Question
I have an african violet that I have had for 22 years.  An elder lady gave this violet to me that she had been raising for several years prior.  I was wondering if you anyone can identify the name of the violet if a photo was sent?

Answer
Hello:

At the African Violet Society of America the organization has a database of almost 15,000 plants.  Many look very similar.  I have over 200 varieties of African violet standards (large plants) and over 100 semi miniature or miniature plants (little 8 inch plants)as a collector.  

This is just to say that is would be very difficult to find the exact match to your plant.  

Even the same plant with the same name will look different in your house that it does in mine because we don't have the same growing conditions.

I grow mine under lights, you probably grow yours with natural light.  I may feed mine with a bloom booster where you may feed your with a fertilizer that helps the foliage and makes it greener.  I may have 65% humidity in my plant room while yours is much lower.

All this make the same plant with the same name look different.  Blue is not always blue.  

Hot temperatures can decrease the amount of white in a plant so mine might have more white when there are two colors because I live up north.

So many of these factors are involved with plants and how they can change hues of a color.

Send your photo to [email protected] and I will check it for you.  It is very possible if it was purchased in a store or nursery that it is an Optimara plant since this company sells millions of different African violets without the name tag.

Optimara plants are bred to grow well in natural light and that is what most people grow them with.  But most of their plants look very similar, with dark green quilted foliage so foliage will be hard to identify.  

Nevertheless I will look in the database and tell you some of the names that look similar to your plant.  Please send a picture of the foliage as well as of the flowers so I can have a better chance.

The likelihood of finding the name of this plant is not great.
But I can tell you what it looks like from pictures on the database.

Also, you can go to www.avsa.org and look at pictures there.  There must be about 500 photos but you have to look at them by choosing a name.

You could always name if after the person who gave it to you.

Nancy