Tuesday, October 18, 2011

First Baby plantlet

So after only 24 days here it is the first plantlet in my violet collection.

Princess Jade

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sakerr/6257522768/in/photostream

posted by Steve @ 6:43 AM 0 Comments

Saturday, October 15, 2011

TAVS sponsored Judges course

So, my local violet group hosted a judges course today, which I decided to audit, It is based on the AVSA Handbook for Growers, Exhibitors and Judges, and is a course you need to take to become an AVSA judge. I definitely recommend taking the course if you ever get the chance. It gave me a lot of insight into the way plants are judged in a show, I also learned a couple tricks that I will keep firmly up my sleeves.

I will say this Judges are not afraid to speak their minds, especially not in a room full of judges... I think I would have cried if they talked about my plants that way, ok not really but Judges definitely have to be firm on their decisions. I think it sounded so harsh because the plants were not actually groomed for a show, our own clubs show not being until the spring, but also because they didn't want perfect plants so that those writing the exam could actually practice taking off points and so that we could see as many faults as possible.

One of the plants there was Senk's Long Legs, and while explaining the plant Sayeh, it's grower accidentally snapped off one of the leaves. Happy Accident for me as it now is sitting in a rooting pot on my stand, along with a couple leaves of Lakeshore Silver given to me by Doris Brownlie a wonderful Lady, her husband John is the hybridizer for the Aca's and Lakeshore series.

Our clubs meeting is this coming tuesday and we are picking up project plants, and I get a new member package with what, more leaves ahh yippee. Definetly a violet overload week coming up so I am pretty excited.

Well to make a long story short, I definitely recommend writing your AVSA judges exam if you get the chance, it is a great way to meet more violetors, (be careful typing that made up word out spellcheck changes it into something quite different) as when you are a judge you get invited to other clubs events to be a judge.

All you need to write your exam is an AVSA number (your number obviously) and proof that you have one three avsa blue ribbons, two of which have to be in the regular violet classes, aka not designs or special containers. You also have to grow 25 plants, I think only 10 have to be registered, but come on who isn't growing 25 different violets.

The more the merrier I always say so keep your ear to the ground and become an AVSA judge the next time the opportunity comes by.

Steve

file://localhost/Users/Kerr/Downloads/P1040922small.jpg

posted by Steve @ 3:25 PM 0 Comments

Friday, October 14, 2011

ebay auctions

Belinda is doing an auction of some very nice looking plants right now, including a couple of her own hybrids.

I would participate but live north of the border.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/cajunladyb/m.html?hash=item4cfadb39b0&item=330626185648&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&_trksid=p4340.l2562

posted by Steve @ 4:53 PM 0 Comments

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Leaf propagation

I tried rooting a violet leaf in water, after it had been down in a leaf pot for a week it looked like it was under extreme stress in comparison with the other leaves that I had put down, so I took a risk and dug it up to find some rot creeping up the petiole quite merrily, eek. So I removed all of the rot, and placed the leaf in water, a method I had never used before and it rooted, and it only took 5 days, wow, after asking some other people what they do with these water rooted leaves, I decided to throw the leaf in question in soil, so that it could form actual soil and not water roots, hopefully it is good to go now, here is a pic of the rootlets forming just before I set it in soil, they were three times longer than 12 hours earlier, this leaf means business now...


http://www.flickr.com/photos/sakerr/6241310340/sizes/m/in/photostream/


Also someone mentioned that you should remove the tips of the leaves so that they quit growing, and also because the injury releases hormones in the leaf for healing that aid in the callus formation. I took one of these leaf tips from frozen in time and wanted to see how much of a leaf you really need to root a plantlet.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/sakerr/6241309130/sizes/m/in/photostream/


Since I already know that the mother leaf is rooted I decided to excavate this leaf tip to see if it was doing anything, because it certainly hasn't rotted or dried up and it has been in the soil since about the 25th of September, lo and behold it had roots, but it had also rotted up from the main vein in a semi-circle about half the size of my pinky finger nail, somehow the plant had combatted this rot and callused and rooted anyhow.


I wonder if many people out there have experienced this before with leaves starting to rot and yet rooting and providing plant lets anyways.




posted by Steve @ 10:46 AM 0 Comments

Tuesday, October 04, 2011

The Have List

Barring any unforeseen complications this is my list of varieties, some plantlets and some leaves,and some in the mail ha ha talk about counting chickens before they hatch. If you know of any peachy violets or violets with strong yellow, or orangy markings let me know.

1Denver Doll

2Lyon's Bunny Hop

3Little Bo Peep

4Mini Minx

5Little Lizzy

6Tiny Wood Trail

7Baby Brian

8Jolly Orchard

9Lil Bit o'Irish

10Little Ruby

11Lollipop

12Lucky lass

13Mac's Willow the Wisp

14Morgan's Barossa

15Morgan's Enchantment

16Morgan's fool's Thin air

17Skagit Tiny Limelight

18Smitten Kitten

19Morgan's Pu-yi

20Morgan's Juniper

21Pacific Pearl

22Ramblin Lassie

23Chantaspring

24Blushing Trail

25smoldering pink

26Rob's Shadow Magic

27Ozio

28Decelle's Julie Belle

29Princess Jade

30Trinket Terrific

31Tongwensis, upsala clone

32Frosty Spring

33Rob's Antique Rose

34Monet

35Midnight Treasure

36Green Dragon

37Genetic Blush

38Anthoflores Little Axel

39Norton's Elaine

40Sumira

41Tipsy

42Neptune

43happy Harold

44Aca's Red Ember

45Rob's Zoot Suit

46Jersey girl Trail

47Little Chippery Trail

48Rob's Delicious

49Rob's June Bug

50Rob's Knickers

51Rob's Seduction

52Rob's Whiz bang

53Warm Sunshine

54Candlelight romance

55Ness' Cranberry swirl

56Smokey moon

57lakeshore Silver

58 S. Ionantha clone

59 Comfort Zone

60...

posted by Steve @ 8:48 AM 2 Comments