Wednesday, April 9, 2008

More Blooming Av's!

As I promised, here are more pic's of the Av's that are blooming for me right now. I left 3 out because I don't find them to be the nicest ones.....they are kind of plain. I also have duplicates of a few.


The Av in the above pic has bloomed for me once before, a couple months ago. It is one of my favorites. The Av in the pic below has flowered for me before as well. Again, one of my fav's.


The pic below is a new bloomer for me. The flowers instantly got my attention, especially since some of them are pure white, and others have some purple in them. I have never seen this occurrence before in Av's. It has a really unique look to it with the different colored flowers.


Below is a pic of my only "named" Av: Very Berry. The flowers on this one are almost wax-like. Even though I love the flowers on this one, I don't really like it's foliage. The leaves are quite long and it seems to be a large Av, rather than a standard or mini.


The pic below is one of my favorites as well. I just love the fantasy markings and the way it sparkles. This one makes me think Chimera because of the stripes of purple it has. Only one of the flowers on this Av is open, which makes me really curious about the other flowers. Will they have the stripe as well? Of course I am also going to take a leaf from this one, and see what blooms.


And last but not least is another one of my favorites. These flowers are quite large, close to an inch in diameter. This one has variegated leaves as well, which make it quite beautiful even if there are no flowers. Notice in the pic below that the Av on the left has semi double flowers. The flower in the middle is also semi double. The flower on the right is single, only 5 petals. I think it is so cool to see such variations on the same plant.


Up until a couple years ago I had no interest in Av's. I didn't even think they were that pretty. I am not a fan of fuzzy or hairy leaves. I had heard that they required special care, and could be a little tricky to grow. So I had to try it out, I had to know how hard they were to grow. I had to know what people saw in this plant. Well now I love Av's, still not a fan of the fuzzy leaves, but the flowers are so pretty. I always seem to have a few of them that are in flowering mode. Now I can't imagine not growing them. I am such a sucker....lol.

4 comments:

Iowa Gardening Woman said...

I'm with you, I can not imagine not having AV, they remind me of my Grandmother and Aunts who are long gone but their windowsills were always filled with AV. Great photos.

kate said...

AVs have such pretty flowers... I haven't grown any for such a long time. I don't know why really, except that I rarely ever see them here.

I'm glad you are back ... I was getting worried!

Aiyana said...

I really like the colors on the first three the best. They are stunning.
Aiyana

Tracy said...

I am just fascinated with AV's. They are so easy to care for, and you can't go wrong with them, they are always blooming. I really do enjoy seeing their flowers in the middle of winter, when outside is just a sea of white snow.