I'm remembering what Optimara said about Rita. It is similar to Millennia except the flowers tend to be semi double to double. The leaves can have a rose flush on the reverse; Millennia does not. This does sound like Rita; I believe the only other red thumbprint type with semidouble to double flowers is Gisele. There are several pictures of Rita on Optimara's Facebook page if that is available to you.

Terri

I think it must be R. Rita. It certainly isn't Millennia although neither has a rose flush on the back. Maybe Rita will develop it later.

This isn't the only one they where they show a description that says "single" but show semidoubles on their page. Tennessee II is like that also.

Thank you. If I keep it, maybe I will thin those flowers. That is really too many. Of course, I think 4" flowers are too big so I shouldn't fuss about smaller ones, should I?

Diana

Some months back I picked up an Optimara I immediately identified as Rita by its frilly flowers & round leaves. It looked identical to pics on Facebook. I placed it under lights and the leaves began to change shape but they did indeed have a rose backing. Too much light! At the same time, I was growing two other similar Optimaras of which I was uncertain of ids. Looking back, they may have all been Ritas warped by the light. I kept the crown of the one and eliminated the others.

I understand Rita was developed in Germany under cool and quite shady conditions. I like a lot of the Optimaras, but they have trouble growing to their potential in this house because natural light is limited and so many other plants are competing for the space!

Terri

It's hard to say about the newer Optimaras, but the older ones weren't meant for lights. They were intended to be window plants. Maybe the end of the light? I used to grow some right beside the actual light, come to think of it. (Modesty and Romance). The light didn't cover the whole shelf so there was the tray and they were in front of the tray.

This was in a really old AVSA magazine (and I've discarded it), but there was an article by Mr. Holtkamp Sr. explaining this and what their lighting preference was. Of course, they've done much hybridizing since then and all I can do is try them and see what happens.

That's interesting about Rita. I never have them look like they come from the Optimara greenhouse but the ones I keep grow well enough to please me. I just lost a leaf on Rita and she'd been doing fine but maybe we'd had the door open and the draft got her. OTOH, O. Romance was fussy for me and collapsed a couple of times in the summer heat so I quit growing that one.

(I have bona fide leaves of Millennia so I can see the leaf difference. I should have thought of that, although there are so many others and it's hard to judge the colors sometimes.)

Diana

Terri interesting to know that some were grown in Germany.
Diana, when you get rid of plants you don't like, do you give them away?

This post was edited by fortyseven on Thu, Jun 12, 14 at 17:46

I live in a very rural isolated area so I don't have anyone to give them to. I just toss them.

Diana