Saturday JP and I went on a date to the Annual African Violet Society Sale in Osh Kosh........oh my, such beautiful flowers. And where, might you ask are African Violets from.....Africa of course. Violets were found in eastern Africa near the equator in what is now Tanzania. A number of additional species have been found in Tanzania and Kenya, but all were within this fairly small region in Africa that includes several mountain ranges.
In the late 1800's specimens of African violets were found growing in the wild by several individuals. The first person to recognize the value of them was Baron Walter von Saint Paul-Illaire who brought flowers and seeds to Germany for further study. By 1926 a commercial operation in the West Los Angeles area, obtained seed. Armacost and Rouston chose ten of the best new hybrids and introduced them to the American public in the 1930's. Interest soared, and by 1946 (just 54 years after the first violet (Saintpaulia) was discovered) there were enough avid growers and colletors that the African Violet Society of America was founded.
We bought two little plants, Kohleria "Ampallang' Violet toned - red-pink flower with dark green, mottled leaves. Dick, who sold us this one, said it was not a violet but will get many blooms and they will look like little horns. Our second little plant is a miniture "Ballet Blueberry Swirl" double blue and white flowers. We got a cute little pot to keep it in. Maybe in a couple of blogs from now, I will take a picture of it. 
The blue violet is called "Ness's Blueberry Puff"
The blue violet is called "Ness's Blueberry Puff"
The pink flowered violet is "Pink Rose Coral - Optimara Calif. II
The violet with large verigated leaves and maroon flowers is called "Powwow"
The pink with fuscia edges is called "Kev's Heavenly Star"
On our way home we stopped at a truck stop....JP's passion in life, giving tracts, tapes, CD's and bibles out to truckers. We then stopped off at Sandi and Doug's home for a short visit. They live on an island with lots of water around them........gosh, everytime I go there it feels like vacation to me.....I may become addicted to going there alot. Should be a wonderful summer if that is the fact....lol.
All in all we had a wonderful day, something we should do at least once a month.......JP and I have been workaholics most of our lives always doing something, running here and running there....maybe it is time to slow down a bit, at least for the summer.
Have a great day.
3 comments:
These are so pretty. I will guess you have a lot of inspiration for new flowers this week, colors and African Violet flowers.
Louise, the violets and your photos are so beautiful. What a wonderful day you had!
My camera is a Samsung L200 with 10.2 Mega Pixels. I don't know what that means, but there it is. :-) Take care, be blessed.
Happy Mother's Day, my friend.
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