French Lilac - plant 2

Last summer I received a plant of French Lilac and immediately fell in love with it.  It was such a gorgeous plant and I absolutely loved it.  My absolute favorite of all of my violets.  When I moved in March, I lost my plant and I was heartbroken.  There are two strains of the plant... the original has wonderfully wavy leaves and the other has more flat leaves.  In my search for a new plant, I was scared that I'd end up with a flat leafed variety...

Last week, I found one on ebay from a seller that I greatly respect.  The photo appeared to have wavy leaves, so I bid on it.  I bid more than I've bid on any plant because I wanted it that badly and I won!  The seller wrote to congratulate me and told me that it was actually just starting to bloom...

She arrived in today's mail and I was blown away by her beauty.  Gorgeous wavy leaves, beautiful blooms... I'll take photos of her tomorrow as my light tonight was really crappy.  I'm in love though!  <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Today in violets

I put down about 15 varieties of leaves today, most of them being girl foliage.  One of them had already rotted so I saved what I could of the leaf but I don't know if it'll survive.  If it doesn't, I'll be in search of another Navy Girl!

I also have babies coming up from my last set of leaves that I put down.  I didn't blog about that or take photos at the time but here are a few that are peeking through right now.

 Broadway Star Trail

 Buckeye Seductress

 Rob's Pewter Bells

 Malyshka Rusalka (Baby Mermaid) - I received a leaf of this a year ago and had a baby going strong in March before we moved.  I checked on the baby in early May just in time to save 3 leaves because it was rotting.  I was very upset but was excited today to see that one of the leaves has a baby coming up!  The other two leaves look good still, so maybe I'll have more coming up from them... it was a slow plant before, so it's hard to know for sure!

Double Black Cherry - Again, I was very upset when I realized that my plant was dying and I rushed to save a few leaves.  The leaves weren't in great shape but one of them has mouse ears!  Hoping to see babies popping up on the other two leaves that I saved!  Unfortunately, my French Lilac didn't make it either and no leaves could be saved by the time I discovered it.  I have one offer of a baby when they're big enough but I can't hold my breath since sometimes babies don't make it.

 I inherited this violet at one of our club meetings a few months ago.  I was supposed to give classes at work on African Violets and I wanted to use this as a demonstration but things have changed at work (including a promotion!), so those classes won't be happening.  Today was the day that I decided to go ahead and fix her up. :)

 I don't know why I decided to cut the neck so short.  Maybe because it was on such an angle?  Anyway, this is how short I cut it off...

   I removed some leaves and put them down as "insurance" for the plant and they're now domed with the rest of the babies.  Since we don't know what the plant is, some of the ladies in the club were very curious to see what they looked like after we revived them.  I lost the other two that I'd gotten but this one has been happy by the kitchen sink and a few other ladies also took some of them, so next year should be fun to see how they turned out!

 Renee also had a few troubles but she's coming through well.  I also put a leaf down from this plant as insurance as the woman that I got this one from has lost her plant.  It's been a rough year for violets so far!

French Lilac and Lucky Me

French Lilac

Nov 1, 2011

 Nov 9, 2011

Nov 9, 2011

Lucky Me - If this one weren't missing leaves due to a cat encounter, it might be holding its flower stalks up better.  This is one gorgeous violet!  

French Lilac Development

I first posted photos of my French Lilac on this blog entry.  I wanted to share a more recent photo with more of the blossoms open.  I love this plant A LOT!

French Lilac - First Bloom

French Lilac (2844) 05/17/1976 (J. Swift) Double lavender and wine frilled. Quilted, ruffled. Large (TX Hyb)

This is a fairly rare and hard to find violet.  I saw a photo of it online last spring and decided that I had to have it in my collection, especially since I have a passion for the vintage ones.  This summer someone posted on a forum that I'm on that they were looking for it and I piggybacked my request for one as well.  Within 2 weeks I had a good sized starter in my home (thanks, Deb!).  It's now blooming for the first time.  

According to Sylvia on the board, a lot of people wouldn't believe that French Lilac was an African violet when it first came out, because it was so different. Many florists sold it as a decorative house plant.  She hasn't seen it for years.  I'm glad that it's still around and am happy to share leaves this spring!