Connecting

Does anyone know of some really good African violet/ gesneriad blogs and sites? I just thought it would be nice to get a blog roll going or something to make it easier to find blogs related to the subject. And maybe get a little shameless self promotion going in the process?




Just because the post looks rather empty without a photo. Here's a photo of Butterfly Bombshell. Enjoy!

And here's another with it's offspring. Well okay not exactly this plant's offspring. This one is a 2nd gen leaf clone from the original that I used.  But that one I'm in process of restarting from a crown cutting. There's not much to see there.

IDK how that green bar got in the photo. Appears to be a  glitch in photoshop when I opened the file and resized it. Just ignore it.

That plant is however the seed parent plant of a seedpod waiting and ready to be planted ( x Ness Fantasy Gold)

Seedling Update

Long time between overdue posts, I know. I've been too busy doing stuff rather than posting about it.

Anyways my seedlings have really grown. I've taken photos just about every week, but to save time, I'll just post the most recently taken, which are already a few days old.

C batch just before separating. (B28 x self). 

I picked my current favorite. It is now given it's #, which will be my shorthand way of labeling it as long as I own the variety. That will also be how I refer to it in most of my posts. This one is #4. The 4th one planted out of 14.

I deliberately made my favorite the 4th because both my A and B batch showed some awesome foliage with their #4. I'm just keeping up with the "tradition".








 

Aww. Aint that the cutest little thing?

D batch. (R. Stephanie x Ness Fantasy Gold).  

 

Not much behind the C batch in growth.  So far I'm not that impressed with the leaves. I prefer serrated or scalloped over plain flat edges. I'm hoping as they mature I'll see more shape to the leaves. These have all been divided up and given their own containers and numbers. There are exactly 28 of them so far. Correction 42 of them. I forgot to count the 3rd tray.



E batch. (B26 x Woodland Sprite).

Yikes. Too many. Too many.  I estimate at least 250 have sprouted. Out of those I'm probably nearing 230-240 living plants from that seedpod. It seems for every one I kill by accident, I find another new one sprouting. I sure hope I don't have to pot up 240 plants....

Just for whatever, I took 14 of them, not necessary the first 14 or any favorites, just 14 big ones that couldn't be fit in containers and planted them. So Now 14 of the E batch have their numbers.

Round appears to be the dominant leaf shape.  I'm curious to see what species traits I will end up seeing. Growth wise, the majority of them are at about the same stage as the D batch. They seem to be fast growers.

It goes to show that a week later doesn't make a whole lot of difference. At this point onward the growth rate will be about the same as any baby plants taken from leaf cuttings.

D batch fully divided with 14 of the E batch about to be picked.

African Violet Art

The MN Av Club is looking for more funds and I am looking for ways to finance.....my hobby, I mean help pay the rent, keep me alive besides my day job, lol.

An idea is born. AV art.  I want it to be original. One of my friends happened to have some polyamer clay stored in his house. (fimo, premo, kato, and scupty III)

That got me started on a project. I made some molds by casting some of my African violet leaves (very carefully!). It took a few tries, but eventually I got a few good castings with minimal breakage showing on the mold.

Then the clay:  I like to mix things. Probably a bad Idea, Idk.  I mixed together a bunch of transparent clays; kato, fimo, and cernit and mixed in watercolor paint to give pigment.  With that as a base color, I pressed the clay into the molds. Some will be painted using acrylic and watercolor blends (sealed of course) and some covered with embossing powder ( thanks to Layl McDill for the suggestion!)


These are what resulted:

Top left and clockwise: clay base unpainted, opaque embossing powder, (2 leaves) painted with watercolor and sealed, 3rd leaf: same process, made to look like the reverse side, left leaf: pearl embossing powder.

These are magnets. Some will be made into broaches. More to come for the fall show in October. if that goes well, there will be some more available to buy at the HarMar Mall show next year.

How many seeds are in an African violet pod?

I'm really curious.

I just divided up my E batch. There was a lot.

I had this.

Divided them up and spaced them out.

There still wasn't room to fit them all.

I lost count at 225. There still looked like a good 20 more at least. Add to that, I found many day 1 sprouts. What a tangled mess to sort through.

I mangled their roots trying to get them separated. The poor things. I'm not sure all 225 + will make it.  And I am not sure I want them all to either.  What will I do with them all?  Fortunately for this batch, there shouldn't be a whole lot of interesting to make it worth saving every. damn. one.

I'll have to cross the bridge when it comes. Future plans involve either giving away a lot or possibly exposing them to some kind of pathogen and see what (if any) survives.  Granted I ended up overwatering the tray, I may get to see this early.  Hopefully not.  I'm leaving the container open to let the excess water evaporate.