Currently blooming on my light stand is this little miniature chimera Rob's Fo Fum.
For those of you out there who aren't familiar, chimera African violets are extra special. They are characterized by the distinctive pinwheel striped pattern, which is très cool. But what really makes them extra special is that they can't be propagated true from a leaf like a regular African violet. Sure you can put a leaf down and get a plant, but it will just have plain flowers, not the très cool pinwheel stripes. To get it to propagate true from the mother plant you have to wait around for a sucker to form and pluck that off, or you can chop off the crown and make a buncha suckers form and try to separate them out, or you can try planting a bloomstalk, OR you can use my super easy method which I will show you in an upcoming video, so stay tuned for that!
I should probably remove the flowers and buds off this guy and do some grooming/leaf removal to try and make it into a show plant for the big AVSA National Convention in May, but I kinda just wanna have some flowers to enjoy right now. Then again, I kinda messed up while repotting stuff last week and took things down WAY too far and I'm afraid they won't grow fast enough for May.. So I dunno. Maybe I will chop off these flowers tomorrow. It's really hard tying to grow for show.
For those of you out there who aren't familiar, chimera African violets are extra special. They are characterized by the distinctive pinwheel striped pattern, which is très cool. But what really makes them extra special is that they can't be propagated true from a leaf like a regular African violet. Sure you can put a leaf down and get a plant, but it will just have plain flowers, not the très cool pinwheel stripes. To get it to propagate true from the mother plant you have to wait around for a sucker to form and pluck that off, or you can chop off the crown and make a buncha suckers form and try to separate them out, or you can try planting a bloomstalk, OR you can use my super easy method which I will show you in an upcoming video, so stay tuned for that!
I should probably remove the flowers and buds off this guy and do some grooming/leaf removal to try and make it into a show plant for the big AVSA National Convention in May, but I kinda just wanna have some flowers to enjoy right now. Then again, I kinda messed up while repotting stuff last week and took things down WAY too far and I'm afraid they won't grow fast enough for May.. So I dunno. Maybe I will chop off these flowers tomorrow. It's really hard tying to grow for show.
You can plant the bloomstalks?
ReplyDeleteYeah, but I've never had ANY luck with it. They always just turn floppy and then dry up OR turn to mush. Either way, they're dead.
ReplyDeleteMy method is also a bloomstalk propagation that uses Keiki Grow Plus (which is a hormone that induces suckering), but there's no scary planting of bloomstalks involved.
So I declare my easy method is much better.
I made the vid yesterday, and I just wanna make sure it "took" before I post it (I hate to post any kinda false advertising)
I can now say I met a show girl :)
ReplyDeleteI like African violets too much to have them in my little shop of horrors. They'd get about the same care as my 'chickens'.
note:
do follow Stuart's advise. You'll get nowhere on Blotanical unless you play that game. It's time consuming but you'll find some good people there. I'm not a player but I do hang out there at times to discover new blogs and 'friends'.
Hi wiseacre!! Haha yeah, showgirl! *swings tassles*
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for all your tips! Looking forward to making friends there.
I've enjoyed looking through your blog. What a cute little African violet Rob's Fo Fum is.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Crafty! :-)
ReplyDeleteReally nice flower. I like the color so much, but never seen the real plant. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThank you Orchid de dangau, love your blog, those pics of your orchids make me drool!
ReplyDeleteYou really are a violet expert. I am sure to learn a lot from you. I see from your blogroll that there are many others like you. I am a mere violet hobbyist, one with quite a few violets though. As for Blotanical, to be successful with it, you have to participate. I have a friend, an expert in roses, that does not participate, and I think already she lost her Blotanical viewers. And it is too bad because her blog is a fabulous wealth of info and gorgeous images.
ReplyDeletegardenwalkgardentalk.com I'm so glad to hear you enjoy African violets!! Hope you'll follow my blog :-) I do plan to utilize blotanical as much as possible, it's great to get a taste of all the different garden "flavors" there!
ReplyDelete