When crossing and growing various varieties of violets spontaneously or under the influence of mutagens (growth stimulants, other chemicals, radiation, viruses), mutant violets appear, consisting of two types of cells with different structures, they were called 'chimeras'.
The main feature of chimeras is that when they are bred with leaf cuttings or seeds, varietal signs are not transmitted. The attraction of chimeras is that they have a special color of flowers, and sometimes leaves. Most often it is a characteristic strip from the center of the flower to the tip of the petal or along the entire leaf.
There are 2 and 3-color chimeras with different flower shapes. For example, the main color of the petal is white or light pink, and the strip along the petal is saturated blue, blue or raspberry, in addition, along the edge of the petal there may also be spraying in the form of strokes or dots of blue - fentazi. In reverse chimeras, on the contrary, the longitudinal strip is white or lighter. The longitudinal pattern is not always a sign of chimera violets, some varieties only look similar, but some chimeras have an unusual, but usually fantastically beautiful color of the petals.
Chimeras of commercial varieties that are sold in flower shops have a number of positive qualities: they bloom very abundantly and for a long time with a bouquet, i.e. above a symmetrical beautiful rosette of leaves, a "cap" is formed from a large number of non-large flowers. With good care, after a short rest, new peduncles appear. These are two-tone varieties of chimera violets: 'Mandy' (white stars with a blue stripe), 'Monique' (white 'pansies' with a blue stripe), 'Amanda' (pink stars with a crimson stripe), 'Tineke' (simple pink with a blue stripe), 'Myrte' (fringed white with a crimson stripe)
Caring for adult chimera violets does not differ from caring for ordinary varieties, but it is desirable to maintain the acidity of the soil no more than 7.5 because when it is snapped (watered with hard water, untimely transplantation), the plant ages quickly, and breeding young specimens may be difficult.
You can breed chimeras with stepsons. To form them, you need to pinch the growth point or cut the top, if the violet is old, wait until the stepson has at least four leaves, then carefully break it out with your fingers or cut it off with a knife and then root it in the greenhouse. If, after pinching, two or three growth points are formed, then you can leave one, and drop the rest after growing, the violet will restore symmetry. On too old specimens, stepsons grow very poorly, take root worse.
Another way to breed chimeras is with peduncles. It is necessary to carefully remove all the buds, trying not to damage the two small leaves under them (not all varieties have these leaves developed). Next, you need to wait until the leaves grow up, and the peduncle gets stronger (a month or more), then the peduncle is broken out, shortened with a sharp blade, rooted like a leaf. Children retaining varietal signs will begin to grow from the sinuses of two leaves left.
When propagated by leaf cuttings, very beautiful variants with different petal colors can be obtained. So, from the chimera of the variety 'Myrte', you can get violets with white fringed flowers with a bright crimson eye in the center or crimson fringed with a white spot in the center of the petal. Flowers, however, are small, but abundant bouquet flowering. Chimeras are always more expensive than regular varieties, but by purchasing one variety, you get the opportunity to grow beautiful new sports options.
When rooting leaves, stepsons, I often use growth stimulants. Chimera mutants were obtained twice, but, unfortunately, their flowers did not differ from the 'Tineke' variety. Try, maybe you will be more lucky and new varieties of chimera will appear.
The author of the article Rusinova T. A.
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