Hello Frank, and welcome to the AV forum!

Another hosta addict joins us! You are so cooked. You already are a full-blown hosta addict, so it should be no surprise to see you jump into the deep end over here. At least the highest prices for violets are closer to the lowest for hostas.

A few differences...hostas are sturdier and easier to trade and ship. They can also survive neglect and being on their own outdoors. No such luck with AVs. They definitely require more constant attention. But many flower almost continuously and give immense gratification.

I love LLGs violets. That he grows them in a greenhouse in natural as well as flourescent lighting makes for easier transition to household conditions IMHO.

I can't wait to visit there again!

Hope to see pictures of your AV babies in their new digs!

~Bunnycat (also a hostaholic)

Welcome to the addiction! Lyndon Lyon hybridized plants are fantastic. Great vigor, and huge blossoms. I keep some myself. Chimeras are beautiful, if a little unstable. Some will sport/revert back to solid colors on you, but it's all part of keeping them. My personal favorite is Yukako. It seems to be very stable and blooms heavily. There is a company that specializes in chimeras: avchimera.com. They will ship during the winter too. Violetbarn.com carries a plant called "Rob's Lucky Number" that is both a blossom and leaf chimera. It's the only double chimera I know of. Best of luck in your new hobby!

Mark

I placed my order for the leaves on Monday and they just arrived here today on Wednesday. They sent two of each. I was tickled to see that. The leaves were nice and firm but I trimmed the ends a little and have them all sitting in little Solo cups of RO filtered water with the labels I made for each leaf.

I already have plenty of space under fluorescent lights for them as I make leaves into small plants into big monster plants but I am already planning on adding more shelves and lights just for the AV's. I baby my hostas constantly. I water about every other day unless we get a good long rain. I buy many tissue culture hostas so those always get babied. The AV's will fit right in because I am like a mother goose over the babies. I tend them constantly, never go on vacations or anywhere else that keeps me from taking care of my plants and house full of pets. Five dogs, two cats, two parrots and a snake.

I feel like a kid on Christmas morning.
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Apache Brave. This one actually has pink variegation. I had never seen any variegation on an AV before. I can hardly wait until I have huge plants!
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Home Fires. White variegation.
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Lacy Lass. I love the scalloped edges. I am a big fan of fancy foliage.
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The date stamp on the pictures is wrong. I just bought a new camera over the weekend and I was off by a day when I set it. My bad.

This is my new plant growing area in the basement. I will build something similar down there for growing out a bunch of AV's but without the pond liner. I will propagate and grow the baby AV's upstairs on my big seedling cart and under the other shoplights I have set up upstairs.
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I get the feeling that I know where all of this is going to end up. Once I get everything down pat I will probably end up showing. I just think these AV's are gorgeous and they should be shared. I also love giving things away to brighten someones day so these will fit right in. The recipients will also receive proper education into the care of their gifts with me as a source of information and rescue of the plants as needed.

This is a picture of the kind of seedling cart I have upstairs. The pictures I take of mine don't look right since I have so many other plant lights lit up in the room.
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Welcome to the Violetoholics Bedlam, fellow addict!

Anyway - the limitation is - 15 min per plant per week. The leaf is small - full grown standard plant will take a square foot or more. If you keep both things in mind - you are Ok, otherwise it will look like a cat hoarder house with plants on a top of one another dying from neglect.
So if you put down a standard leaf - count square footage on your shelves. Large ones ...2 per tray is the most = 8 per shelf.

Believe me - I KNOW ;-OO

I thought you might also like to take a look at this site: http://www.odavs.com/id8.html. It shows all the variability in blooms and leaves. There's a lot! When I first started all I knew of AVs were purple single pansies with plain, medium-green foliage. Also, check out avsa.org, the African Violet Society of America. They are the international registration society for african violets. Their site will tell you if there is an AV club in your area. Club members are a wealth of information.

I kind of figured 18" and 24" deep shelves that I will build with mature standards taking up anywhere between 18" to 24" of width per plant. They definately won't be crammed together. They will be done the same way I place my hostas. I plan things based on mature size and not the current size when spacing plants for planting. I want them to be seen, not smooshed together so you can't really see the entire plant in its true form.

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Welcome to the world of African Violets! You have some nice varieties and the leaves look great. Please keep us posted on your growing progress.

Its wonderful to greet a new addict! I envy you all your growing space. Now you will just have to find the patience to wait for the mouse like ears to show. . . sometimes it seems like it takes forever!

I actually need the time it will take for the leaves to make babies. I am reading as much info as possible right now and collecting all of the things that I will need. I have ninety new pots ordered in 2 1/2", 3" and 4". Yesterday I ordered the book Grow to Show. I have to pick up a bale of vermiculite and probably another bale of perlite since I am down to about a 1/4 bale. I still need to get both of the correct fertilizers, one for growing and the other for blooming, maintainence tools, leaf support rings, more light fixtures, more plant trays and saucers. I am sure there will be more added to my growing list once I read that book.

My goal is to be able to grow some of those giant standards with perfect leaves. It will take a lot of time and a lot of work but ever since I saw some photos of show entries I knew that was what I wanted to go for. I wil definately grow many untidy plants just for their blooms but certain varities that I have started and probably a few others that I will get will be groomed daily to grow them similar to these pictures below that I found on google.
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I just wanted to say welcome as well. Sounds you are jumping right in with a full-blown addiction. Fantastic! Looking forward to hearing of your progress.

Sue

Hey Frank - I just popped over from hostas to see how the new babies are doing -- time for an update yet?? (I have no idea how quickly they grow.)
Jan

I had thought it would take a month before I started seeing mouse ears but it has been closer to 7 weeks before I started seeing any. So far twelve varieties have plantlets growing, five aren't showing any yet and one variety didn't make it. I think I am doing ok considering I have never done this before.

A few days ago I rescued three Optimara minis in little self watering ceramic pots from Lowes. I figured they would be good for practice to start with on cleaning them up.

The leaves that have mouse ears:
Lyon's Party Dress
Lacy Lass
Lyon's Spectacular
Pink Duchess
Cosmic Art
Buffalo Hunt
Caribbean Blue
Blue Tapestry
Apache Brave
Marina
Home Fires
Mystic Mermaid (Russian)

I am still waiting on:
Jazzy Jewel
Optical Illusion
Halo's Aglitter
Bob Serbin
Blue Mink