About 2 years ago my collection was devastated by a fungus. Of those that survived was a single Ford’s Pinwheel (J. Ford). So I repotted and it grew. It grew like none of the other chimera African violets. Frankly, it did not bloom but sent out suckers like you would not believe. I never saw anything like it. I had over a dozen suckers in 2 months and I started to wonder if the suckers would be true to the parent. The suckers just kept coming instead of the blooms and I just kept repotting them. Finally, the parent plant started blooming as well as the suckers. All the suckers were totally true to the parent plant. In fact, the blooms were large and as chimera African violet blooms do, they will over time fade with age. This is not the case with Ford’s Pinwheel blooms. The blooms actually darken with time as is evident on the image below. The bloom to the right bottom is the oldest (over one month and is the darkest while the youngest (front and center bloom) is the youngest and lightest. I now have an abundance of healthy, blooming true Ford’s Pinwheels ready to be given as gifts, for trading, and for sale come this spring. On this image, I went out of my way with the lighting to make sure I captured the true color and I believe I captured that.
