Hi From Nancy's

Well here I am at Nancy's! I snapped this pic to show you just a few of her ribbons and rosettes--Yes, she has way more than this, crazy right? I tried to get her to be in the pic, but she was being fussy about her lack of makeup and hairstyling. :-p

Packing.. Or, I Should Be!

Well I mean really, my suitcase is never really UNpacked since I'm always going back & forth to Lenny's, usually it's just in this half-packed state.

But I really need to get it totally packed, because tomorrow I am going to Connecticut for 2 weeks to stay with my dear friend Nancy Hayes.

Wednesday (the 6th) we're going to Lyndon Lyon Greenhouses!

Then Saturday (April 9th) is her club (Windsor African Violet Society)'s African violet show!

Then the weekend after that (April 16th & 17th) is the Bay State African Violet Society's show at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, which Lenny will come up for, as we have a job of photographing all the beautiful show plants! (I'm also hoping that I'll have a plant to enter.. Cross your fingers!)

So I've got a busy and exciting next 2 weeks in my African violet world! PLEASE let me know if you will be at either of the shows I'm going to, I'd love to say hi!

Wick Watering African Violets

Tired of watering your African violets all the time? Wick watering is perfect for the lazy people out there like me!

Results of Last Month's Poll

The question for last month (March) was: "Are you a member of AVSA (African Violet Society of America)?"

Wow, a lot of AVSA members! And some non-members, some maybe-soon members. Then even some who never heard of AVSA--Hope they learned about it!

For those of you who aren't members and especially for those who are thinking about joining, don't forget I am now sending FREE* LEAVES to anyone who joins AVSA and lists me as their referral. Just check out the Fuzzy Foliage AVSA Promotion post for more information!


(*$5 postage. I mean come on, I'm not rich!)

The new poll question for this month is: "Are you attending the 2011 AVSA National Convention next month?"
I know I sure am! This year it's in Cherry Hill, New Jersey and it's gonna be a BLAST! It doesn't come to the Northeast very often, so this is pretty major to have it so close! Seriously, if you can go you really should, even if it's just for a day to check out the showroom and salesroom. Even better would be to register and go for the most important days (Thursday, Friday, & Saturday) where you can go to presentations, and be there for the opening of the sales and show rooms. It's amazing being around so many people who share our hobby in one place. And you get to see plants from some of the top growers in the country! Not to mention, lots of beautiful plants from all the top vendors for sale. If you can scrape up some money and go, you won't regret it--I promise!

Starting From A *Broken* Leaf

Remember my video on starting African violets from leaves?

Well, sometimes a leaf snaps off a plant by accident and you're left with a tiny stem, or no stem at all--Do you just toss it? You don't have to! With just a few slices, you can start it like any other leaf.



Happy propagating!

PS: I know I said I would make a video showing how to set up wick watering in March. Well, I didn't get to it yet and March is over at midnight tonight. I promise to post it in April!

CJAVS "Awful Violet Show" 2011

Back on the 8th of March, the program for our Central Jersey African Violet Society meeting was an "Awful Violet Show". I was gonna post about it the very next day, but I ended up in the hospital getting my gallbladder out instead, and then I had a buncha complications that kept me there for a while, and then I was at Lenny's recovering for a while, and then we were busy going to Violet Gallery--But NOW I am finally back home and getting around to showing you the fun we had that night at our club meeting! (All images can be enlarged by clicking on 'em)

Here is our group of regulars! From left to right: Maria, Grace, Jan Murasko, David Tooker, George McDonald, Ruth-Ann, Anthony, Dean, and Lenny Winter. (I'm behind my phone taking the pic, of course)

Here is the show schedule. Jan Murasko did such an awesome job writing it! The parts with our names we had to read out loud, and it was hard for everyone to do without cracking up!

 Wow look at those sad plants! Asymmetrical variegated one, really sad trailer, a long necked palm tree leaning outta the cup, and a weird reaching thing in the back!

 More sad plants! Weird leaves, too much variegation, spent blossoms, rooted chirita leaves that never make babies, crazy "leggy" leafed plant, tiny plants with missing crowns, and something else I cut off in the pic--Oops!

 It's not all just for laughs and shocked looks, during "judging", we all learn what it is about the plant that would keep it from making a good show entry (or even just keep it from performing its best on our shelves) Here, Jan shows us a plant with a bit of a neck and some weird leaves that aren't laying properly which is ruining the symmetry. George McDonald looks horrified!

 Here, Lenny is showing us just how sad his trailer entry really is, and gives us some insight as to how it got that way. (Can you say, "Neglect"?)

 Here, Jan shows us a plant that has many spent (dead, brown) blossoms on it. Look at the restraint it's taking for her not to groom it--Oh wait, I think she is grooming it! It's hard for us African violet lovers not to groom.

And here we have the top show losers winners! They're hiding their faces, but I can tell you Lenny won bottom top honors with "Worst In Show", Ruth Ann won "Also Really Bad", and Jan won "Best Palm Tree"!

I love our club! I STRONGLY suggest finding out if there is an African violet club near you, and if there is go check them out! You can look up clubs by regions on this page of the AVSA site.

Micro Sinningias March 2011

So, I came home from a few weeks at Lenny's and was both delighted and also disappointed when I looked at my micro sinningias. Mostly delighted, read on...

First, I was delighted because Sinningia muscicola (formerly named "Rio Das Padres") had not one, but THREE ripe seed pods which I picked off and put aside for a post I'll do later about sowing seeds. Oh and in addition to those 3 that were all ripe and ready, there are another 3 that are fresh, fat, and green that look like they'll be ready within a coupla weeks. Does this thing ever have a flower that doesn't self-pollinate? I'm starting to think not.

Then second, I was disappointed with what used to be my beautiful little glass globe full of Sinningia pusilla. What the heck happened?? This is how it looks after I plucked off all the rotting leaves. There was also some weird algea stuff growing on the surface of the potting mix, which I tried to scrape off as best I could. But in the end I was left with these straggly, bleached/pink mottled leaves, what a sad sight!

 What is going on here? The foliage used to be so lush and green!

But third, back to delighted because speaking of pusilla, check out how big those babies that I separated have become!

Serious growth! Remember how tiny they were not so long ago?

Lastly, I was even more delighted when I saw my 'Wood Nymph' bursting with blooms! Three of them I had to pick off because they were turning brown, but I was left with these five which isn't bad at all! Two are a bit distorted in shape because they were kinda stuck under foliage and I had to work them out with tweezers. Is that common? Also, there's a seed pod! I haven't had a seed pod on 'Wood Nymph' yet, so YAY! (Yeah I know there's also 2 non-seed pod spent stem thingies that I need to remove, I just didn't get to 'em yet haha)

Oooh, flowery!

So that's what's happening with my "weeds"! Hope I can get that sad thing of pusilla happy again so that it'll be complete delight around here--If you have any tips, lemme know!

Video Of Violet Gallery Visit

(I'm actually posting this on April 22nd, but it's from March 23rd so I'm back dating the entry...OoooOOoooh the trickery!)

Adventures At Violet Gallery!

Not much to say, so I'll just post a buncha pics. I'm sure you're all ok with that, aren't you?
Oh but yes, I am wearing my slippers while signing for my purchases. Nothing like rolling outta bed and shopping for African violets!

Hello From Violet Gallery!

Oops, meant to post this hours ago but we got to talking (and talking and talking and talking) and now it's time for bed!

Tomorrow we'll be taking more pics, I promise!

Meanwhile check out Violet Gallery's website: www.violetgallery.com
(you'll have to copy & paste it, this stupid official Blogger app doesn't lemme do cool things like make links or anything... and it shrinks all my pics down, too. Anyone know a better blogging app for Droid?)