John's Blog , 2010 (January thru April)
These blog pages become so heavy with images, that it seems as though four months worth of entries is enough for a page to load.
Thankfully I get unlimited pages, so look to the left for Blog 2010 (May thru August)
Please feel free to leave me feedback by using the new guestbook feature
at the bottom of the current Blog 2010 (May - August) page.
April 27, 2010
As I mentioned on the Raleigh page, I recently took and passed the exam to be an AVSA judge. This week I've been swapping some emails with Dale Martens about my need now to educate myself about the "other gesneriads". She very kindly offered to point me in the direction of a few websites and blogs that I thought I would share here.
Being one that loves to learn new things, I've selected a nice clean notebook and have been reading through all these sites and taking pages of notes that will undoubtedly lead me to other sources. Ah...learning! I love it!
If any of you readers out there know of other serious sources of gesneriad information, please email me at john@barringtonviolets.org
April 26, 2010
April 25, 2010
Okay, before I report on our club meeting today, I have to tell you all a sad tale that happened to me yesterday. As I believe I've mentioned before I have light stands all throughout the house. Friends and I had placed an order a few months back from Lyndon Lyon. I had ordered 3 semi's and a plant of Concord, a purple and white chimera. Now I've resisted the purchase of chimera violets in the past because there are so many other violets that have equally exciting blossoms without the propagation limitations. That said, Concord is just a striking little gem.
I had just recently moved these four plants from the bedroom stand to the light stand in the bathroom. So yesterday morning I lifted the terra cotta tray holding these four off the stand to inspect and appreciate the blooms of my lone chimera. I carefully set the saucer on the edge of the sink and turned back to the plant stand to make room for them on a higher shelf when I suddenly heard a splash and a thud!!!!! I turned back around and shrieked at the horrible scene. It seems I bumped the saucer in such a way so as to cause two of the four plants to land on the floor (thud!) and my plant of Irish Nights and Concord were swimming in the toilet bowl!!!!!(splash!) OMG! All hygienic concerns aside, I immediately rescued the swimmers and then the two on the floor (Storybook Princess and Little Busybody) and spent the next 5 minutes apologizing to them all. Dramatic reenactment photos shown below.
Today the club met for a critique of members plants while our state show is still about 8 weeks away. Our critics were AVSA Judge Frances Jarnowski and AVSA Nationals successful exhibitor Andrea Worrell. It was a great meeting. We had a few guests from other clubs and on a windy and rainy day had approx. 35 plants for the workshop.
After the plant clinic we all checked out the 321 photos i had taken at AVSA in Raleigh. I hooked up the laptop to my LCD projector and projected them large against the white wall in the workroom.
April 13, 2010
I've added a new tab to the left (second from the top) for my reports from
the AVSA 2010 Convention. Check it out!!!
April 11, 2010
Okay, it's Sunday and I leave in the wee hours of the morning tomorrow for the trip to nationals. This will be my first visit to a national conference on violets.
My house/plant sitter gets to stay here and tend to all the plants I'm not bringing along with me for the show. I'm taking my laptop along so that I can post lots of new photos and updates from the convention every day. I'm sure this will be an amazing experience. Check back often over the next week for more violet action from Raleigh.
April 7, 2010
I think I made my final decisions on what I'm bringing to Raleigh for my design entries. I was going to bring this plant along for blooms, but I may give it some better grooming and see if it looks good enough for a plant class.
April 6, 2010
I'm now in the homestretch for the trip to Raleigh. A week from now I'll be at a BBQ meeting new violet friends. I'm bringing waaaaay to much stuff along in the car. I've registered to enter four designs, and I hope to bing along at least a couple plants for the horticulture classes. Add to that I'm also bringing show plants for a friend. Hopefully everything will travel smoothly. Last night my tiny town got hit by a furious spring storm and a tornado! Windows breaking, bricks from the yard firepit distributed all over the yard and even a lawn chair hanging from a tree. Power was out for several hours but it looks like the violets, the dog and I survived it all.
Although this may jinx my chances of keeping these plants in shape for the show, here are some photos of one of my Ethel's Explosion and Fancy Trail.
April 2, 2010
So I added some new "got african violets?" vinyl to my SUV this morning. Not terribly original, but it makes me smile when I see it.
Here are more of Andrea's show plants she's planning on bringing to the big show! In order they are Rob's Inner Orbit
Lyon's June Bug
Windsome
Wish mine would look this great.
April 1, 2010
Okay, so I thought about starting tonights entry by telling you I had 200 plants ready to bring to Nationals in Raleigh, but that would be an April Fool's fib. Many of my plants have peaked too early and will not be going on a road trip to the big show. Weather has been crazy. Today in Chicago it was over 80!!!!! That's crazy for us.
Went over to my mentor the other night to see some of her amazing plants that will be making the show table in Raleigh. I was able to get some shots of her show plant prep.
The plant shown below is Rob's Fuddy Duddy
before stripping down after view from the top
the aftermath destined to be future show plants!
Okay, this is one of those things that maybe everyone but me has known about for years. In order to use a 6" ring and have it fit snugly against a solo cup, Andrea simply twists the rubber band one turn and Bingo, a perfect snug fit. Although not shown here, you would twist the band at all three pins. Very clever.
March24, 2010
I didn't think it had been 8 days since my last post! I've been busy getting things ready to head out to Raleigh in a few weeks. Wish my plants would cooperate. I could have done very well if I had a violet show to enter this past week. I'm afraid that my plants are too far ahead to be looking their best in 2+ weeks. I'm eager for convention to come. I hope it's as fun as I've built it up to be. I've got lots of activities planned, so staying busy shouldn't be a problem. I received a shipment of plants yesterday and I am now officially out of room!
I found a thrip on a plant in the basement last week, so I threw out all the plants from that shelf unit and the two shelf units on each side. About 250 plants in all. Many looked great, but I didn't want to risk it. I treated all of the basement with Malathion including the walls ceiling and floor. I will treat it all again with Avid just before pulling away for Raleigh. That way neither I or the dog will be in the house before everything dries. I've stripped down every plant of any blooms or buds and will watching the lower basement closely. So for the time being, the basement is off limits. Thankfully the plants I thought had show potential were moved upstairs several months ago and show no signs of pests or trouble. Just to be sure, I'm spraying all the plants in the house with neem oil before the trip.
I had some new buttons made following up on my recent post to an on-line group about the "Legends of Violets". There were lots of suggestions, but I went with the names that were submitted by several folks and had a reason to support the nomination.
March 16, 2010
Spring has sprung in Chicagoland today. The temps were in the 60's! With spring comes the onslaught of various seed catalogs and yesterday the new Lyndon Lyon catalog came in the mail. New things are also happening at The Franklinhouse (see links page). Word came to me today that they are adding new offerings to their website. Already available are two delightful little gems; one old and one new!
Cupid's Kiss (the classic oldie)
and Jolly Mischief (the newbie)
All of the leaves I've ever received from The Franklinhouse have always been sparkling fresh!
Check them out this spring.
March 15, 2010
I'm always so pleased and surprised at the level of activity we get on this site. Our record day was over 1400 unique visitors in a single day! We're especially popular with visitors from Vietnam! Some days we'll have more than 40 different visitors from there! Welcome!
I figured out how to capture a screen shot of the activity report the website offers me in the management tab.
March 13, 2010
Today the club met for brunch and then carpooled into the Chicago Botanic Gardens in Glencoe to visit the Northern Illinois Gesneriad Society Show and Sale. Despite the rainy drizzle, everyone enjoyed the day. It gave us a chance to see friends from other clubs, visit with the Gesneriad Society members, and of course buy some plants!
Jan, Tina, and Bonnie of the NIG Society work the check-out table.
The always cheerful and vivacious Lana G. greets visitors.
Barrington Bloomers member Sandy Fuller selects plants from Gary Mikita of Out of Africa (see links)
NIGS member Bob Nicholson had this plant of a sinningia micans on display.
Not sure if this is an enlarged tuber or what, but you can see it split the plastic pot!
Jan P. is famous for her lovely miniature sinningias. This one is no exception.
March 11, 2010
I have now set my sights on a lonely plant of Robs Argyle Socks to be looking great for National. My plants of Tiger have developed a gap due to the cold snap in the house while i was gone, so I let them come into bloom before i strip them down and do a spray in the basement of Avid this weekend. I also came across a young plant of Bob Serbin that came into its first boom cycle.
March 10, 2010
Okay so I've been keeping in touch with a few other friends that are also hoping to have plants looking perfect for Nationals. We keep thinking that we're either too far in bloom or not close enough. Sadly, I'm afraid these may all be too far along already.
March 8, 2010
I am a firm believer in buying odd things that appeal to you even if you have no idea of how you'll use it. It's a design principal that has worked well for me for many years. So when I saw this gorgeous woven Japanese ribbon I ordered a few rolls from the design import studio in Seattle.
I wanted to find a way to use it for something at the upcoming AVSA conference. My first solution has worked great. I picked up a few rings at the hardware store and sat down at my sister's sewing machine to sew a few name badge lanyards.
March 7, 2010
I'm getting eager for the experience at the national conference. A club member/friend came over to the shop yesterday as I began the much avoided process of potting up new plantlets from leaves put down in fall. I'm running out of room here at home, so the thought of 1 solo cup becoming 4 or so is frightening. Some of the leaves went crazy and started producing plantlets along tears in the leaf blade outside of the cup, or new plants developing right from the upper portion of the blade.
While we were working on transplanting, an old friend stopped by the shop. She's very interested in the metaphysical arts and believes in the hidden powers of nature. She offered to empower our newly planted pots! Now while I'm not into such things, I figure my plants can use all the help they can get.
When I asked her what the rocks in her hands were all about, this is what she told me:
Citrine, Yellowish in color - is a powerful cleanser & regenerator. Citrine absorbs, transutes, dissipates, and grounds negative energy.
Rose Quartz, pink in color - is a stone of unconditional love & infinite peace.
Bloodstone, greenish in color - is known as the "Stone of Courage". Helps ground & center the heart.
Jet, black in color - is actually a form of fossilized wood, but looks like coal. Jet is used to stabilize finances and to protect business.
Peace, Love, Joy my friend, the African Violet man.
March 2, 2010
Sorry I've missed a few days. I'm disappointed that some of my larger show prospect plants are now showing signs of a cultural break as a result of the cold temps in the house while I was away. Guess I'll be stripping many of them down to their center crowns and starting over. One shelf on the top in the basement has a tray of semi's and mini's that have been left to fend for themselves with minimal attention.
Ironically, for all the standards I grow, one of the best plants in the basement is this plant of Rob's Argyle Socks. It has a few leaves that need to come off, but is loaded with buds. Go figure. Good going socks!
February 25, 2010
The olympics are also bad for violet care!!!
Thought i would post this photo of my Chicago Flair and ask for feedback on what needs to come off the plant. This is the plant that hit a growth plateau for a while then started up again.
Looking at it this way allows me to be a bit less emotionally attached to each leaf! I'm thinking I need to remove the following numbered leaves: 23, 21, 22, 26, 25, 20, and 24. Different thoughts?
February 22, 2010
I've been making buttons lately while I should've been watering and grooming the plants! Yikes.
I'm starting to get psyched about going to Raleigh. Hoping to bring some buttons to share with new friends. Judi D. challenged me to make a "real men grow violets" button, so I did. You can also see below that I made some buttons into magnets and put them on display in the shop.
February 17, 2010
I spent some time this morning making some new buttons. I'm pinning them on one of our postcards to send for the goodie bags at AVSA/Raleigh. I was thinking about how it was my mother that first intoduced me to african violets when I was a small boy.
She used to have a few violets in the house sitting in old Fiestaware soup bowls to water from below. Sadly, my folks are both gone now, but working with my violets reminds me of her and those early times. That all led to this button I designed today.
Several folks have asked me how I make my buttons, so I'll share my system with you all here. I take most of the images using the camera on my phone simply because I always have it with me. I then take that photo into Photoshop CS3 to tweak the contrast and make any desired adjustments to the image.
I save that image and bring it into Illustator for any text so that I can use the vector vs. bitmap format. Vector-based text allows for the clarity to remain even when I shrink it down to the size of the buttons. I then save the Illustrator file and bring it back into Photoshop to make any last adjustments and then save it as a jpeg.
I use Quark for the layout of the buttons rather than InDesign simply because I'm much more comfortable with Quark. My commercial button maker and cutter only makes buttons 1-1/4" across. I have created a template in Quark that allows me to drop in the button image into the perfect size round field and then add a colored ring around the image that will cover the bleed and is the color you would see along the very edge and a bit of the back. Below are some screen shots of a Quark layout for the "smaller can be better" button you see above. If you had the button in hand you would see that the edge of the button has the pink. I use a commercial circle cutter to cut the round images out to the precise size and then make each button by hand using the button press.
February 15, 2010
My death/injury violet toll from the cold damage in the house while away continues to rise. I'll be stripping down many plants to the very central crown. I've hooked up my plant cam to follow the progress of a plant of Happy Harold (I got this plant after seeing Harold Appleton's plant at our state show last fall, Hey Harold!) This is one of the few plants that seem to have thrived despite the cold temps.
I really didn't mean to dismiss the efforts of the grower of the Missouri Pride plant below from the KC show. As I get ready to take the judges exam at Raleigh, I've been trying to engage with others about how they observe and would score various plants.
Jana S. has requested that despite my belief that the photo show by Chrstel Collier is much better than my poor video skills, she and others have asked to see the video. I'll post it here below.
February 14, 2010
Happy Valentine's Day! Go buy some flowers from a real florist and not a grocery/drug store!
Christel Collier from the First Lakeland AVS has put together a great photo show from their show last weekend that I attended. It's TONS better than my video. Check it out!
February 13, 2010
Report from the AVC of Greater Kansas City 58th annual judged show in Kansas City, MO. I asked my brother and sister-in-law that live in Kansas City to go to the show, take some photos and report back to me. They enjoyed their visit today and bought some plants from the club sale.
The queen of the show was Rebel's Night Breezes
A beautiful chimera Victorian Ribbons
The intense color of Tropical Heat Wave
For those that love the small ones, here's a Robs Combustible Pigeon and a Mickey Mouse
Some folks question the appeal of Optimara? Here's the reason they keep growing them. This pretty plant is Optimara Everjoy.
Okay my brother didn't remember the rosette this plant of Missouri Pride won, and no offense to the grower, but this plant doesn't seem as though it's a blue ribbon plant. Am I the only one that thinks this is a red ribbon plant at best?
February 11, 2010
So much to tell you. Where do I begin? I got back home last night from my 2 weeks down south. I had a friend checking on my plants for watering (no small task as he discovered) and checking on my unreliable thermostat in the house.
I knew he found on his first watering visit that the heat and gone off and the house was down to 59, but I didn't know until today that on his third visit he found that it had gone off again and the temp. was down to 52! Ouch that hurts! Many plants are looking very bad and I fear that more will soon be following suit.
On a happier note, I arrived home from a day at the shop to find a parcel from a faithful blog reader and Internet friend waiting on the doorstep. It was a Plant Cam!!!!!! I'm excited to get it set up and running. A few of my plants have been steadily growing during these last few fluctating temperature weeks, and now I can track they're daily progress.
THANKS SCOTT!!!
While I was away, the mugs I ordered arrived! The image is a partial image of the watercolor I did abot 6 weeks ago of my S. rupicola. I think they look great. I use a scan of the original painting as the wallpaper on my phone and desktop. Fun.
As I mentioned in some previous posts, I stoped at Travis Vio;ets on the way home from Florida. Travis Davis was very friendly and welcoming. I bought a load of plants and have an order in for a few more that he was just getting ready to propagate.
Here's photos of Boogie Nights (top) and a very pretty chimera.
Here's a horrible site for those of you that are propagation junkies!!!!!
February 5, 2010
First Lakeland African Violet Society Show and Sale!!!!
I spent a wonderful morning at at the above mentioned event today. I arrived at 9:00 when doors opened for the plant sale which was filled with loads of great plants at cheap prices.
Shirley Berger and Bill Snively, club members, teamed up to run the sale table flawlessly. Bill worked his amazing sales skills on the clientele while Shirley was the money man! (See photo below, Shirley in the lavender knit top in the foreground, and Bill in the background on the right side of the table.)
Despite the recent freezing cold weather that had many of the growers concerned about their plants, the club had a nice selection of plants and designs in the show. I took video of all of the entries, and I promise to share that at another tiume after I return home.
In addition to meeting all of the friendly members of the club, I also had the chance to meet folks like Lynne Wilson, Carolee Carter, and Thad Scaggs.
(photo of Thad and Carolee below)
I'm not sure that there's anything more enjoyable for a violet grower than spending time meeting and chatting with other like-minded folks. Thanks to ALL of the people I met today for welcoming me. FYI: I also bought tons of plants at the sale that will make the trip north to the land of snow and sub-zero weather.
Can you hear them screaming?????
February 3, 2010 (2nd post) now with bonus photos!!!!!!!
Before I jump back into the heated pool (That's just a friendly jab at all of our Chicago readers!! Oops, too late. ), I thought I would post a few more photos from my visit to Harmony Greenhouse. In addition to their thousands and thousands of violets, they also grow the most exceptional rex begonias.
Just as my appreciation for most things
mid-century fuels my love of african violets, it also craves rex begonias!
Here are some of those and a giant episcia that they had there as well.
(Take note of the yellow blooms below. Hard to find)
(below are a few photos of begonias going to their new home; sadly not mine)
A large hanging episcia 'Cleopatra Sport'
February 3, 2010
I went to Harmony Greenhouse this week in Florida. They're the folks that produce the "harmony" violets like Harmony's Little Stinker. Lots of beautiful plants with an emphasis on african violets and rex begonias (My two favorite plants!!)
I took many photos that I'll share more of later, buts here are a few to tease you.
(Note the episcias grwing in the ground under the benches!)
January 30, 2010
I'm in central Florida this week. I'm going to the Lakeland show this weekend, and plan on stopping by at travis Violets in georgia on the way home. I promise to have all sorts of new photos and videos to share when I get back home.
January 25, 2010
If you saw the close-up photos of my new violet buttons on the homepage, here's a photo of the 5 styles all pinned to a bookmark. I have other styles in the works that I'll work on more when I get back.
January 24, 2010
Back by popular demand for all the violet reflections folks
January 24, 2010
I've been working on more button designs. Here's one I did tonight. I based it on an image of a plant of Jolly Star for sale on TheFranklinHouse site (see links tab) Plant photo shown below button image.
January 20, 2010
This is how things get out of hand quickly! I had a plant of Ness' Grape Fizz that needed to be torn down and repotted.
Then I removed all the blooms.
Stripped off a ton of leaves.
I put down the best 24 leaves and ill toss out the rest, BUT now you see how room in the house is becoming scarce. One pot has turned into 25!!!!!!!
January 17, 2010
It's kind of an icy and gloomy day here, so I decided to work on making some blank note cards featuring african violets. I made a few styles but the one I think turned out the best so far is an inkjet print of a digital watercolor image of 'Jolly Jubilee' on heavy white cardstock and sized to fit these outrageously gorgeous red-lined envelopes that I really think makes it kick butt.
Here's some images of the card below
January 15, 2009
Busy day today. I worked on plants. worked on some postcards and buttons, and attended the Fox Valley AVS meeting this evening. Jan Poole, a member of Fox Valley and the Illinois Gesneriad Society gave an excellent lecture and demonstration on miniature sinningia care and progagation. I took several photos that I'll share here soon.
I've been trimming up some of our new Barrington Bloomers tote bags with ribbons, buttons, and laminated tags and cards. I made up a special bag for my adopted mentor with all of the ribbons, tags, and buttons, ... PLUS a very cool custom-made violet brooch made from vintage zippers! I found the source for the zipper violet pin on Etsy ( http://www.etsy.com/shop/zippinning ) and contacted the artist Elaine via a convo messge from her Etsy shop page and asked if she could make an african violet. She took on the challenge and I couldn't be happier with the result. (see photos below)
I already contacted Elaine and asked her if she could make me another one.
January 14, 2010
I recently got my new favorite postcards back from the printer and brokered an arrangement to get them in a few coffee shops around the area. I know that in the Starbucks here next to the shop, the crowd is frequently 50% high school and college age folks that I think would be exciting to get engaged in growing violets. If they have time and $ to slug down two venti macchiatto's (sp?), then they have time and enough moolah left over for a violet or two.
January 12, 2010
I came up with a few new button designs last night.
January 11, 2010
(Second note: I found on Ebay and ordered today, the embroidered patch for the Raleigh 2010 AVSA convention. Great idea getting them out early so you have time to attach them to whatever and bring it to convention)
...And so it begins!
I took a look at the trays I put down several months ago. It looks like the chaos has started. Yikes!
January 10, 2010
Here's a photo to start your day of a sinningia sent to me from Andrea at The Franklin House.
She says, "Roots, a new tuber and a new plantlet, all forming in water only. Cool 'eh?"
January 9, 2010
Our January club meeting was today. We started off meeting for lunch at a Red Lobster which also allowed for discussion of some club business.
After lunch we drove over to Oak Hill Gardens to enjoy their orchids and other plants. Some members bought orchid plants, some bought growing supplies. Here's a video of some of their selection along with some photos of some orchids that caught my eye.
January 8, 2010
I was in the mood for makin' pin-back buttons tonight, so I spent some time on the PC doing some drawing and digital coloring and formatted it to be the perfect size for 1.25" buttons. I made this button to replicate my plant of "Wisteria" that's in bloom now.
January 7, 2010
Violets are a nice "sport" on days like this when it's snowing to beat the band outside. 10" so far, but I know other folks around the country are getting hit heavier than us here northwest of Chicago.
The shop is slow this time of year, so I brought along more leaves to put down today. Not as many as on Tuesday, but still about 200 semi's and a few hundred standard leaves. I'll post a photo of them tonight. I packed up two layers of the semi's and had a couple extra boxes of just standards.
January 6, 2010
I'm enjoying reading the comments being left on the guestbook
feature at the bottom of this page.000000000000. Keep 'em coming!
Following up on the whirlwind of propagation yesterday, I thought I'd post a few photo's of the system I came up with to get the large black trays home.
The trays are heavy-duty like Permanest trays I get from Cape Cod Violetry, but they're sold as orchid humidity trays with the heavy grid that fits inside the top lip. They allowed me to stack three trays up, fit them in a nylon bag and bring them home safely on a VERY cold day.
So many folks have asked what my plans for all these leaves are, and the answer is our club hopes to have a plant sale in fall so we can increase our treasury enough to host a show. Thanks to folks like Thefranklinhouse for their support.
Wishing I had space like this at the house. Rotating/revolving benches and an automated watering system.
January 5, 2010
BUSY DAY! I took a pile of leaves to the shop today and worked on putting them down to root. This group were mostly semiminiatures, with some trailers, and some chimera crowns. Today I went through more than 380, 1oz. solo cups, plus about another 60-80, 3oz. cups.
Club member Cindy was kind enough to come over and lend a hand for a few hours. These photos don't even include all of the leaves, or the ones she brought back home for her own collection.
I still have about 500+ leaves of standards to put down!
January 4, 2010
Tonight after work I went by my sister's house to join her for dinner and an early birthday celebration. I received the most amazing gift! For months she has been secretly working away at sewing quilted tote bags for many members of our family. Well, tonight she gifted me with a spectacular tote bag that I already look forward to bringing along to Raleigh for the national convention.
I am SOOOOO lucky to have a sister like her! Check it out below!
January 3, 2010
I spent some time today over at The Franklin House with Andrea Worrell. I have several videos I'll be posting, but thought i would start you off with this one this evening.
The Illinois AVS show and sale is sometime in early summer 2010. They chose Jolly Mischief as the special challenge plant. As fate would have it, that plant isn't easy to find currently. Andrea carries a lot of Pittman hybrids and promised to get some plants and leaves going so the local folks would have someting to enter in the show.
It seems as though Hortense Pittman is really in the zone lately. There are SO MANY new Jolly and other Pittman introductions lately and they're all beautiful. I wonder how many seedlings she must toss to still have so many real winners?
In November, our club met at the flower shop on a sunday afternoon and planted seeds we bought from Nadeau.
Here's some video of us doing that:
Here's some photos of a bin of standards and a bin of trailers today.
January 2, 2010
I think that as we start into a new year, it would be a nice to time for me to promote the value of having and being an african violet mentor. I'm very lucky to have a strong mentor in Andrea Worrell, and I know from our many conversations that she has her own mentor(s). I try to pass on my enthusiasm for the "sport" of violet growing on to everyone I can, letting them know I'm always eager and available to assist in any way I can regarding their violets. If I don't know the answer, I'll ask my mentor and so on. It doesn't require any sort of financial exchange, just a bit of time.
That said, my mentor has told me to yank those blooms off my Chicago Flair if I want the foliage to grow stronger and larger, so I'm reluctant to share this photo of Royal Flair!!!! Yikes, I can hear her words now....DISBUD!
January 1, 2010
Okay, so it's the start of a new year and time for stating some resolutions and seeing how long it takes to break them! I resolve to do better at keeping plants disbudded, rotated, and repot when necessary and not simply convenient. I will work to introduce the joy of growing violets to more folks of all ages, and support my local clubs.
Before I start out to strip down and disbud more plants around here, I thought I would share some plants that caught my eye today.
Here's a plant of Jolly Jubilee that needs disbudding, some tear down and most likely repotting.
Here's a plant that I have to work more with over the next several month. This plant of Chicago Flair (below) was purchased from Rob's and was growing quickly and looking great. Alas, the weather turned cold, the heat came on and the growth has really slooooowed! I might more it to the basement grow area, freshen the potting medium, and see if that helps. I want this plant to grow larger than the 8" it is now. Am I right it can get large??
Like the plant above, this plant of Funambule (below) has the same history and growth slow down. I have to work with these.
