Best Mini - OMG!

Wow wow wow I won Best Mini at the Windsor AVS show!!! It's my highest award yet, I'm totally flipping out!!!

Squeeeeeee--I grew that!!

If you're near the Windsor CT area come check out the show tomorrow! We've got a ton of LLG plants for sale!!!

Setting Up The Show...

Getting everything in place for the Windsor African Violet Society's annual show, which will be judged tomorrow morning and then open to the public on Saturday.
Doreen is doing entries, I'm doing classifications, and everyone else gets to do the worst part: Placement (then rearranging, then placement, then rearranging some more.) Eff that!
Entries & classifications is where it's at, suckaaaaaaz!

I entered 5 plants. I woulda had better luck entering what I grabbed at LLG yesterday, but I had witnesses that knew I got them yesterday, so I couldn't pull it off.

April 2014 Visit To Lyndon Lyon Greenhouses!

Yay!! Pics from my visit to Lyndon Lyon Greenhouses! (As usual. click pics to biggerize)

My buddy Rocky was like, stuck on me!
I walked around wearing him like a fancy purring stole for like 20 minutes.

Some of the new 2014 LLG intros!!

Instant Attraction

Free Falling

No Regrets

Hawaiian Cloud

Geyser of Color

Twinkle Twirl

Brother's Bond

Brother's Bond again, 'cos lookit the size of that flower!

High Expecations

Circus Fascination

Irish Lassie

Sister's Secrets

Here's a buncha pics from around the greenhouses. What a sight it was, everything was in FULL BLOOM!! Hard to capture in pics, waaaaaay better in-person. If you ever get a chance to go visit, DO IT!

Bipolar Plant™ needs to take its meds!

Me & Paul--HAI ERRYONE!!

Aaaaaaand one more Rocky snuggle pic, just for good measure.

And I know you're all wondering what I got while I was there...

I left a couple plants there, I swear... 

Hope you all enjoyed this virtual visit!!

Note: This is a back-dated entry, I actually went three weeks ago, but I've been busy preparing my life for upcoming scary surgeries on my GirlyBits™ in a coupla weeks, and then convention a coupla weeks after that. I'm really sorry for not getting it up sooner. But at least I finally did!

Guess Where I Went Today.....

Here's a hint: I snapped this selfie while I was ALL ALONE in the special back room.... 

"Hay, Sorano--All your chimeras are belong to meeeeee!"

Yep, yep. Had a great visit to Lyndon Lyon Greenhouses today.

You'll have to wait a few days for all the pics I took, I'm having myself a VERY busy violet week! 

THEM'S SOME BIG 'OL PLANTS!!

SORRY FOR ALL CAPS BUT HOLY SMOKES, THESE ARE HUUUUUUGE!!!

You might remember last August when I visited Lyndon Lyon Greenhouses, Paul Sorano pushed some huge azz plants on me I got my first standard sized African violets. It's been quite a learning experience! Here are the two of the biggest now (click pics to biggerize)..

This one is a bit over 11" at the biggest part,  HOLY CRAP MAN!
Yes, I know I need to remove some outer damaged leaves and then it will be smaller.

It's pretteh.

And this one is a little over 10".
If it gets more flowers, and the leaves relax & go a bit flatter, I *might* have a showplant here.

It is also pretteh.

So yeah, WOW MAN! They sure do take up a lotta room, but the show they're putting on for me is kinda worth it.

Plants Plants Plants 3.22.14

OMG OMG OMG OMG GUESS WHAT!? noID #2 is blooming! What is noID #2? And who cares? It's the 2nd African violet I ever bought (just a week or two after noID #1, back in Feb of '07) and here's the kicker--It's NEVER ONCE bloomed for me in 7 years. Sure it had a flower or two when I bought it, but never again have I seen it do anything but sucker. Ok it's not that exciting. But it kinda is. To me. Shut up.

Here it is! noID #2. Are you over it? Ok.

 So here's what's currently happening on other areas of my plant stand:

The standards are nice & flowery.
I'm sure I won't get them to a show (even if I could manage to time the flowering, I don't drive, so transporting them would be nearly impossible) it's ok--I'm still having fun with these and learning new things. And I've got a ton more to learn, so good.

Untamed Heart is pretteh. That flower is gigantic!
Like, I have full grown plants smaller than that hahaha

Micro sinnies. Let's keep it bloomin', guys!
*wishwishwish*

Last but not least, this little guy is still hanging in there...Will it still look cute 3 weeks from now for the Windsor African Violet Club's show in Connecticut? Who knows? 

So that's what's happening here. How are your plants doing? What shows are you looking forward to attending this spring season? Get at me, bruh!

Plants Plants Plants 3.12.14

Blah blah blah, I haven't updated for a while, yadda yadda yadda.

Ok now that that's outta the way, remember that time I was trying to grow showplants but I disbudded them way too long? Well, guess what.. One month from today there's a show I want to enter, and it seems I've gone in the opposite direction by stopping the disbudding too early. GAHD! Will I ever manage grow a really good African violet for a show??

Well anyways, here's the haps around my shelves at the moment. Click to biggerize!

Top shelf - Quarantine dome and standards. You'd think by now I'd let the quarantine patients out into the gen pop, but I'm still to skurrd. And I haven't heard any complaints from them. Out of the five standards on the top shelf, the four that mighta made acceptable showplants have at least 1 open flower each. Thinking they'll be all bloomed out by the show date. (Please just avert your eyes from that scraggly thing in the middle, I dropped it on the floor a month ago and have been too lazy to repot it.)

2nd shelf down - Misc things in domes. We'll come back to that one awesome one in the middle toward the end of this post. Thinking no good show candidates here, two of the micro sinnies are blooming great, but there's no way they'll be doing that a month from now. 

3rd shelf down - Sinny dome and misc African violets. Couple of really nice chimeras blooming nicely, or least just about to. But the foliage is kinda unruly from neglect, so I can forget showing those, too. Also, ignore that one standard in the front it's terrible and it's all my fault haha!

Bottom shelf - Minis & semis. I have a tiny shred of hope for the one in the back left corner, and maybe a couple others. Commence crossing fingers, eyes, legs, and bewbz!

Ok, I told you we'd come back to that one awesome one from the 2nd shelf down. THIS one makes me squeal with both delight and sorrow. How cute would that have been on a show table?? Ahhh, man. Oh well, at least I can enjoy it all by myself in the kitchen and show it off to people reading my blog, right?

I gotta say while I may not have anything worth a toss to enter, I am completely looking forward to the show! It'll be the first one for me of 2014, and if you're in New England maybe you'd like to come check it out. It's the Windsor African Violet Society Annual Show & Sale and it's one day only--April 12th from 8:30am until 12:30pm at 311 Broad St, Windsor, Connecticut 06095. Come check it out if you can! 

Happy Anniversary To Me

Today is the first day of February, and basically my 7th anniversary in the African violet hobby. (I don't remember the exact date)

Three outta four plants in my "quarantine zone" tray are blooming for me, so I took off the cover to show them off. The two in front are "noID #1", my very first African violet that got me into this hobby 7 years ago this month. On the right is 1.0--the original one I bought, and left is 1.2--the one I propagated way back when so I'd have insurance.

Back right is Cherry Princess, back left is "noID #2", the 2nd African Violet I ever bought. After the original flowers went by, it's never again bloomed for me. I still can't bear to toss since it was bought the same week as noID 1.0.

These four are the only ones I saved (in quarantine of course) from The Great Infestation of 2013. I'm still too paranoid to let them out among my other plants. They seem happy enough confined in there anyways! Well except stupid noID #2. If that thing ever makes a flower I'm pretty sure I'll let out a very audible squeal.

Finally, I made something cool (muscicola x Li'l Georgie)

Sorry I haven't been really chatty lately. Stuff.

Anyhooz, the first seedling on my muscicola x Li'l Georgie cross opened today, and it's pretty neat. I've never seen a micro with this kinda patterning, so I'm thinking it might be pretty special if it's stable. Now I'm crossing my fingers, legs, toes, eyes, and bewbz just for good measure.

Will try and get better pics tomorrow. EDIT 1.14.14: Sorry I just got around to it 2 days later, and the blossom wasn't as fresh so the pics didn't come out awesome at all. The cel phone pics were better. There's another bud on the plant tho, so give it a few weeks and we'll see if I can capture that one faster!

Well hello there..

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Awesome Video Alert - Lyndon Lyon Greenhouses!

My awesome best friend Shea (who is really like a brother to me) aka Fat Sheamus Productions finished editing the video we shot when we went to Lyndon Lyon Greenhouses back in August!! YAY--enjoy!