Welcome to my blog! I plan to blog about all things African violet and related to that end. I hope you will find it interesting, and maybe even learn something new. More importantly, I hope to learn from you, so please feel free to add your comments, critiques, and criticisms at the bottom of the page. Thanks for visiting TheFranklinhouse!

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December 31 , 2010

Happy New Year everyone!!! I hope everyone has a healthy, happy and prosperous new year. And, be safe as you party out the old year and ring in the new year. For this special New Year's Eve post I have just the pictures for you. My 'Lyon's June Bug,' growing completely in water, is blooming! If you have been reading my previous posts, you have seen me de-crown this plant, put it in water, let it root, and then just let it grow. Now, it is blooming. For me, it's the first time I have seen a plant grown and blooming only in water. Granted it's not a heavy bloom, but then again I have never put any food in with the water either. No telling what would happen if I did. Are there any rules about showing a plant growing in water? I wonder.

As I was discussing this bloom with my friend Amy, she very cavalierly said, "why wouldn't it bloom, it has a full root system and it is essentially pot-bound, everything is telling this plant to bloom." I'm not sure if she's a genius or a buzz-kill. (Love ya' Amy) But she was right, and here it is.

December 25 , 2010

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season. I know I have. This was not the post intended for today, but I had another surprise this Christmas morning I want to share with you. Among the many wonderful presents I was blessed to receive this year, I went up to my plant stand and there was a beautiful brand new open bloom on 'Ness' Blue Velvet'! I swear I did not see this coming, as I was intentionally keeping this one disbudded for show. But, the foliage is so curly that often times a bloom stalk slips by me. This must be what happened, and there was that happy face looking up at me this morning. Another unusual thing about this bloom stalk slipping by me is that this plant usually sends up the bloom stalks first, then the buds take forever to open. Once the buds are above the foliage, it has taken up to ten days for the flowers to open. That's why I was so surprised to see this flower, and another one even that was hiding tucked under the foliage. I think this was meant to be my Christmas surprise because of the unusual circumstances for this plant.

Look at the blossom! It is gorgeous and unfortunately the camera loses the deep, dark blue color, that really does look like velvet. What you can see is the deeper star of color in the middle of the flower, that gives this blossom such depth and richness. Also, you can see the strong, clear Geneva edge, What a stunner. I hope all of you had a brighter day today looking at your beautiful violets, and their happy blooming faces.

December 20 , 2010

Season's greetings! As you know, I grow primarily miniatures and semiminiatures, because of my room limitations. But, there are a few standards that I just can't live without. One of my all-time favorites is 'Ness' Blue Velvet'. It has a super curly leaf — very ruffled. Some don't like this because it may seem difficult to shape into a nice rosette, but Ness' Blue Velvet shapes up beautifully all by itself. Here's a picture of my 'Ness' Blue Velvet' without any blooms. I am growing it for show and I hope to have it about 12" to 16" by June, so that should be no problem. It's already about 9" to 10", and I've only had it in a 3½" pot for about a month or two. Now it's already ready to be repotted. See how it looks. In one picture, you can see it by itself. In the next picture, you can see it compared to 'Dean's Bunny Blue'. 'Ness' Blue Velvet' gets a gorgeous dark true blue flower with a crisp white edge. It has even deeper blue in the middle of the flowers giving the blossom real depth. If a bloom slips by me, I'll take a picture for you before I snip it off. In the meantime, I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season.

December 14 , 2010

As promised, now is the time to reveal my favorite "new" plant. And again, let me explain what I mean as new, which means new to me, a plant that I have never grown before. This would be 'Jolly Jubilee', a Hortense Pittman hybrid. This is the first bloom on this plant, and as you can see, it's already plentiful. The flowers are striking. They are a deep purple color, very rich. The foliage is heavily variegated, which makes a bold statement underneath the bright blooms. It forms a beautiful rosette, as you can see from the pictures. Even pre-groomed, it's a beautiful plant. So there you go, a favorite oldie and a favorite newbie. I offer 'Dean's Bunny Blue' for sale on my web-site, but you won't find 'Jolly Jubilee' there because I have not shown the plant yet. However, that won't stop me from sending out leaves as bonus leaves with orders!

Next post I'm going to show you one of my all-time favorite standards. Make sure to check back. In the meantime, I hope you are all enjoying the Holiday season. Stay warm!

December 10 , 2010

Hello folks! I wanted to share with you one of my all-time favorite semiminiatures. I gave you a peek of it when I showed you a picture of my plant stand last post. Here it is... 'Dean's Bunny Blue'! As you can see, it is the most beautiful soft periwinkle blue, a true light blue, and it just gets tons of blooms. The pictures of this plant are pre-groomed, but it would be a great plant for show. It holds its variegation in whatever weather I grow it in. It shapes up nicely into a beautiful rosette all by itself, and it holds the bloom. What more can you ask from a show plant? In my next post I'll show you my favorite "new" plant, so make sure to check back!

December 6 , 2010

Hello there fellow violet lovers. Today I am showing you a look onto my plant stands. There you will see, among all of the poor plants that need to be separated and re-planted, are two very special plants. One is a new favorite. I am so excited about this plant because from a little baby it just shaped up by itself and the first bloom is phenomenal. I can't tell you more right now because that would give it away too quickly, and I am going to play a little guessing game with you. The other very special plant is one of my all time favorite oldie semiminis that I will reveal to you. This one is a must for any collection, and its foliage and bloom combination make it, and my favorite newbie, real stunners. Can you guess which plant is which?

Click on either image to see a larger photo.

December 2 , 2010

Happy December everyone! If you look back on my post from October 29, 2010, you will see that I started a crown in water. That crown is now fully rooted, and normally I would have already potted this into seed starter. If you look at the top view picture, it doesn’t look very different from a plant grown in soil and grown under lights. In the next picture, you can see that it is completely rooted in the water. But, here’s the surprise! In the last picture, you can see I got quite a surprise when I saw that the plant was budding and getting ready to bloom. Can you believe it? Now part of me wants to see what would happen if I left this plant in the water, and got a blooming African violet growing only in water! I don’t know about you folks, but I think this is too cool. But the other part of me — the part that says I need this plant for show — wants me to disbud it and get it into soil as soon as possible if I want a chance at all of being able to show it. Any opinions out there? I could sure use them.

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