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!

I grew this NOID

Last January I was in a local nursery when I spied their African Violets.  I hadn't been to anything club oriented yet but I've loved violets for years, so I took a look.  They were all large and expensive (compared to what I'd seen so far at Home Depot), so I limited myself to just one.  I picked a gorgeous two-toned purple violet but there was a loose leaf laying in the tray that looked like it belonged to another violet that I thought was interesting but I decided that time around would stay there.  Since I was buying a violet anyway, I tucked the leaf into the plant that I did purchase and brought it home for propagation.  That leaf languished for awhile but has been highly prolific (4 babies from this batch) and is currently down for her second set of babies, with another 3 or 4 babies on growing now.  

The violet below is one of the first two babies.  Beautiful dark purple blossoms with girl leaves.  She may be a NOID but I'll definitely be keeping at least one of these. :)

Surprise!

I stayed home from work today because I wasn't feeling well.  I was off the previous two days for my "weekend" and yesterday was mostly spent in bed.  Today my boyfriend wanted me to get out for some fresh air so he dragged me to a bookstore and then to the nursery next door to the bookstore.  Well, they had African Violets there.  They had the exact same NOID that I have sitting in my home that I waited more than a year for a bloom on

and a few other very beautiful violets that I thought were also NOIDs...

I say "thought" because then I saw one that was unmistakable.  Even though there was no tag with it, there is absolutely NO mistaking...

FROZEN IN TIME!!!

Frozen in Time (9167) 02/03/2003 (Lyndon Lyon Greenhouses/Sorano) Single-semidouble white star/variable lavender tinge; green edge. Variegated light green and ivory, quilted. Standard

Yes, I bought the plant immediately!  lol  I also got the name of the nursery where they get most of their plants and I've checked out their "currently available" list.  This place lists each plant with their actual name, so I'm very hopeful that I can get the name of my lovely pink NOID.  Another woman that I know brought home Anthoflores Little Axel from this same nursery.  Very exciting day, even amidst the aches and pains of whatever flu bug that I'm dealing with right now.

The plant has now been disbudded and put into isolation.  I saw no signs of thrips on any of the violets but you can never been too sure.  Also, you can't see mites with the naked eye and there were LOTS of cyclamens in the nursery today, even if they were in a completely different room.

You can see a touch of lavender in the lower blossom.

Here's a look at a Frozen in Time that I saw a month or so ago.  Because I'd seen this plant in person and it's such a distinctive look, I was able to make a positive ID on this one.  

This plant is grown much nicer than mine is but mine will straighten out with time. :)

Nortex's Starlet Haven and my King Sooper's NOIDs

There are lots of blooms coming up on this plant now that I have it in natural light rather than under the brighter lights.  It seems to be behaving much better in general now!  Here's a photo of one of the blossoms that are almost completely open.

A couple of the NOID's that I bought from King Sooper's are blooming again.  They're in isolation and, other than A LOT of fungus gnats and icky looking leaves where the previous blooms that I couldn't convince myself to take off when I stuck them in isolation and they molded and marked the leaves, they seem to be doing pretty well.  It's still early yet but I wanted to remind myself of how beautiful they're going to look once they're deemed healthy and can come out to join the rest of my babies.

 Yes, icky leaves but it's only where the molding blossoms fell onto the leaves.

Don't pay attention to all the dead fungus gnats!  Ewwww!  Hey look, it's a pretty flower! :D

Pink NoID

I've waited for more than a year for this violet to bloom for me.  She finally put up one bloom stalk with two blossoms on it.  They're both open now and I hope they last a long time!  I'm also hoping that someone will be able to help me ID this violet at some point.  She's a beauty!

You can see the white edge better in this photo.

She's glittery too!

<3  I was going to give her away or toss her but that blossom has saved her for my collection!  <3