I haven't grown them in quite a few years, but it sounds like you are doing all the right things. They bloom so beautifully, don't they?

Here's a link to the African Violet Forums FAQ which might help with additional information.

Do you know you can start another plant from that one by cutting off a leaf with a sharp knife and putting the stem in water?

Good luck with the plant.

Here is a link that might be useful: AV FAQ

I have been growing AVs since I was 8 years old... I never understood why people have a problem growing them, but I notice that most people simply don't water them enough!

I'm assuming that you were given a healthy potted plant that doesn't need any immediate attention. You can try your bath location and see how it does, but since you're new to AVs you might not understand whatever changes you might see. Can you post a pic of the plant?

For references, I'll post a pic of my oldest AV -- my mother and grandmother gave it to me when my great-grandmother died because they wanted to make sure it survived. It's called Strawberry Shortcake and I've had it for more than 40 years. :)

One thing that I do with all of mine is only use water that has been sitting out for about a week, never water right out of the faucet. The water sitting out allows some of the additives to dissipate. I have to be careful when I put them in the windows because they can get sun damage quickly. I use a good quality African violet food.

edit to say I don't mean everyone needs to let the water sit out but we have a LOT of chlorine in our water, one reason I use filters and bottled water. Everyone's water out of the faucet will be different hence our methods will be different.(I only do this for my African Violets)
I do not feed with every watering, and all of mine are in the ceramic African Violet pots, a friend gave the pots to me but I am not sure how much I like them.

This post was edited by ravencajun on Wed, Apr 30, 14 at 15:03

Party_ music50- That is a gorgeous plant!!! I don't know how to post a pic. I don't know what color the flowers are on my plant. It was just leaves when I got it almost a year ago. How often should I be watering the plant??? I have been letting it completely let it dry out.Then I soak it, not getting water on the leaves. I never let water stand in its excess water.

Ravencajun-From now on I will use filtered water that has been in the container for a day or two. How often should I be feeding it? What is the name of your favorite AV food?? I didn't put it in the windowsill, I put it in a corner of the tub. It will be getting no direct sunlight as the window is 4' by 4" of glass bricks.

Laura, in order for your a.v. to bloom, it needs strong, indirect light and a very weak watering of fertilizer water with each watering - 1/4 tsp. fertilizer to a quart of warm water.

Can you suggest the brand name of a good fertilizer?

I do not use filtered water and I do not let my water sit out for any amount of time to let chlorine or any other additives dissipate. It is not true that you need exact light requirements for your AVs to bloom... if that were the case, my dozens and dozens of AV plants would not be blooming on every table and windowsill in my house. You also do not need to use weak fertilizer with each watering for your AVs to bloom, and you definitely do not need to use "african violet potting mix"! Those are all the "rules" that you will be given if you visit the AV forum, and I think it explains why people manage to kill AVs so easily. I'd tell you what I do, but it's clear that everyone else will tell you I'm doing it all wrong. Sorry to have bothered.

Yes, gorgeous strawberry shortcake plant!

laura, have you seen african violet pots? They're the bomb. They make sure you have enough water all the time. Once I got one, I finally was able to keep mine growing and looking healthy. Might help?

Here is a link that might be useful: self watering african violet pot

Party, what a stunning plant. I wish you would post more pictures. Makes me want to start growing AV's again. Or go out and buy the ingredients for strawberry shortcake! LOL

Don't be miffed because everyone doesn't agree with you. There are many different successful ways to grow AV's depending on the community's water, home humidity, plant placement, etc. That's why they are such wonderful houseplants, they are easy to grow and tolerate different types of care. Keep growing!

Hi, Laura! Lol, you've already found out that there are many methods to growing AVs successfully. I think that you should visit the AV Forum just to read...not only the FAQ section, but the primary forum. Pick out the thread titles that sounds pertinent to you and just read. You'll gain knowledge.

If you've had your violet for over a year and it hasn't flowered, then something isn't right....lack of sufficient light is the usual culprit, but it could be lack of fertilizer or any combination of things.

'Bone dry' isn't good if the leaves actually begin to wilt during that time. I'm also one who has never worried about the water. Gosh, all those years of watering many thousands of plants growing in my greenhouses straight out of the hose!

There isn't a 'best' fertilizer. It might be easier for you to use a product especially formulated for AVs. Doesn't matter if it's a powder or a concentrated liquid. Be sure that the product has a full listing of macro and micro nutrients, which will be on the label.

I'm not a personal fan of fertilizing with each watering, especially when using the typical peat based potting medium. Of course, best to read and follow the directions on your product.

I sure agree about never using an AV potting mix! Yikes...pure mucky, sedge peat.

I'll bet that the light over your aunt's kitchen window was fluorescent. Plants can survive under those lights for years, even flowering and producing fruit. Those of us who start their annuals and veggie plants inside from seed rely on fluorescent lighting. So, it's not surprising that this plant did so well. Did it flower for her?

I stopped with AVs a long time ago after cyclamen mites were introduced into my collection. Arghh!

haha! yeah, it's a touchy subject with me... too many pundits and I feel like Rodney Dangerfield. ;o)

I just grabbed some of my AVs that were in the north-facing and south-facing windows closest to the table where I took this pic. Nothing phoney, I just grabbed the closest AVs and didn't even deadhead or remove the cat hair. lol! This is a mere fraction of my AV plants and they love me as much as I love them, I guess. Tons more blooms all around the house. Odd, I never realized it, but I don't have an east-facing window that I can use for AVs! cheers, everyone! :)

This post was edited by party_music50 on Wed, Apr 30, 14 at 10:26

I have 15 various African Violets, all blooming well. I've found that light is the absolute key. All of mine sit near windows - I found that if I moved them even a few inches away they would fail to bloom. I feed them every time I water.

Sometimes violet trunks will grow long and leggy and become in danger of breaking off. You can cut off the trunk, scrape the outer layer off until the core is exposed and then plant the trunk stem back into a small pot. It may take several weeks, but the trunk will regrow and your plant will probably grow straight instead of sideways.

I've done this with a couple of plants that grew sideways, or the trunks split into two and one was in danger of breaking off. That's why I have some plants that are duplicates. But most are different varieties and colors.

You can also propagate violets by cutting a leaf and planting it securely in a small pot. Violets like to be root bound, so avoid planting cuttings in big pots. Start small and move to larger pots as the plant grows.

This post was edited by tally on Wed, Apr 30, 14 at 10:15

Partymusic, pretty pictures! I'll add one of mine in one window. The one in the back on the left is the same as your Strawberry Shortcake.

One of my favorites:

OMG, tally, I think we have some duplicates! My mom had the thumbprint one at front-and-center, but she doesn't grow them well without my help and she lost it. Such a pretty one. Your back right looks like Mississippi. I still have Fenja from Optimara and according to their website they haven't had it for about 15 years!

Your shelf is great! I begged my BIL to make me a shelf system for my plants with some nice thick glass sheets I had obtained. It's in a small room with just a south-facing window, so dark there now, but you get a bit of the idea... It's 3 levels, all with glass shelves, and it sits back a bit from the window. Every AV/plant nut needs something with glass shelves to maximize their space! :)

tally, our posts crossed in the ether... I love your favorite! it looks a lot like two of mine, but I may be seeing an untrue blue/purple screen color. I pretty much love them all so have real trouble saying I have any favorites. Here's a really pretty thumbprint called Marina:

This post was edited by party_music50 on Wed, Apr 30, 14 at 11:10

I have grown African Violets on and off for 30 plus years. Once, my cat got mad and stepped on every plant, sending them to the floor. I have also killed them with over-feeding and over-watering. I do find they take a long time (months) to adjust when you move them, but they can handle almost any kind of light. Whoops, I killed one placing it inside a glass vivarium and then placing near a sunny window-it baked /boiled to death!

Just a quick note---I had a AV in Calif and it was in my kitchen window, facing north. That is good light, but no direct light. Not sure about a bathroom--maybe too much moisture. I like a fertilizer that is made by Miracle Grow for African violets. My was in a plastic bottle that I could just measure the drops into a container. I used filtered water, but the water was from natural springs--because we lived in the mountains. It bloomed frequently, never have I tried them here in ND. I wish you the best.

I have never had any luck with AV's until now. I purchased one from Lowes and it has bloomed like crazy. I feed with each watering, water from the bottom (that is what MIL advised) and have it in an east window.

How do you know when it is time to repot?

BTW everyone's pics are gorgeous.

Sid

Tally, the more I look at your favorite AV pic, the more I'm convinced it's the same one my sister gave me from my niece's funeral in 2006. :( :( :( :( :( It's one that I especially like too. Do you know its name? Is it an Optimara AV? She gave me all the plants she received at the funeral, but they were all just potted by the local florists with no plant IDs at all.

Sid, I'm so happy you're having luck with your new AV!

There is a really good website -- Rachel's -- where she shows all about care and repotting and propagation of AVs, etc. OMG, in searching for it I see that Rachel has passed, but the website is still in tact. Here's a link and all the different topics she addressed are near the bottom of the page. I've never read her entire site, but what I did read and see was generally very good advice.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rachel's Reflections on AVs

This post was edited by party_music50 on Wed, Apr 30, 14 at 11:32

Party and Tally, are you sure you two don't live in a greenhouse somewhere??? LOL LOL I have never seen that many beautiful, blooming african violets in someone's home!

I have 4 current ones that I haven't killed yet. One went to AV heaven this morning.

The survivors are in a north facing window, no curtain. The green parts are looking pretty good, but no flowers currently. I have a south window with a lace curtain. Would that be better for them? Curtain or no curtain??

I would rather learn from you guys.

I don't know the name of any of them, except the one you identified. I just find the ones I like at the nursery and bring them home. The tags don't identify names. I also have the one you posted above, in 3 colors - blue, pink and purple. The pink one is in the back right side of my photo.

The glass these particular ones are sitting on isn't a special shelf - it's just a glass console table I have sitting in the front window of my living room. I have my violets around many windows, facing in all directions. It's interesting to watch them bloom at different times depending on how much sunlight they get at different times of the year. If they don't do well in one spot, I move them to another. It's mostly trial and error.

When I first started growing violets we had the old 1940's single pane windows. When we replaced our windows with double pane ultra violet filtered ones, I had to make some adjustments in locations.

Marie - the Miracle Grow for violets is what I use as well, with water straight from the tap.

Sidnee, I rarely repot as violets really like to be root bound. However if I've grown from a cutting or replanted a trunk I will not repot until the plant is flourishing, preferably blooming and the leaves are growing out over the edges of the existing pot. This can take months, maybe even a year.

Party-check your email please. I just found out from my Aunt that my AV is purple when it blooms, if it ever blooms. I will get some Miracle Gro this weekend.. My Aunt told me that she thinks putting it in the bathroom is a good idea....

But please keep the ideas and facts coming....

The pundits say that an AV will not bloom until its roots touch the sides of its pot. I know from experience that the plants will stay smaller if you keep them in smaller pots -- sort of a bonsai effect. That's how I'm able to have so many AV plants... I keep the majority in 2 1/2" diameter pots! :)

When I fertilize, I use regular Miracle Gro plant food. I don't fertilize every time I water... and probably fertilize less than 20% of the time. I use about 1/4 tsp MG in a gallon of water.

I prefer to use Pro-Mix potting mix when I can find it, if not I buy the best potting mix available and then lighten it by adding perlite and vermiculite if it needs that too. I use only plastic pots with drainage holes on the bottom. I never use a "pot liner" that completely encloses the pot, nor foil-wrapped pots, because I think it encourages anaerobic conditions and the AVs never do well.

I water with water that's fresh from the tap because I think that water temperature is most important! I like it to be slightly warm to the touch (maybe 80F?). The best way to know if an AV needs water is to touch its leaves.... I water when the leaves start to get soft/limp. I avoid letting water sit in the pot.

For light/windows, I use whatever I have and will move plants around occasionally. Some, like my variegated AVs, actually do better in a south-facing window. Some like it better with far less light, so those go into my north-facing windows. Since I grow tons of all kinds of plants (indoors and out), and also give away dozens of violet plants a year, I also have some grow-light setups that I use too.

One tip that most people don't know: an AV plant requires a normal dark cycle to bloom. I knew someone who kept her AVs under a plant light that was on 100% of the time and they never bloomed until I told her to turn off the light at night. :)

The Rachel's site I posted the link for above is really great for repotting tips and propagating tips!

I have trouble finding good pots for my AVs!!! Can anyone tell me where I can find good 3" diameter round plastic pots?! I have 2.5" and 4" pots but would love a size in between!

It just occurred to me that a south-facing window in the north (43 deg lat) probably won't get nearly as bright and hot as a south-facing window in Georgia or Alabama!

That's true. And what about having a curtain? And can the plant be right at the window or should it be back some?

My AV is my arm's length away from the window. The glass bricks are sorta wavy in that if someone were standing on the outside looking in, I could tell it was a human, but that is all i could tell. So to me that is indirect lighting or am I wrong?????

Murraysmom, I think it's really difficult to give anyone specific advise about growing African violets. It depends on where you are, what kind of windows, do you have direct or filtered light, how many hours of daylight, etc. I think you just have to experiment.

For example, I live in Los Angeles. In the summer it can get over 100 degrees in the Valley. Our old windows were single pane. The window over my kitchen sink faced south, and during the really hot months my violets fried. So, I doubled up (threaded two panels side by side onto the rod) my Heritage Lace panels and valances to provide more shade and less heat. Then when we got the windows replaced with double panes and ultraviolet filters the violets in my kitchen window stopped blooming. Took me a while to figure out the double lace panels were now blocking out too much sun, because the window was filtering some of the ultraviolet rays. So I removed the double panel and they started blooming again.

From my experience, in my particular home, given the specific location of my windows, my plants need to be no more than a foot away from a window. Moving them any further away causes them to stop blooming. And sometimes in the winter I have to relocate some plants from one specific window to another because the winter daylight coming through that window either isn't strong enough or long enough to produce blooms.

I just had to move things around until I found spots they liked :)

This post was edited by tally on Wed, Apr 30, 14 at 15:29

One of my favorites

Zero expertise here (near Chicago), but a 99-cent grocery store AV lived and bloomed for me for three years with no fertilizer. (Must have had some slow-release in the soil.) It had no water for two months during two winters when we were away. I 'watered' it by letting three small ice cubes melt into the soil a couple times a week. It was about six feet from east windows. Our ice cubes are made from filtered water, so no mineral 'crust' ever formed on the soil. I believe AV's originated in cool climates.

yep, tally is right... it all depends on so many factors. Directly on the sill with no curtain works for me, but I'm way up north in central NY. Right up against the window can be too cold in the middle of winter however! Some of my AVs are interior and at least a few feet away from a window, but I usually won't leave them with so little light for more than a few months and then I'll rearrange things.

You have to judge based on the appearance of the AV and how it changes with locations. For example,
- if the petioles (leaf stems) seem too long, the plant probably needs stronger light
- if the crown (central) leaves are too small, the plant could be too cold, getting too much light, or could have mites or other problem
- if the leaves look pale, the plant could need nutrients or more light
- if the leaves are limp, the plant could need water or it could be over-watered and rotting. :p

Nice purples!!! This is probably my best purple bloomer... I think I originally got this in the 80s and it was marked Optimara Sequoia. This plant is less than 6 months old... they all bloom with perfect high clusters of flowers:

This isn't a great pic, but how about this nice pink baby of 'Sheer Romance' from Lyndon Lyons... I just love the green ruffled edge. :)

Oh my goodness, they are all so beautiful. I love the colors.

Thanks for the appearance list and what it means. If there are a lot of leaves on the plant, do I want to remove any?

murraysmom, I generally only remove leaves that are bad (broken, yellowed, browned or badly sunburned, etc.) but I will occasionally remove excessive leaves on an older plant to improve the shape or balance. I'll also remove lots of leaves on an older AV so that I can repot it deeper or to cut the neck (main stem) and re-root it.

I always remove dead leaves and dying flowers. They sap the energy from the rest of the plant.

Laura, did you realize that your e-mail is public ?

Yes I know, BUT I don't know how to fix it....

You ladies and your AVs are making me drool! And I am green with envy too.

Laura, click on the "Your Profile" at the top right corner of the page. Then scroll down towards the bottom of the screen to a highlighted section that says

Show my email address to: None Member All

Try clicking on None and see if that fixes it.

I just made a BIG mistake. I went to the Lyndon Lyon website. I should have never looked.

Nope, don't go here. No sireee bob. You don't want to look. And you certainly don't want to look at the rest of the pages....

Here is a link that might be useful: Lyndon Lyon African Violets

hahaha!

Orchidllauraga, I did reply to your email yesterday, so if you didn't get it I'll have to send again.

I got it Party