Tulsa, Oklahoma was the site of the 62nd Annual Convention Show of the African Violet Society  of America.  The theme of this year's show being "Get Your Violet Kicks on Route 66!". 

Bill Price, of Vancouver flew to the convention, bringing two plants with him--and both were big winners!  At left is his Best in Show entry, as well as Best Species saintpaulia in show, with S. tongwensis #3397 Upsala clone.  This was a spectacular plant that was very worthy of the award--one of the best we've seen.  It's certain that this species never looked this good in the wild of Africa! 

At right is Bill's other entry, Gesneria acaulis 'Pink Flamingo', which won Best Other Gesneriad (ameteur) in Show. 

We (the Violet Barn) were big winners in many ways this year.  Besides our own entries, many of our hybrids appeared on the Court of Honor as winners for other exhibitors. 

'Rob's Combustible Pigeon', for example was a multiple winner--winning both Best New Cultivar for ourselves as well as Best Semiminiature in Show for Beverly Williams.  Our exhibit of this plant is shown at far left.  2nd from left is 'Rob's Chilly Willy', awarded the Best Miniature in Show, for Catherine Thompson.  3rd from left is 'Rob's Boondoggle', winner of Commercial Horticulture Best in Show, for Catherine's brother, David Thompson!  Finally, at far right is our entry of 'Rob's Suicidal Squirrel', which won 3rd Best New Cultivar.  Both 'Rob's Combustible Pigeon' and 'Rob's Suicidal Squirrel', were taken from our winning Commercial Display table which featured a total of 45 our our plants, mostly newer hybrids of the last few years.

Another of our plants appearing on the Court of Honor was Columnea 'Lava Flow', entered by Olive, and winner of Best Commercial Other Gesneriad in Show. 

At center is 'Lonestar Lady', a hybrid and entry of Richard Nicholas, and the Best new Amateur cultivar.  At right is the 2nd Best in Show entry of Catherine Thompson's, 'Annabelle'.    Both Richard and Catherine had a number of other beautiful plants entered in the show and both are former Best in Show winners themselves.

Of course there was design too!  Here's a sampling of some of the nice ones.

At far left is BJ Ohme's Best in Design entry of 'Oklahoma is OK!', a plant arrangement that was simply beautiful and a real favorite of everyone at the show.

Olive had a few entries in design, including the Best in Class exhibits shown 2nd and 4th from left, 'Welcome to Route 66' (her interpretation of Al Copone) and 'A Wildcatter's Dream', a "mirrored" design placed on opposite sides of a picture frame.   A couple of other notable entries are Mel Grice's interpretation of 'Take Me Back to Tulsa', shown 2nd from right and the 2nd Best in Design entry of Paul Kroll's, shown at far left, 'Santa Monica Pier'.

We also had our usual table in the sales area, and will again at next year's convention in Reno, Nevada (yes, that's a 2,500 mile drive...one way, for us).  Plan on coming to the show, if you can, and stop and say hello.