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aegis1000

African Violet Blues

aegis1000
10 years ago

Fortunately ... not a sad story ...

You know how every now an then we get a post on where a fellow AV grower can find a true red, or yellow, ... or blue ?

Well, I was looking at a couple of my newly blooming violets, and I was amazed at how blue they were.

I mean ... of course you always have at least a hint of violet, ... but these blooms were looking pretty blue to me. Of course, when I asked my wife what she thought, ... she said "Why they're purple, of course ...".

So, maybe it's just my AV imagination, but I thought that I'd let you judge for yourself. I took these photos with my blackberry cellphone camera, which seems to do a better job of capturing true color than my more expensive digital camera.

The blues are still a little "too blue", but they're close.

Judge for yourself ...

{{gwi:363287}}
Sansoucy Coco

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Picasso

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Anastasia

Comments (10)

  • paul_
    10 years ago

    I'd have to side with your wife ... more of an indigo or periwinkle color. But quite nice. I find the Picasso to be particularly fetching.

  • snappyguy
    10 years ago

    I have always found the word "blue" in descriptions... interesting. Some varieties are "less purple" to me than others, but I believe violets genetically lack the ability to produce blue pigment, as is true for most plants. You're 3 pictured above I'd put in my "less purple" category. Another good one is Rodeo Country. It has very dark foliage so the much lighter colored flowers really pop against it.

    Mark

  • aviolet6
    10 years ago

    Anastasia looks blue in the picture.

  • PRO
    Whitelacey
    10 years ago

    Flowers of the colors above are described as "blue" even though they are not what we normally think of as the color blue. I am a professional horticulturist and I have never found out why this is. Maybe to differentiate them from darker purples? To confuse matters even more, flowers that are truly a blue color are also described as blue
    Anyway---whatever their colors are, the violets above are lovely. Especially Anastasia, my grandmother's name.

    Happy Spring!
    Linda

  • SaraElise
    10 years ago

    That Picasso is amazing! I would say a pale indigo, but beautiful anyway.

    I would love to arrange a trade if you ever do any cuttings.

  • irina_co
    10 years ago

    Guys - when you are shopping for Picasso - try to find one with white fantasy streaks on blue - it almost mutated out of it - but there are still true blooming plants around there.

    i.

  • bigred
    10 years ago

    This is my mini trailer "Allen's Fallen Angel". It was suppose to be white blooms but it always bloomed this pale blue for me. Looks a bit pale lavender in this picture but it's actually more "blue" in person.

  • irina_co
    10 years ago

    Bigred -

    it is a sport of it - it is not only flowers, the variegation changed as well - Alan's Fallen Angel has white variegation - with large white splotches. Yours has pink one and mostly on the edges.
    Plus the original one is one flimsy hard to grow plant - yours is quite sturdy. Just mark it "Sport of AFA" and enjoy it. Very cute!

    Irina

  • bigred
    10 years ago

    Yes,I bought the leaves because the picture of AFA was as you descried but this is the resulting plant(s). I wonder if I bought so more leaves if I'd actually get the correct plant.

  • irina_co
    10 years ago

    You probably saved the order somewhere - so you can check everything.

    My first take was - it is not it - but the flowers are shaped very similar - distinct pansies on Xlong bloom stalks - and some search showed that some growers have AFA with similar variegation pattern - I am thinking it is probably a sport, not a mislabeled plant. If you think that all initial wild species are blue - it should be something in the genes left from them to surface.

    The regular AFA has thin flimsy leaves, you put the leaf down - it doesn't give the babies easily - you have more die-outs than with anything else. I grow it for 5 years - and it doesn't want to give me 3 crowns, only 2 and it stays small.

    Some varieties are just less strong than others.

    Irina

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