It looks reasonably like it to me. Are the Little Gems supposed to be smaller than the Little Indians?

I have 13 to figure out and some aren't easy. What appeared to be Little Ottawa by the leaves has now gotten a double white blossom. ???? None are supposed to have double white blossoms.

It looks a little like Little Tourmaline but it's so hard to tell colors. (It's just that I'm sitting here with one marked Little Tourmaline but it is definitely toward lavender but not as purple-y as the other two here ("Little Apatite?" and "Little Creek?". Ack!)

Does anyone know what they call those fringe-y extra petals like Little Tourmaline has.

Diana

Optimara field guide lists little coral as 1" miniature, whilst my violet lumps it in with the 2". So, not sure about the supposed size (yet)...

As for double white... Little crystal?

I don't think it's Little Crystal. The leaves are totally wrong for Little Crystal and it was a big plant.

I think I may have Little Crystal too. Its center looks different than Little Arapahoe. Some of these are definitely bigger plants than others but I don't know if I can put them in the Little Indian group or not. Maybe Little Ottawa sported? It's the only one with those leaves.

Hmm, I found the Optimara Field Guide to be confusing too. They seem to have changed colors on some of them totally.

My one matches Little Creek's description exactly except that neither of us consider it to be pink.

Diana

I guess if I'd learn to read, I would have seen that the description of Little Ottawa says "white to pink-purple." I never saw a white one though - until now. It didn't have blossoms when I bought it.

I'm always surprised when people say theirs don't look good. They almost always look better than what I find.

Diana

Oh, reading is hard ;-) and paying attention. Phew, don't start with that! :-p

Diana, I just found this page, listing a lot (all?) o the little jewel series...

Here is a link that might be useful: Little jewels project

Thank you. I had run onto that page, but not so I could find it again on purpose.

So - do you think you have Little Coral? I don't think I do, although one doesn't have blossoms. It seemed like a lot of mine were much the same pinky-purpley color. (Not that Optimara acknowledges such a thing.) Little Coral looks like a nice one.

I had Little Medusa Girl for awhile, but it is straightening up.

Several were easy to identify like Little Cherokee and Little Azurite. I didn't buy Little Oneida but it was an obvious one.

I never realized Optimara expected you to actually read those descriptions ;)

Diana

This post was edited by quimoi on Sat, Jun 21, 14 at 10:24

Well, even if I think it's likely, I do t think likely is enough for the books :-)
I may take it in to the local African violet society, they are really good at IDing even non-optimara plants.

I assume I have little inca, Hopi, Oneida, arapahoe, maya and Aztec, but none were labelled. I bought leaves of little amethyst though, and I think it may have some babies coming up now...
Little azurite is cute, I have yet to see it in decent shape at a place that doesn't include an $8 decorative planter (grrrr)...
Karin

Maya and Oneida were fairly obvious ones (and azurite). I don't think they had Hopi although I would have liked it. Mine said decorative planters (or something) in the email and I thought they'd be expensive but it is just a little plastic cup and the whole thing was under $3. I even saved the pots with the little wick system.

I've never seen minis before so that is why I got so many. I don't expect to keep them all. There are leaves set from Ottawa because they were outsize and I'm trying sphagnum moss. It will be interesting to see if it stays white. It seems like Aztec was an iffy one but it's not blooming now. I used to have Rose Quartz. I wonder why they quit that one?

I have one that may or may not be Little Diamond. Whatever it is lost its tag in the big mess. It wasn't a Lowe's plant.

Diana

Yeah, here they sell them with ugly ceramic pots and they cost some $7.99, whereas at the nursery, they come in the plain plastic for $2.99. I refuse to pay extra for something I don't like. If they had tags with proper ID, maybe, but I am not dropping $8 on a NOID...

I just split up 'little coral' - it had 3 crowns and several small suckers. Maybe I should have picked one with a more single growing habit - but I guess I thought I'd get more plants from it ;-p

Since it was around Mother's Day, I thought they meant teapots or something. Maybe I'd have been farther ahead if they'd been in something like that and I wouldn't have bought them. The one I think is Little Apatite is nice though.

Mine were a mix. They hadn't taken the plastic sleeve off so I guess I couldn't really see them that well. Maya ended up just leaves, although I could have gotten a plant the next time we went. I have two more potted Little Crystals because it was so full. Others were in better shape.

If it's labeled Optimara and obviously one of their varieties, I refuse to say its a noid. Some of them don't look like anything else. Optimara Modesty is a good example.

Some people have tried to say that they might be Anthoflores, but I don't think Optimara has started slapping their name on Anthoflores yet :).

Diana

Optimara certainly works harder on their public relations. I know harster/anthoflores has their greenhouses maybe an hour from where I live, but I can't for the life of me figure out if they're open to the public. Plus, they have no official listing of their varieties since years ago....

I just get confused when a retailer carries both...

I think it could be confusing if a retailer carried both, especially with the single blue and purple ones. I thought I had spied Optimaras at the grocery store, but when I got them home, they didn't seem to fit. They were also labeled "Canada" and turned out to be Harster (a couple looked just like the ones on their webpage).

I even emailed them and asked the name of the one but got no response, which wasn't really a surprise. I don't think I'll keep it unless the sucker performs better than the big plant which was cold-damaged, but I named it "County Market Cerise." If that confuses anyone, they're easily confused :). I don't know if they still have them, but Harster had some that didn't look anything like Optimaras too.

Optimara has really started doing more public outreach in the last few years than previously. They do seem to be trying,.

Diana

i buy the anthoflores because they are the only ones i can find that are "different" (apart from online or trade shows) - i got my first girl leaf plant from there and also my first variegated one. sure, both are NOIDs, but i still like them a lot (sentimental, i know :-p )
today i was itching to get a wasp-looking one, but then realized i didn't actually like the look, but wanted to try crossing it with some of my other AV's... so nope, i didn't get it. yet. (ihavenospaceihavenospaceihavenospace...)

the same store carries the optimara minis, so if i do decide to buy anything there, i double check the labels and research the supplier - there are actually a bunch in this area, which i never knew about... noone mentions the name optimara, but the signature varieties are, well, easily spotted.

If you ask on Facebook, Optimara will answer. They're good about that.

I'm glad that I've gotten my current optimaras from places where they were labeled, but that's not the norm. I just got a Margit today and I'm wondering if it's one I had years ago.

And somebody asked above- I've also heard that the Jewel varieties are smaller than the Indian Girl varieties. The only Jewel I have is Azurite.

Thanks. I was the one asking about the Jewels. I thought they were supposed to be smaller series but you never know with Optimara.

If my plants get to the stage I can photograph them, I will try asking Optimara about any iffy ones. Supposedly Margit isn't in production, but I guess they show up. I got one thinking it might be Kentucky but I don't believe it is. Now it's one of those other ones....???

Karin,

Anthoflores does (or at least did) have some nice varieties. I just haven't seen them here for a long time. I liked A. Rose quite a bit and someone thought my little white one might have been Little Wynn. I lost it and miss it. It was from Canada, like my favorite liitle blue and white one.

I still have a couple of leaves set, but I don't think I'll keep the plain purple one. the other was a blue that looked nice at the store (I got them before I realized they were Anthoflores but the blue had looked nice.) They had a lot of a peachy/white one.

This one is the white one edged with red that is on their website in the planter. (My County Market Cerise)

Diana