I'm afraid I don't know of any suppliers for that number of Dean's Rosalie or Rhapsodie Rosalie. The Dean's plants aren't that well known aside from collectors and, while Rhapsodie Rosalie looks like a lovely violet, Optimara says it is only available as leaves.

This idea may not be the greatest, but there are a lot of pretty pink violets in the world. Anthoflores (Harster Greenhouses) definitely has some and they sell through garden stores and supermarkets. Mostly no one keeps track of their names. If you could arrange to get 30 pink ones, perhaps you could do something creative like a note or even a poem (if you are better than me) saying something like "this lovely flower is for Baby Rosalie" - well, I'm sure you could do better, but you get the idea. I just realized our grocery store had Anthoflores because they say "Grown in Canada."

I hope this helps because although I love your idea, the fact that R. Rosalie isn't in production makes it unlikely that you can find 30.

Good luck.

Diana

Pat
Optimara has one called MyDelight that resembles pink rosebuds. Maybe you can give them a call to ask what they have in stock that meets your needs. Joanne

Optimara is very pricey though - just warning you. They have some darned nice options though :)

A local garden center might be able to do something a little more reasonable or a florist (?).

Diana

Or you could change the baby's name to an easily found violet....Sorry, being sarcastic but I couldn't resist.

(I love your idea. I hope you can find a Rosalie.)

Linda

Linda,

It is better than my thought which was to try to get them to wait for another baby so there was time to grow 30 Rosalies!

I guess you could give everyone some leaves and a picture but it wouldn't have quite the impact :). Odds are most of them would have the same number of plants in a year though.

Optimara has just released Rhapsodie Ingrid which is a double pink and might work if you can get 30 of them.

http://www.myviolet.com/varieties/221

I assume they are going to be pushing it since it's new. I am sorry we haven't been more helpful, but sometimes the older varieties are elusive. 30 is also a lot if it's not a kind that there's a high demand for. Most of our garden centers, etc., seem to get mixed assortments.

Another idea is miniature roses. These can be kept indoors, but can be put outside and do very well. I couldn't find a Rosalie but at least you are in the ballpark with the "rose" theme. They were recently around for Valentine's Day.

Diana

This post was edited by quimoi on Mon, Mar 10, 14 at 12:23

Pat
Rosalie is a lovely name!
Joanne

This post was edited by fortyseven on Sat, Mar 29, 14 at 1:10