Wow, Sue!

What nice looking plants you have! The Red Buttons you sent me is going to bloom any day now! It only has one set of blooms, but I'm excited anyway!

As I understand it, Red Buttons and Royal Hawaiian Purple can have similar flowers. I know when new foilage appears on RB the leaves are red and on RHP they're purple/violet and have more silver markings than on RB. On the plant you gave me, two leaves look like a very dark red/maroon color. Sorry I can't give you a proper ID! Just wanted to share.

Brad AKA Moonwolf

Brad, I'm sure you got the right one P.B.
Now, I will be begging Jan for a cutting from her P.B.
sue

Chimera and Red Buttons are listed separately on Violet Barn as of right now. Maybe it is something they did more recently? As I understand it, Red Buttons is its own thing, whereas Chimera and RHP are the same thing. My Chimera is years away from blooming, so I won't be able to compare flowers anytime soon, but I do know that the new growth on mine is dark purple, almost black, with silvery streaks. They take a while to finally grow into its mature leaf color, so I get to enjoy these lovely colored bronze-y leaves for a good long time.

Your Red Buttons is a wonderful large size, Sue! My Chimera is about one thousandth of that size. About 2 inches tall and 7 leaves. It hasn't hit a growth spurt yet this season. I'm hoping it decides to soon!

Thanks you quinnfyre, on the label when I bought is Chimera, so now I'm sure my plant is not Red buttons. Since I got the little cutting, about 5 years. I cut only 2 times this year for trade. I got more than 12 peduncles this year, beautiful flowers, really enjoyed it.
sue

Sue....magnificent plants and flowers....you surely have a "green thumb"!! Fondly, Patrick

Sue, your plants look gorgeous. Agree with Patrick, you surely have that "green thumb".

Xuan

Sue, what a gorgeous plants! you do have green thumb!
RHP,2 different color clooms. A friend in Hawaii said it's due to sugar content.

Thanks Patrick, Xuan, Jan.
NO, I 'm only have a brown thumb!! ..LOL
Jan, your P. RB make me jealous, I loved it, can't say more.
sue

Jan, flowers has 2 colors, but RHP, their leaves has a lot of speckles.
I just checked the leaves of my plant, leaves has very little of speckle, young leaves are dark purple.
I'm confusing now, as Quinnfyre described, I think I will keep the name, "Chimera" the original name.
What do ya think?

The plant you sent me has very dark maroon new growth. The mature leaves have very few speckles. Whatever the name is, it is really starting to grow fast!

I always thought that Chimera was the name given to variety that has bicolor spotted or splashed corollas. The leaves of the plant may be very similar to Royal Hawaiian Purple but the flowers strange characteristic is what the plant was named for.

Mike