander
DuPont Blue
DuPont Pink
Dwarf Orchid
Ionantha
Ionantha Grandiflora
Lavender Lady
Mary Wac
Mentor Boy
Neptune
Norseman
Orchid Beauty
Orchid Lady
Pink Beauty
Pink Lady
Plum Pink
Red Bicolor
Red Head
Sailor Boy
S-22 Bicolor
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yay!!! Oh Gail, I love, love, love you!!! I have spent quite a long time trying to find that list of 10, but the whole list of 34 is just amazing! Wonder how many of those are still available? Thank you so much for getting that information! I'm gonna grow me some AVs, just you wait and see! LOL

I have grown Amethyst several times and Ionantha once.

I kept looking and couldn't find any information so I emailed Marjorie............funniest lady you could ever hope to know!! She either knows or can find anything about avs.

Won't this be fun trying to find them!

I got leaves of the original 10 at Cape Cod Violets Sometime last year from Barbara Cook--have no idea if she is selling them this year. Violet Venture might have some of the vintage violets http://www.violetventure.com/catalog/
Here's another link for vintage violets http://www.vintageviolets.org/

Phoebe..........this is funny as I bid on vintage violets tonight and only won one on his ebay sale. They were just leaves but I know he has a lot of vintage violets. Thanks for the other site, too.

Oh Rain,I know you will and they will be beautiful!!
Gail,that is wonderful information!! I have some very old books like Helen Van Pelt Wilson and even older (which I have promised to send to a friend),old issues of the AV society magazine,mostly 60s-80s,and even a few old plant lists from sellers.I also have the registry or whatever you call it,from I am thinking about 1976 or so,that has all of the registered AVs and those pending.It could be early 80's.I would have to check.
But if someone is looking for old AV info. I would be glad to help,but I would need a small amount of time to look through everything.....LOL.

Lynn

Phoebe,
Thanks for the links !! ^_^

Hi again. My favorite of all the gessies is the streps. But they die on me . I wick them and fertilize them with 1/4 strength AV food each time I fill the trays, but they live and bloom for a while and then they just die of rot. Everything else seems to do okay. Lou

lou;
it's probably to hot where you have them, i also went thru that, till i got anairconditioner for the plant room, now they are fine.my plant room would get to 85 with no air & they would just die,now it never gets higher than78 & they do wonderful.you would'ent think that would be to hot for them, but 2 years in a row i lost them, till last year when i got the air coonditioner, no problems since,
bonnie
b

David Thompson told me that 80 degrees will kill streps every time.

I just have to keep the air conditioning down enough to keep them happy.

Plus, he says never to wick streps.

My plant room gets above 80 sometimes,but I just turn on a fan,pointed away from them,and they seem fine.It does seem like they tolerate heat better when they are kept a little on the dry side.

Lynn

There are so many ways to accomplish the same thing. I have 2 fans rotating directly on my plants in each room.

Thanks! I will put them nearer to ac vent. I have a ceiling fan running in the room with them. Would that be enough circulation if it is under 80 degrees? I will try bottom watering once a week and see if that helps. Lou

Lou, David also told me that there is nothing wrong with watering from the top on streps as long as you get them really wet all the way through.......but I am bottom watering mine this morning and letting them sit for an hour..........then removing any excess water.

A ceiling fan is fine and all you need if the air is under 80 degrees.............(I think)
Don't water until they are almost completely dry.........

ok! Thanks! I have another question. LOL I have some seedlings from the seeds you sent last year. Iced wine, I think. About ten seedlings survived and the leaves are about two inches long. They are still wicked. Should I unwick them or leave them wicked for bit longer? Only one of all the seedlings was varigated. I sure hope it lives!!!! I had planted half of the seeds when I got them, and they had germinated and were doing nicely. Then,when I was in the hospital for a week, my dear daughter , being thoughtful and caring , watered all my plants for me. The seedlings drowned. So I planted the other half in February when I got to feeling better. It has been fun and challenging to grow them. I hope to see them bloom. Lou

When they are babies, I put them on capillary matting.........so I would think that wicking is fine for the babies.......good luck on your seedlings and hope they bloom for you!!!