Basement babies have moved uptown!

I've got some adorable little plantlets of 'Rob's Gundaroo' coming along in another leaf pot...

As a change of pace from all those tiny plantlet pics, here's a plantlet of 'Smitten Kitten' that's blooming for the first time!

so exciting to see the babies! I love the varigation and the pink hues on the last one!

I haven't had blooms yet from 'Winnie the Pooh', but I have at least 8 plantlets of various sizes from suckers. I think this variety is just prone to suckering -- I can see extra crowns already on these medium sized plantlets -- so I may just stop trying to keep it to just one crown per pot. I love the bright green clacamus foliage!

great pictures.they all look great.

Oh Critter? What is this?? Hmmmm. (said in a sing song voice!)

Good spotting -- I should have known you'd ask about it! MsC sent me a cutting of one of her begonias. Several leaves broke off in transit, and this is the only leaf that rooted & survived. I'm still holding out a little hope for the cutting itself -- the leaves have died back, but there are still roots in the terrarium pot -- but this leaf might be my best shot. There are roots at the base of its stubby little stem. Should I be doing anything else to encourage babies from it?

you're doing exactly what I do. Oh and with begonias and me, it's like fleas to a dog. Magnetic!

so funny that's the first place my eyeballs went to! I have this one (imperialis or something) in my big cookie jar... er uh terrarium.

used to be a cookie jar, but what can ya do...

Nice baby pictures ! I do mine like I read in an old Av magazine. I cut the stem 1/2 inch or shorter. I fill a 3 0z solo cup with soil-less mixture I cut straight across . The leaf goes into the middle of the cup straight into the soil until leaf touch. I always get 3-10 babies a leaf. Works good for me I water threw and I never cut.
If they have too much water and cold mold can grow and fungus. I've never had anything grow from a capful of murphy' oil soap in a gallon of water ?
Best way to do leaves is the best way for you :))

Oh I'm loving all these baby pictures! And the variegated ones...simply marvelous!

Hey, speaking of begonias, I just now up-potted my purchase from last month into a larger hanging basket -- poor baby was getting very rootbound & a little droopy around the edges. I wiggled my fingers around some little clumps at the edges and broke away what look like 5 little plantlets. Since they had at least a few roots, I tucked the 3 biggest into a 6 inch azalea pot, and the other 2 went into a deep 2 1/2 inch pot. I put the pots into a mini-greenhouse by the basement window, figuring that a little extra humidity would be good while more roots were forming. Assuming I have any luck with them, I'll send you a clump, Lali!

Allison, thanks for reassuring me that the Murphy's wasn't contributing to the problem. I've had algae grow in overly-wet pots before, but not mold, so I'm trying to figure out how to avoid it! The mold isn't in every pot, just here & there... and I did sterilize my potting mix for the new leaves & plantlets... maybe it's just something in the room.

I'm glad everyone's enjoying my violet babies -- I'm having fun with them!

I am over run with Rob's Toorooka! LOL I put up some leaves and some suckers! They have all taken off like gangbusters! So that will probably be the one that everyone gets!
That Rebel's rosebud is way cool!

This message was edited Jan 24, 2006 1:13 PM

ooOOOhhh.... *sing song* I don't have a Rob's Toorooooooka!

Deb has dibs on one 'Rebel's Rosebud', and my SIL wants one too, but I think there are at least 3 plantlets in that pot, maybe 4..... Shall I put your name on one, Lorry? :-D

LOL well you will now! I am going to have TONS of babies to share :)
and he grows SOOO WELLL! you will love it!

Rob's Torooka was frozen in the mail when Allison sent it to me. I was heartbroken because it had such a spiffy name...

I just thought I should tell you, Jill; Nice pictures/plants/taste as usual!

Kenton the sane.

Well, Kenton-the-sane-but-stuttering.... I'll bet Lorry might be persuaded to fix you up with one also! I'm very excited because it looks like my 'Rob's Gundaroo' buds could open any time now.... I love that name, too!

I need to dig up a couple pieces of cloth to use for backdrops upstairs... there's just something improper about taking pics of such pretty little plants against the cutting mat & watering can background. Hmmm.

Citter,

Do you sell your babies?

Sorry about your Rob's Toorooka! If Lorry does not have enough I've sent some more out but have more growing ! It's a great growing African violet trailer !

LOL, Makshi, I was just posting to you on another thread... Dmail me if you're settled in again & ready for some baby AVs this spring! I owe ya! :-)

I haven't sold them before, but if I keep propagating at this rate I might see about selling a few.... we'll see how that works out. Mostly, I'm hoping to trade (for outside plants too, not just more AVs or I'll run out of shelves) & give 'em away...

Oh I should have TONS of toorooka babies to share :)
Between Allison and I..I am sure we can hook up anyone who wants one.

I sent hp one in her box !!

Does the interest just lie in named violets or are people still interested in noids?

Anita, that varies person to person. The more AVs I have, the more I tend toward perferring the named ones... but I still fall for a noid from time to time... and I'm hoping to trade my AVs for some outside plants this spring or fall, also. If you're looking for a trade, I know we've got some similar interests, because I found your thread with the beautiful garden photos!

sounds good to me Critter - I'm new to trading, but learning as I go! It's all so exciting!!

I don't have any noids. I can't go to the stores would I buy some ? Maybe. But now I am more careful of new plants and any book will tell you isolate every plant no mater where it came from.
If you do buy plants from Nurseries, HD, Lowes, Grocery stores they are going to tend to have more critters hiding, watering problems, root or crown rot , fungus disease and more. Most things can not be seen by the naked eye.
So would I sacrifice my expensive growing collection ? Sorry "NO"
Plus is you do want to trade, sell or show they must be named . I like named plants with a history. Vintage knowing about the Hybridizers and so on...

Well, I've been watering and repotting and putting down a few new leaves & suckers upstairs... I also took an inventory of my propagation trays! :-) Wow, if all those sets of "ears" and plantlets keep on growing, I may have 250 or so trade plantlets started. I'm hoping that if they are at least "ears" now, they'll be big enough to send out by April or May... If not, I'll have some this spring and more for fall trades!

Now I have to go down the list with my trade tracker entries and check off which ones have been spoken for! My Secret Easter Trade buddy gets first dibs, of course! :-)

It looks like I'll have 8-10+ of the following, although some are still pretty small:
Allegro Appalachian Trail
Big Blue noid
Cambridge Missy
Candy Crystals
Madeleine
Midget Gumdrop
Peppermint Girl
Big Blue noid
Rob's Bunny Hop
Rob's Outer Orbit
Smitten Kitten
Winnie The Pooh

I'm thinking I should probably wait until the others are in individual pots before I post counts for them, LOL.

I've also got a couple of extra plantlets of one I'm calling "Humpty Who?" that I can chop into cuttings if there's interest. One is from a crown of 'Rob's Humpty Doo' that didn't bloom true, and the other is from a leaf (so I wasn't expecting it to bloom true)... I think they just reverted, as both have beautiful solid violet-blue blooms (scroll up for a photo), and they are definitely still trailers. LMK if you want one, and I'll pot up a crown for you!


edited to add, I know 250 isn't a lot by Allison's standards, but it's the most I've ever had going at once! Hope they'll all find homes.... :-)

This message was edited Jan 30, 2006 10:09 PM

Oh I dont have that many anymore I have sent out hundreds of babys and God only knows how many leaves to my DG AV friends sense Nove. 2005. I keep just a few plants for myself :))
I've shipped rare Chimera trail plant, Russians, Swedish, Vintage plants, expensive hard to get most leaves cost a lot I just enjoy the wonder of growing them :))

This message was edited Jan 30, 2006 11:18 PM

I did a count today, I have 127 rooted leaves in 2" pots or 2oz. dixie cups, and additional 156+ leaves in the perlite tray in various stages of rooting.. My loss is about 1:20 not too bad. Many are rooted, but not very much.

And in the whole lot, not one single ear! I learned alot about putting a leaf down Sunday at the AVSA meeting, not such a long petiole like I was doing. etc.

I did pull Little Blue Sapphire leaves out of the tray of perlite and I can actually see leaflets forming all along the end of the petiole, but I can't really classify them as mouse ears. BUT it is progress, I just keep singing to them.. hoping for some ears.
Lot's of these are noid's but at least they are nice noids. Hopefully I'll have plenty to trade and for our easter bunny swap too.

I cut my petiole about half inch and push leaf until it touches soil. Works well for me. I learned short at meetings and books too :))

Wow... I would guess I'm averaging at least 3 plantlets or sets of ears per leaf.... Begonia, you are going to have a thousand baby AVs at the rate you're putting down leaves!

Just to clarify, that's not 250 varieties of AVs I've got started... it's 58 varieties, and 250 is about how many plantlets I'm hoping are underway.

ok, since I am new to this propagating...are you telling me that each leaf will be a plant? Does that mean that Hector will have 4 plants?? Here's a pic of him from this morning.

You often get more then one plant from an ear. I got four cowboy blues from one leaf :)

how exciting!

I would agree Anita :)

Anita beautiful baby :)) Now I just keep that leaf down a long time until it has lots of babies, and good root system ! Most times when I separate babies are bigger than Mom or Mom has gone by by. Well when I separate I have several good size babies.
Your's is so pretty ! Good Growing !

Anita, your leaf may get more ears as it goes along, but right now that looks like one plantlet so far. Once the "ears" turn into little plantlets, it's easier to count how many crowns are in the pot. As Allison said, keep it in the pot until it's pretty big.

That little 'Hector' is a gorgeous little cutie!

Oh it sure is so cute ! I keep wanting to look at it :))

thank you...sorry I jumped onto your thread critter...but the topic got me going...

Hey, it's a thread about AV babies -- such jumping in is welcomed!

I only get frustrated when I'm looking for information I know I've read on a thread here, but it was so off topic that I have no clue where to look! So if a thread takes an O/T turn and the information is the sort of thing you think people are going to want to be able to find again, then it's time to start a new thread..... I'm as guilty as anybody else when it comes to meandering threads, LOL! (for example, look at how I'm going on here... and not a word about my uptown babies!)

LOL