Lucky Me - first post in a few years?

I know it's been a long time since I've posted here but I've had a lot of stuff going on and I lost most of my plants as a result.  I'm getting back into the swing of things and Lucky Me is one of the plants that I've found again for my collection.  If I could only grow 10 plants or less, this would be on that list. Lucky Me is one of the most gorgeous violets, in my opinion. I'll be putting a couple leaves down this afternoon to ensure that I don't lose it because it's one of the extremely rare ones. I hope to grow this one for the rest of my days. <3

Lucky Me (6298) 06/30/1986 (J. Domiano) Double orchid/darker mottling, variable purple edge. Light green, plain, glossy. Large (DAVS 942)

 

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

Beethoven

Beethoven's first bloom. It's more red than the first two photos show but it's definitely not a true red at all. More of a reddish purple. Very pretty though and I'm glad I was able to find it!

Beethoven (Volkmann) Semidouble red star/white ruffled edge. Dark green, round. Standard

(Does anyone have a year for this one?  I'm thinking it's from the mid-80's or so?)

 

 I don't like this photo nearly as well but it shows the color much better than the first photo.

Nortex's Petticoat Haven

Nortex's Petticoat Haven (4800) 05/05/1982 (Nortex/B. Johnson) Double light pink frilled. Pointed, quilted. Standard (TX Hyb)

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!  

Nortex's Starlet Haven and Lucky Me

Nortex's Starlet Haven (4810) 05/05/1982 (Nortex/B. Johnson) Double purple star/white frilled edge. Pointed, quilted. Standard (TX Hyb)

I think this is the first photo that I've gotten of the blossom fully open as I seem to be having some kind of culture trouble with the plant.  The blossoms either open with the inside withered or they fall over quickly.  I think this one needs more humidity?  Even though I've had troubles, every single blossom is definitely showing the "double" that the official description shows in FC2.  

Lucky Me (6298) 06/30/1986 (J. Domiano) Double orchid/darker mottling, variable purple edge. Light green, plain, glossy. Large (DAVS 942)

I've posted photos of this plant before but this is the first time it's bloomed so heavily in awhile.  The plant has had some conflicts with my youngest cat (she's knocked the plant off the shelf a couple of times) and so the leaves are in poor shape and it's very lopsided but I love the blossoms SO much!  Jeanette Domiano hybridized some gorgeous violets!

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!

Tipt Propagation

I'm posting this to show the difference in how quickly or how slowly some leaves will send up babies.  Well, mostly to show how slowly some do.  lol  Tipt (Tipt (F. Richter) Single large lavender/purple tips. Standard)  As a side note, does anyone know when Tipt was introduced?

The two cups on the left are both Tipt.  They were put down on 5/4.  The one in the back still hasn't produced.  The one in the front put up mouse ears in August, I think.  The one in the lower right is Bambino.  I put the leaf down for the first time on 5/4.  It has already had the babies removed the 3rd week of September and these babies are new since then.

So, Tipt and Bambino in the upper portion of this photo.  The lower left is BonBon that is in desperate need of being separated out.  To the right of that (center and cut off on the edge) is Topps.  All of these leaves were originally put down on 5/4.  

So this just shows how quick some are and how slow others are.  I've learned a lot since I originally put these down and wouldn't use such long stems anymore, if nothing more than just to conserve space.  It didn't seem to hurt any of them though!

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!

Renee again...

I've been admiring my Renee violet as it keeps putting out more and more blossoms and so I keep loving it even more by the day.  There's a smaller blossom on it tonight though that is different from the others.  I doubt that the plant is sporting but I wanted to post photos anyway.  Very, very delicate and cute blossom!

I love looking across this shelf and seeing the buds opening up!  This is French Lilac in the front and Ness' Puppy Prints behind.  In a few days, I'll have more blossoms to share!

BTW, almost all of my photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.  Lots more detail to be seen that way. :D

Thoughts for hybridizing

No, I don't hybridize - mainly because I don't have the room to even try!  But I've been thinking about possibilities since I have all of these rare violets growing on my shelves here...

What if someone were to take a vintage from the '50's or '60's and cross them with an outstanding current variety?  I've been hearing people talk lately about how the current varieties seem to sport more often. Their thought process seems to be that it's either that hybridizers aren't letting the violet go through the full three generations before releasing it or else that the genes are becoming less stable.  If it's that the genes are less stable due to all the crosses, would crossing a newer variety with an older variety give more stability to newer varieties?

It's just something that's been going through my head.  If I had the time and space (mostly the space!), I'd give it a shot myself.  Since I don't, if someone would like a leaf of an older variety for the purpose of hybridizing, I'm happy to share.  My only stipulation is that they keep the vintage variety around and share it out in order to keep it in circulation so it doesn't get lost. :)

Double Black Cherry

Double Black Cherry (1178) 08/11/1960 (Omaha AVC/Mrs. C. Anderson) Double wine-red. Quilted. Standard

How does it grow for you?

It's such an easy plant to grow. I'd pretty much ignored it for the summer except for watering and the occasional fertilizer and it rewarded me with tons of blooms this time around!  It's also a huge plant - 18" across.

What conditions do you grow it in?

DBC has a south-facing window with the added benefit of lots of Full Spectrum CFL's in that corner as well (that window has a balcony overhanging it so it's not as bright as it could be). I wick water almost all of my violets and vary my fertilizers from fish emulsion to Miracle Grow All-Purpose to Schultz Violet fertilizer.
I'm in Denver, CO so it's pretty dry here. Humidity for my violets all comes from the trays beneath.

Would you recommend this variety?

Yes! This is an awesome vintage variety that has gorgeous blossoms and takes very little maintenance. The blossoms aren't huge but they are full and lots of them. The blossoms also last for a long time.

Where did you get it?

I bought it last March at our regional show and sale. I arrived about 5 minutes late (5 minutes after the doors opened) and it took forever to get through the line. By the time I got through, most of the teen/adult plants had sold but this one took my breath away. The blossoms were getting old at that point but it was still breathtaking and I had to have it. I waited in the sale area holding it until my boyfriend came back from the bank with cash… I didn't know they didn't take plastic!

1977 AVM's - The Redhead?

I recently received the entire year of 1977 AVM's and have been having a fun time reading through them! As fun as it's been, it's also been a little heartbreaking to see violets that are probably no longer around. Of course, I've fallen in love with one...

Does anyone know if The Redhead is still available? How about these?
Pink Granada (Granger)
Purple Spot (Lyon)
Henrietta Wilson
Celia (Maas)
Betcha
Cat's Meow
Kira (Howard Utz)
Tippy (Lyon)
Sylvan Blue
Fredette's Sugar Blues

I'd love it if anyone could point me to some the violets that I've listed but I'm afraid that many of them are no longer around.

In other news, my close-up photo of Renee is going to be in FC2 as she wasn't pictured in that program. Thanks to Ann-Marie for helping out with this. :) Bambino, Iris, Kaper, and Topps will have photos as soon as my plants are ready :)