Back Room Blooms from Violet Gallery April Visit

This is Pink Duchess. Her first blooms were not true to the FC description. But you can see these new stocks are blooming true.

This is L'heure Bleu. I love the delicate blue color. She is looking very healthy and seems to like it here. I also love her luscious leaves. They almost have a red tint to them.

This message was edited Jun 10, 2006 6:17 PM

Pink Sensations. I love the white eye and outer edge.

Pink Sensations the entire plant. Well almost.

Blue Boy. He has wonderful symetry and I love the leaves, especially the light green veins. The tips have a redish tint to them

Close up of the simple bloom. You can see how large it is by putting two fingers together. You see it laps over and is almost 3 fingers across. This is becoming my favorite plant. He is doing very well in the back room. (Knock on wood.)

The two other plants I got at VG have not bloomed as yet. They are Fisherman's Paridise and Ness Silver Cypress.

The trip to VG was very productive and their plants this year were amazing.

Jill, How are yours doing?

Beautiful !

Thanks, Allison. I really do love the new plants I got this year. They seem to be doing well. The one's you sent are great. The ones from Jill are doing good. And my easter bunny plants are doing well, also. This is the first spring that I have had the lights. Its interesting seeing how the plant respond to them.

Yes I feel the same way ! All my little cuties I got from trades are doing well and leaves are growing babies .
So Wonderous !

Allison, how many plants do you have right now. And how many leaves down. Also how many leaves with babies?

I have no idea.
Six boxes went out last week ~
Have three to go out this week people paid for shipping then were caught up !
Bingo box.
I have been growing fuve Storytella plants, Ranblin Midget and forgot what else for April for shipping ~
I have many Chiritas, and Espicas, Streo plants for shipping for Amy.
Bingo box will help !
I have special plants I'm growing for Jan " Janich"
Eunice has paid for three sets of priority boxes for shipping and she is getting more for people in the nursing homes and where she goes to the doctors !
Then I will see what else is ready to go and post to give more away for shipping !
We are packing and shipping as fast as we can. I can not take care of them and just keeping my favorites ! All others I am giving away.

Nanna so you know how many plants you have county babies ? And Gesneriad ? And how many leaves down ? And how many wuth babies ? I know your more organized than I am !

I don't have near the plants you do. You do so much for so many people. I was just curious. I can count mine because they are all in one room. At least the violets are. I have so few other plants. Actually the ones you sent and a couple of begonias and the two strep I bought this spring.

I was wondering how you kept tract of them. Being organized, if I am, can really squash the fun that can come from just loving the actual growing anything; be it violets or what ever.

You are always sending boxes to everyone. I just wondered where all the plants came from. Hope I'm not being nosey. That was not my intent. Just curiousity.

Nanna
You might be surprised that you do have more plants than I ! Between the ones I sent you, Your two VG trips, plants from Rob's, and LL and Jil and others !
I have several favorite on my shelves in natural light but lot's of them are promised to people. If I was to count the plants I plan to keep it is not many ~ And if someone wanted them I may just give it to them !
HHMMM where do all the babies come from I send people...the numbers are hitting high sense Nov, 2005 when I started sending to DG Peeps ! A good 600 plus. HHMM I wonder too ! The only way I can figure this out is they come from God :))
1. I am always putting leaves down from all my plants~
2. Last year I bought some leaves that I felt were wonderful ! ~ This year the only leavesI've bought were about 13 single leaves from Tina BloomLovers ~ I am not buying anyore I can't care for them and no $$.
3) I have been given so many leaves /plants fro DG Peeps ! Jan " Janich", Eunice, Anna, Lali, Lorry, Jill, Oh my godness more. Lorry had sent me Zillions f leaves, Lali begonia cuttings, Chirta leaves, Strep leaves, Anna has sent me so many Stre leaves and av's plants and leaves Ohmy ! Oh yes even Cheryl from Canada sent me strep and av leaves. and more sorry if I left anyone out.
2.) I have two stands plastic put together they have 4 foot shop lights now with cool lights Hubby started buying me about 2 yrs. 3 months ago. Took about 6 months to get two and lights ! The stands are 6 feet by 2 feet pushed together and there are four shelves.
This is where all the leaves and babies live until they go to new homes !
I have been trying to empty half of these shelves for some of my favorite plants to have light but have had no luck :(( I swear I can ship out 50 babies say and have not one space. Right behind them seems to be endless cups of babies over flowing wanting their own pots. One cup of babies so often makes 2-6 pots of plants.
We are trying our very best to keep them all growing healthy watered, potted, trans-planted into large pots when needed until they can go to new homes. But many a day I can't budge out of bed, A reason to get out each time I can have 5 , 10 minutes I work on them with joy ! Most all these leaves Hubby put down !
3. So either they come only by God or I am really extremly good at growing babies from my bed with God's help ! There could be no other way.
All the leaves, mom's and babies, plants I'm growing will be going to good homes ! And I will stop growing babies by leaf and just enjoy several of my favorites.
I am so weak, mentaly and physicaly exhausted and have earned my wings ~
Many a day praying please let me get all these babies to good homes ! and other days not even this enter's my mind as when I get my wings there will be no worries and everything will be someone else' problem.
So many people contacted me for FREE plants, people who never even posted once on DG's forum .
I said yes to ALL ! I never thought I would see the end. lol Two boxes left. One Loretta she got a lot of AV's from a friend that died so I am rooting several Begonia plants for her ( I got cuttings from Lali about three months ago they grew into plants fast or me and now I have nice rooted plants I grew from the plants I rooted from cuttings from Lali to share with Lorretta) and a few Avs.
And one girl between cold weather and her Mom sick and she died I am just sending her several special plants she will grow them in a window on a special table was her Mom's !
So then I thought I'd be caught up ! Let's do Bingo !
Babies I grew by leaf...Like Spanish Moss, Lela Marie ... plants I bought one leaf got one beautiful baby to share !
The plants I am keeping that are mine are not many and if someone likes it most likly I will give it to them !
We don't have much room either lol In out tiny maybe 500-600 sq.ft. Single wide one bedroom trailer.
So as soon as babies are a size to travel I must try to send them to good new homes as I just can't throw them away.
So this is where the babies come from for me to share !
Hope this answer's your curiousity :))

Nanna~ Your plants look great! TFS all of them with us. I never tire of seeing pics of AVs.

Allison~ I hope you know how much joy you are bringing to people's lives with your plants, leaves and just plain old caring for all of us!!

Allison, you are truly filled with the love of God to share with so many. Thank you so much for sharing this with me. I hope many will read and gain the inspiration that I have from you -- because of curiousity.

Nice pictures Nanna and I love Pink Sensations too, that is very pretty.

Hi Nan,

Pink Sensations is a real beauty! TFS

Yes, Allison is a jewel and I can hardly wait to get my box from her! Every time I will see a beautiful baby from her leaves I will think good thoughts always.

You indeed have earned your wings Allison and then some! You truly are an inspiration to us all and we love you to bits!

It is a wonderful thing! Thank you so much for your kindness and generosity and your unending endurance to all of us who yearn for some of your most coveted leaves.

Big hugs,

Joanne

I have extra baby Pink Sensations April !
I have names on plants if something happens to me for Hubby to ship. lol
Joanne I can't wait for you to get your boxes !

Hi Allison,

LOL!! Me neither!!!! I will be in violet heaven for sure!

Joanne

I have an extra one for you too Joanne if you like also !
I figure rough I can not count what ever energy I have is not for counting or making list. I tried this before and never finished. lol
But I may have about 300 leaves down still and hundred with babies coming up or waiting on me to trans-plant. I like them to get big with Mom if they run out of room lot's of time I put them with Mom into larger cup/pot

I'm sorry if I upset you Allison. Please forgive me. That was the furthest thing from my mind.

Oh it's Ok Nanna. People think I have a lot of plants and I don't.
I am very good at growing babies and I share them to new good homes where they will be loved and cared for !
Not last summer but year before, and year before this I would send people plants and have them look at the box and send the shipping money to my daughter who was in College then to help her out. Many people sent her extra. I did this for a long time.. My daught was like Mom a lady sent me $27.00 and she say where do you get them all from ? And I'd tell her I'd put a leaf down and grow them . Then in the Summer she worked with youth at Salvation Army low income kids . They had summer day camp she ran. She asked me a few months in advance for some plants and dirt...for the kids garden week. I sent about 35 new 3 inch white pots/and 35 4 inch green for the kids to paint. I also sent gallons of soil. And 35 good size plants in solo cups close to blooming or blooming ~ This way the childred could paint their new pots and plant their plants into the new pots and take home that day ! They really enjoyed them all the way to high school age !~
Nursing homes, school groups, salvation army there are always place to share extra plants. Friends that never had any. Almost all people on DG peeps here had no named African violets when I sent them or never had any AV plants or not many. So it's been such a Blessing to be able to grow the by leaf and share them !
That's what African violets are all about for me to grow and share ! Everyone should exprience , just once the joy and time and care it takes to grow a plant by leaf. If we don't share many varietys will be lost along the wayside :((.
To me it's not how many I have but how many I can get shipped out. lol
I will also take sets of leaves off of my most perfectly shaped treasured plant in order to share them !
You can have a beautiful plant and tomorrow it can be gone ~
And you can't take them with you . Might as well share them and spread the joy !

That's a great attitude, Allison. I sure learn a lot from you. Wish I lived in Florida or you lived in Maryland. It would be nice to visit and get to know eachother better.

Allison, it's amazing to think how many homes your plants have gone to for people to love & enjoy! I think sharing & generosity are contagious, and I'll bet folks have found plenty of ways to "pass on" the joy that you've shared with them. :-)

Nanna, your plants look beautiful! The contrast between the delicate blooms and dark foliage of L'heure Bleu is really special. My 'Little Crystal' plantlet is still as full of blooms as when I picked it out, and I think I posted a photo of the first bloom on 'Trinket Terrific', will have to check. I still need to repot my VG plants, but they are looking great! I figure that's something I can do after this week when I'm on "light duty" after the IVF transfer and can't do as much in the outside gardens.

How are things progressing?

Oh Jill it's been great ! Like plants and leaves I sent Jan " Jannich" she has grown babies and shared them with other DG Peeps. And a lot of people got babies from leaves or and babies I sent them in their secret swap boxes. That's my dream for people to grow babies with the leaves I send them, and put down leaves from babies I sent and then share some with others ! So much joy and fun ! Jan sent me leaves and I have shared babies from them and so on !

Nanna, everything looks great for this attempt! As you know, we're using a donor this time, and egg retrieval is tomorrow. Jim goes to the clinic in the morning, and then we wait for a fertilization report the next day. They let us know each day how the embryos are doing. If there are one or two clearly doing better than the rest on Friday, they'll do the transfer then, otherwise it'll probably be on Sunday. How cool would it be to have embryo transfer take place on Father's Day?!? I'm getting pretty darn excited! :-)

Allison, I figure even if your plants don't all get propagated and passed along, your kindness and generosity will be passed along in some other form!

I'm headed outside to do a little puttering in the garden. There are a few cucumber transplants that I forgot to cover this morning over in the bed behind the dining room. Using row cover on the young plants is the only way I end up with cukes... otherwise, the plants get cucumber mosaic virus and shrivel up just as they're starting to produce.

Jill, I am so excited for you. I hold you in my heart.

:-)

Thanks!