January and February are busy times in the plant room. All of the plants need to be repotted, fluorescent bulbs need to be changes, reservoirs cleaned and shelves wiped down. My least favorite chores is disbudding. There is always the chance that I will break a leaf or poke a hole with the tweezers.

 So, without further ado, here is a little tour of my plants stands 12 weeks before show.  I take photos of my plants once a week. It costs nothing to do this with a digital camera, and I have a record of what the plants looked like, how fast they grew and when they started to bloom.  Since I will be ripping off those blossoms right there in the show room, I also like having pictures of what the stands look like in full bloom.

Ma's Debutante

It's time for summer repotting. All the the minis, semis and standards are finished.  The trailers will be done this week.  Here are some photos before the plants were disbudded and broken down.






Ma's Debutante is a very reliable grower and bloomer. The leaves can bruise easily when they are heavily variegated, so take care when repotting this one.
Jersey Rose Trail is another cute trailer hybridized by Bob Kurzynski. Time to pot this one from a 3 inch to a 4 inch pot.

Jersey Rose Trail

Trail Along, a micro mini trailer

A leaf from Buckeye Colossal, a Large standard, with my hand for reference. This plant was about 22 inches across when I broke it down.

A summer update..a few in bloom

One of my least favorite chores is disblooming/disbudding plants. This mountain of flowers is the result of after-show precautions. It's a sad thing, but it is for the best. Thrips love to hitch a ride home after a show, so always disbud before you bring your plants in. I did this operation in my garage.

Funny Face - a chimera

Rob's Kitten Kaboodle - a semimini

Jersey Rose Trail

Celtic Rose - semimini

Carousel Pony - a min trailer

Ten days to show......

I am a little ambivalent about this year's show, because it falls on the same day as my daughter's college graduation.  As a proud mom, I must be with my girl on her big day.  But the plants didn't seem to know that so I will do my best to get my plants to the show.  Getting them home will be the real challenge.

I am growing one very large standard in a 6 inch pot.  Not sure I would grow many plants this large.  They take up a lot of room and and not easy to get to show.  

My largest standard

My smallest mini

7 weeks to show!

I have been so busy this winter spring with home remodeling and business travel.  But the violets have gotten some attention and they are all disbudded and getting ready to strut their stuff. 
Here's a tour of my plant stands this spring.

Buckeye and Jolly leaves w/babies

I never get tired of seeing leaves take root and sprout babies.  Here are the leaves I planted in November, right before Thanksgiving.  I hope to start potting them up in a month or so.  A few leaves have yet to show any mouse-ears and some are just getting started.  Now where will I put all of these new plants?

Here are a few plants in bloom this week.  Most of my plants are disbudded to get ready for show.  But before I played Mortia Adams and snipped off all the flowers, I snapped some pictures.

A couple of shelves of new plants.  All have bloomed true.

Little Seagull

Celtic Rose

Rob's Twinkle Blue

Jersey Rose Trail

Frosty Cherry