Identified!

When my hubby and I moved to California I brought 4 violets, which I gave to my daughter. She already had a couple Primulina (formerly Chirita). She had a yellow one named Hotei and one other. By the time we moved to Wisconsin the violets had died from some sort of fungus because of dampness. I still had my one Optimara Little Rose Quartz and the species Primulina USBRG 98-083. I also ended up with plant my daughter gave me, a bunch of babies from a leaf. I thought they were Hotei. I shared some of the babies with a friend, and also sent her the species. The one baby I kept finally bloomed, not yellow. It took some time ad searching to discover the name. A Primulina Facebook group confirmed the name as Kazu. I always feel a bit sad when I go digging through the past, the time when my daughter was alive. She and I bought plants together and went to meetings together. Together we learned, fought mites and powdery mildew, and transplanted. It was easy because she lived with us at the time. I'm pretty sure Kazu wasn't in my original plant list, most likely one my daughter bought. So, in honor and remembrance of my younger daughter, here is:

Kazu
This cultivar is a hybrid of Primulina linearifolia and P. sinensis latifolia

Been a Long Time

There have been many changes in my life over the past two years, some sad and some very happy. Because I have been so busy, and my house is small with little growing room, I decided to find homes for almost all my violets. I kept four, and a few Chirita, which I understand are now renamed Primulina. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them.

 JoAnne Martinez above and below

 Patina, above, natural light, flash below

 Silver Surfer, below

 Longgangensis blooms, below. This one is almost always in bloom!

 Above and below, Piccolo

 Below, JoAnne Martinez bloom close up

Below, Rachel 

 Below, Kitaguni

Below, Piccolo in another light

 Below, Silver Surfer, this one rarely blooms for me

Diane Marie

Here are a couple bloom studies of Chirita Diane Marie

Sunday morning bloom

Just thought I would share this chirita bloom with you. This is Chirita Destiny.

Bloom Time!

Richter's Green Dawn

Richter's Green Dawn again

Chirita Moonlight

Chirita Diane Marie

Repotting & Chiritas

And more repotting. Gads I hate Miracle Gro potting mix for African Violets. Now, don't get me wrong, it is absolutely fine for other tropical houseplants and for your garden!! But not for gessies (African Violets and other gesneraids). First of all, if you are new at growing violets, the bag says it will fill two 8-inch pots. Please don't think you should grow your violets in 8-inch pots! My friend A :-) has a nice violet care and potting tutorial. You should check it out here:

Read all on one page (start from bottom of page and read up)
Violets

Or read the pages individually:
Plants part 1

Plants part 2

Plants part 3

Restarting a Crown

Consistent Care

Plants part 6

(excellent tutorial A :-) !!)

So...maybe you are wondering why in the world I potted my violets in that stuff and what happened? Well, for one thing, I ran out of potting soil, some of my violets were severely overdue for repotting, and there was a lot of stuff going on and I had no time to order. I used to be able to choose from a couple brands sold locally but now the shelves are COMPLETELY DOMINATED by one brand. So I thought---add some perlite (which I still had from last year---the plain UNFERTILIZED kind).

At first my plants seemed to perk up, but then leaves started to yellow, and some started turning bronze. Well, that's no good. That means the plant's ability to use certain minerals has gone completely catawampus. So they were going to need to come out of that crap fast!! I emailed a violet friend who was able to mail me a big box of >>REAL<< African Violet potting soil. Thank you!!!!!!

I started repotting two days ago (I only do a few at a time). I noticed when I pulled the plants out of the potting mix it was WAAAY too wet. This was even with lots of perlite added (because I wick water). So I am hoping (and expecting) them to start looking better with the new mix, which has NO fertilizer in it and NO wetting agents. (In all fairness, maybe if you are top-watering only and letting the plants almost but not quite dry out before watering again, the Miracle Gro will work for you).

Ok...on to other news. My two Chirita plants are looking happy and healthy. The markings on the leaves are more pronounced and they are already putting out new leaves!! Because Silver Surfer has a long "neck" or stem, I potted it down (lower in the pot). I checked and it is already putting new roots out along the stem!

NOTE---just because this is working with Silver Surfer doesn't mean it will work with all of them. There are many different Chirita.

The rooting leaves are doing fine, except for Kitaguni, which wilted. I just now pulled it out of the pot because I figured I would try making a new cut on the stem, but I saw two baby roots and put it back. So I think it will be ok after all!

I am very interested in Chirita for several reasons, mostly pertaining to their culture. They like a more alkaline environment, which we have a lot of in Indiana (limestone---it makes the water hard, which Chirita like). So I don't need to adjust the pH of my water when I water them. Also, they like to grow very cool in winter (I have trouble keeping my violets warm enough), and they only need to be repotted once a year! Yay! A big plus is they have beautiful leaves. Sometimes it's hard to get them to bloom., but some of them are so pretty they don't need blooms to be admired.

New Babies!

I have never grown Chirita before, so I hope I don't kill them! These were a generous gift from a friend.

Front, left to right---Betty and Silver Surfer

Back, left to right---leaves of Piccolo, gemella and Kitaguni