AVSA's Most Wanted AVs List

I've been doing a lot of reading about AVs in the books that I've lately been fortunate enough to acquire. In the Sunset How to Grow African Violets, copyright 1977, sixth printing January 1985, there is a picture of a lovely mini AV named Bagdad. Description, per the book:

"Bagdad - orchid lavender with deep blue shading, double; flat, deeply scalloped, dark green girl foliage, compact miniature

Below is a picture of the picture of it in the book. It is gorgeous, so I set out to see if I could find it for sale somewhere. The information I found was a list at the AVSA site of Most Wanted AVs, which was evidently printed in the March/April 2006 African Violet Magazine. Here's the link to the list: http://www.avsa.org/Library/VintageViolets.pdf I found this through a link from somewhere else that called it a "Lost and Most Wanted" list. Who knows if any of them are really lost, but I'd bet that some of them are.

Anyway, since I'm not a member of AVSA, and therefore, do not get the magazine, I thought I'd post a link to this list for others who are not members. It's very interesting to me that someone out there might have one of these, and not realize the importance of their plant. Take a look at the list. I'd love it if someone here had one of these "most wanted" varieties to re-introduce to the world!

Please be forewarned, this is an Adobe Acrobat PDF, so you'll have to have Adobe Acrobat installed to open this page, and it is about 3 MB so it may take a bit to load on slower computers or internet connections.

Here's Bagdad.

It also mentions Shine Boy as being a hairless variety. It has a black and white picture, but if any of you have Shine Boy, or any other hairless ones, I'd love to see pictures. Sounds beautiful!

I must be looking at the same book. I got it at the library. I too love the bagdad.

Beautiful plant Amy ! Neighter made it into First Class.
I think there are a lot of Av's with no hair ?? Or atleast I can see it with my bi-focals on nor feel it ??

Bagdad is beautiful! I love the folliage..

I thought they all had some hair. I'll look closer at some of mine and see if any of them don't have hair.

Here's a pic of the cover of the book, makshi. It's probably the same one.

Boy, I wish one of us could find Bagdad so we could all have it! It's so pretty!

Yes, that is the same book. If I ever see one I will let you know.

Ooooo...what are those leaves called? They are really cool...

Their Girl leaves / Girl Foliage !

I don't have as good luck with girl leaves as with other plants. I know they like less light. Mine get bunched up in the center and the blooms have no room to peak through. I read that you can clip every other row of leaves and that will help the problem. I end up clipping too many and the plant looks crazy!!!

To me some girls grow different. My standard girl's like Sassy Shells and Ultra violet Dusk are well behaved. The other ones I put into natural light then they behave too !

Well, I guess I should move my girls to the ends of my shelves, then. I'll do that in the morning before I turn the lights on. Or maybe just put them in a window. I'll see where I can make room for them.

Here's a little tip for those bunchy girl leaves...I can't grow them well either and they have to stay on the shelf with lights just like everyone else at the moment. Sooo.. I just coever them with a white paper towel most of the time.:) It defuses the intensity of the light & helps them to relax...you can also move them inder a table lamp. I just don't have room to move eveyone around at the moment..

Now as far as Bagdad goes... if you can't find that one exactly I have 2 others that look like that. One is a miniature ~Persian Prince with variegated foliage & the other is a Standard both have blue/purple flowers. Soooo while you search for Bagdad you could just as easily find one of the others.

MsC

Nice tip, MsCritter. If I can't make room for them in the windows, I will try that.
I'll go take a look at Persian Prince. Seems like I have that one on my wishlist, but I've forgotten what it looks like. I'll compare it to Bagdad. Thanks!

RG, I've got a couple of teeny plantlets of 'Persian Prince' that I'm babying along... so far, so good! If I can coax an extra one to maturity, you know I will share with you, but I am guessing it might not be big enough to send until spring. They look fine but are just not growing much yet.

I have to check that "wanted" list. Seems to me I saw 'Deer Path' on it, which I recently got at VG. I've got "ears up" on a couple of leaves now, plus my plant is starting to bloom -- exciting!

This message was edited Jul 4, 2006 1:11 AM

Hmmm, looking at the photos in FC, I am now wondering if my VG plant tagged 'Deer Path' might actually be 'Deer Trail' with the wrong name on it. The first bloom is starting to open, looks like white with some orchid (not blue like in description for 'Deer Path'), but also looks like it will be a double bloom, so not really like 'Deer Trail' either.

Deer Path (J. Gehr) Double ivory bell/blue fantasy. Dark green, plain. Semiminiature trailer

Deer Trail (6414) 11/05/1986 (P. Harris) Single orchid. Medium green, plain, round. Semiminiature trailer

I guess I'll have to wait for more & fully open blooms before I get all excited and contact AVSA!

However, I noticed that JALOPENO was also on their "wanted" list, and it seems to me that somebody on this forum had one of those last year! ??

Thanks for the offer of Persian Prince! I'd love it!
I saw that Blue Dragon is on it, I believe. I know it's around. I have small plantlets of it. They seem to resent being taken from the mom leaf even though they're good sized, so I'm babying them quite a bit. But I know I've seen it on eBay several times, and I've seen it on a couple sites for sale, too. I wonder how current they keep that list? It was from a pretty recent edition of the magazine.