What Is It?
What is it about these plants that look like little roses and have variegated leaves. I love them so much. They are definitely my favs. And now I'm just finding out about a new sport of Rose Bouquet??? It's called Cosmic Snowball! Is this one? I don't know.
I started off growing Rose Bouquet a couple of years ago and then wanted the sport of her called Watermelon Snow. So I figured if I grew a gazillion RBs from leaves then I might spontaneously get one or more WS babies so I patiently waited through 2 growth cycles and then I got the opportunity to just buy a WS... so I caved and that's what I did.
I couldn't wait any longer for one. So then I put down more leaves of RB and WS and this spring I got some more WS babies and some look almost white. People kept asking me about them.
Then I run across a post leading me to Dave's BlueMountainViolets post on RB that says it has two sports, one called Watermelon Snow and a white version called Cosmic Snowball.
The problem with identifying them is that you have to wait until they bloom and go through at least one or two bloom cycles to see if they are going to revert back before you can actually label them correctly.
And, they are not easy to grow. They are slow and picky but I seem to be having lots of luck with them myself. I've seen them on ebay with the bidding going for upward from $30 to $100 a plant. SHEEWWW! My conscience won't let me take advantage of people like that, but since I'm still trying to cultivate them, I may be selling leaves and some plants of RB only.
I can't sell the plantlets until they bloom so I'll know what I have. And I need stock plants to propagate them more so I have a boat load of Rose Bouquet babies hoping some will be Watermelon Snows.
I'm running out of room! If a sport propagates true for three generations then it is said to be stable. But - sports can revert back to the original sometimes. So you never really know what you might get with sport leaves. ou can grow anything you want really, like a science experiment. Some may revert back to the parent plant but some may be highly unusual too. Personally, I don't mind the highly unusual ones but I don't register, hybridize or show my plants. There are no clubs around me. I am just a hobbyist and a grower.
So now I'm excited to maybe produce another sport of Rose Bouquet some day. That being said, I have not seen one called Cosmic Snowball that didn't look like a paler version of WS. I have not seen one that is all white flowered with no pink eye. So until you see a Cosmic Snowball registered sport of RB with the AVSA (African Violet Society of America), it might just be wishful thinking - although plants can have more than one registered sport.
So if you do grow babies from Watermelon Snow leaves, you might get a bunch like the top picture and you might get some that are pinker too. You never know when you propagate a sport leaf what you are going to get. I got a bunch of very pale ones, not quite white but paler than light pink and I love them! I have fun growing them all!
I started off growing Rose Bouquet a couple of years ago and then wanted the sport of her called Watermelon Snow. So I figured if I grew a gazillion RBs from leaves then I might spontaneously get one or more WS babies so I patiently waited through 2 growth cycles and then I got the opportunity to just buy a WS... so I caved and that's what I did.
I couldn't wait any longer for one. So then I put down more leaves of RB and WS and this spring I got some more WS babies and some look almost white. People kept asking me about them.
Then I run across a post leading me to Dave's BlueMountainViolets post on RB that says it has two sports, one called Watermelon Snow and a white version called Cosmic Snowball.
The problem with identifying them is that you have to wait until they bloom and go through at least one or two bloom cycles to see if they are going to revert back before you can actually label them correctly.
And, they are not easy to grow. They are slow and picky but I seem to be having lots of luck with them myself. I've seen them on ebay with the bidding going for upward from $30 to $100 a plant. SHEEWWW! My conscience won't let me take advantage of people like that, but since I'm still trying to cultivate them, I may be selling leaves and some plants of RB only.
I can't sell the plantlets until they bloom so I'll know what I have. And I need stock plants to propagate them more so I have a boat load of Rose Bouquet babies hoping some will be Watermelon Snows.
I'm running out of room! If a sport propagates true for three generations then it is said to be stable. But - sports can revert back to the original sometimes. So you never really know what you might get with sport leaves. ou can grow anything you want really, like a science experiment. Some may revert back to the parent plant but some may be highly unusual too. Personally, I don't mind the highly unusual ones but I don't register, hybridize or show my plants. There are no clubs around me. I am just a hobbyist and a grower.
So now I'm excited to maybe produce another sport of Rose Bouquet some day. That being said, I have not seen one called Cosmic Snowball that didn't look like a paler version of WS. I have not seen one that is all white flowered with no pink eye. So until you see a Cosmic Snowball registered sport of RB with the AVSA (African Violet Society of America), it might just be wishful thinking - although plants can have more than one registered sport.
So if you do grow babies from Watermelon Snow leaves, you might get a bunch like the top picture and you might get some that are pinker too. You never know when you propagate a sport leaf what you are going to get. I got a bunch of very pale ones, not quite white but paler than light pink and I love them! I have fun growing them all!
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