My name is Hector Wong, and I hold a degree in Liberal Arts, Biology, and Information Systems. I figure to start this article with my credentials, because talking about Saintpaulia Ancestry has always been a bumpy road.

I have being growing African violets since I was 16, when I started college as a student in agronomy, and I just happen to bump into a local AVSA affiliate magazine and, as most of us had, became speechless-impressed with the show plants and flower colors. At 17, I entered my first plant show, and won a blue rosette, a few best in class cards, and more blue ribbons that I could count. I learned everything from the AVSA magazine. Vivid in my mind remains color photos of Barbara Sisk’s hybrids of Spanish Moss, as well as the many catalogs in the mail from African violet hybridizers.

My lifelong attention to African violets has sparked an interest in genetics, African violet genetics. It is a concept far unexplored, back when I was 16. To me, I always felt it was the works of genetics, for the explanation how do a violet colored flower can have just about any other color or color combination after hybridization.

In 1990, I started tinkering about the idea to find the parentage of African violets. At that time, no-one could understand what I was talking about.

In 2000, I re-started the idea. At that time, I had 10 hybridizer who liked the idea, and about 20 whom did not. The internet helped communications.

In 2013, I re-re-started the idea. At this time, I had 20 hybridizers who liked the idea, and 5 whom did not. The internet is now a pretty amazing communication tool.

Some of the strongest arguments that discouraged the ancestry project are:

1- Secrecy.

2- Lost of records.

3- Many awesome violets are sports or crosses from unknown parents.

4- Crosses are impossible to duplicate.

5- There would be very little benefits.

Some of the support to the ancestry project are:

1- There are more hybridizers.

2- Better record keeping tools are in existence.

3- Many awesome violets are the product of years of hybridizers targeted crosses.

4- Knowing the parentage prevents creating duplicate hybridizing work.

5- The benefits are small, but as more records are posted, the benefits increase.

Please contact your favorite hybridizer and ask he/she if they would like to share their parentage records. I can be contacted by email at hectorgesneriads@gmail.com

The following hybridizers are part of the ancestry project:

Brownlie, John

Burdick, Doug

Clements, Tony

Dates, Jim

Elkin, Barbara.

Hajner, Kathy

Hancock, Pat

Hill, Joan

Hoover, Darryl

Jackson, Jeff

Lambert, Yvonne.

Lebetskaia, Elena

McDonald, George

Pilon, Francine

Repkina, Svetlana

Robinson, Olive Ma

Robinson, Ralph

Rollins, David

Senk, David

Smith, Jeff

Stork, Kent

Toth, Linda (Hungary)

The Saintpaulia Ancestry Project can be found at: https://saintpauliaancestry.wordpress.com