African violets are one of America’s favorite houseplants. So what are the secrets of their continued popularity?
They can be grown in a small apartment; they flourish in well-lighted window gardens, under artificial light, in a terrarium or greenhouse; they’re easily propagated and make wonderful hobby plants.
There are thousands of varieties. African violets (saintpaulias) come in pure white, nearly gray, purple, blue, wine, and pink. They may be solid colors, splashed or striped with other colors, or edged in deeper or lighter tones.
There are smooth and frilled petals and double and single flowers. Leaves range from oval to deeply waved, scalloped, cupped, spooned, pointed, and quilted.
They may be plain green, green with red undersides, or variegated. There are miniatures, middle-sized and large ones.
First African Violet Species Grown
The first African violet species grown in this country was plain left blue flowered Saintpaulia ionantha.
The first hybrid form was ‘Blue Boy’ with plain leaves and good-sized blue-purple flowers. Then came pink, white, and orchid ones.
Hybridizers were unsatisfied with plain leaves and developed the “girl” type leaf. The first of these was ‘Blue Girl.’
Leaves on all “girls” have a pale green area where the leaf blade joins the leaf stem. The terms “boy” and “girl” apply to the leaf formation and have nothing to do with blossoms —they all bloom.
Make Your Plants Grow And Bloom
Whether you are a first-time grower or a frustrated fifteenth-time buyer, you’ll want to know how to make your African violet plants grow and bloom. I firmly believe that you can make your violets go to work quickly if:
You grow them in porous soil, water them thoroughly with room temperature water, and don’t water them again until the soil that’s about an inch below the topsoil feels dry (later, I’ll tell you how to test this).
Give African violets ample light (either natural or artificial), keep humidity (moisture content of the air around the plant) at 40% percent or more, fertilize healthy growing plants twice a month.
For the experienced gardener, the soil is no problem. For the beginner, or the unsuccessful gardener, here are some ingredients that make a porous potting mixture: equal parts of peat moss, loam, sand, and leaf mold, with a half cup of charcoal to each quart of soil.
Suppose you can’t obtain leaf mold, substitute compost. You can save yourself from mixing by purchasing packaged soil from a florist or seed store.
I’m partial to one with a redwood leaf base and added humus, sponge rock, and charcoal. Its moisture retentive provides a porous substance for roots to ramble around.
Sterilize soil by placing it in the oven and adding about one-half cup of water per quart of soil. Place a small potato in the center of the soil.
Set the thermostat to 180° degrees Fahrenheit and bake the soil until the potato is done. Do not use the soil for 24 to 48 hours.
When potting African violets, ensure good drainage by placing a ½” inch of pot chips or pea rock in the bottom.
Place budded and blooming violets in the east or shaded south windows during fall and winter.
Summer Care
A well-lighted north window may be alright for summer care. However, if you grow them under fluorescent lights, set them, so the pot rim is about 11″ inches from 40-watt tubes.
African violets will bloom if the humidity is 40% percent or above. You can measure it with a humidity guide which you can purchase for two or three dollars at any hardware store.
If you garden on a window sill, above a radiator, or on a table, have a tinner and make a 2” inch deep galvanized tray.
Place about 1” inch of pea rock or gravel in the bottom of the tray. Keep water in the tray just below the pot level.
African violets grow well in daytime temperatures of 72° to 75° degrees Fahrenheit, with a drop of 5° to 10° degrees Fahrenheit at night.
If you are growing African violets near a window, the temperature will be lower at night, and you won’t have to change the thermostat.
A question frequently asked is, “How often shall I water my violets?”
No matter what kind of pot you choose, water them thoroughly from top or bottom with room temperature water. Until you acquire the knack for watering, test for moisture content by sticking your finger into the soil.
You may safely water that plant if it feels dry about an inch below the topsoil. If the soil feels wet to the touch, wait another day and test again. Plants need less watering during cloudy weather because evaporation is slower.
Growing Violets in Natural Light
If you grow violets in natural light, blot off drops of water you spill on leaves so the sun won’t burn leaf tissue.
African violets under fluorescent lights need not be blotted because this artificial light is cool and won’t scar leaves—clean dust from leaves by taking plants to a sink and washing them with tepid water. Be sure the leaves are dry before setting them in the sun.
Propagating African Violets
Propagate African violets through leaf cuttings, division, or seeds.
For the leaf-cutting method, choose a middle-sized leaf, and cut it with about an inch of leaf stem (called the petiole). Insert this into a small bottle or glass of water, a pot of moistened vermiculite, sand, or sphagnum moss.
Set it where it receives about the same light your growing plants do. Speed the rooting process by dusting the cut end in rooting hormone powder.
Within ten days to a month, new roots appear. If you’re rooting leaves in water, plant them in sterilized soil when the root crop is about an inch long.
Transplant cuttings from solid media (vermiculite, etc.) when the leaves of small plants unfold and the plants are about an inch high.
A 2″ inch pot is right for this first shift. Next, place transparent plastic bags over the new plantings to ward off shock. These can be removed within a week.
After six weeks of growing, the plants can be shifted into 3″ inch pots. You can let them flower in these, and as they mature, move them into 4″ inch pots.
Show and specimen plants are kept down to single crowns by removing side shoots or new plants from leaf axils as soon as they can be nipped off. I have found a curved grapefruit knife well suited to this operation.
If you have an old plant with many crowns — one that looks like several plants were growing in the same pot—divide it and report it. Knock the plant out of the pot. Use your hands to separate roots.
If several plants seem to spring out of a common stem, choose the best-looking one and leave it on the main stem and roots. Remove the others.
You can root all of these cuttings just as you root leaves. Most plants grown from leaves or division will be identical to the mother plant.
Growing Violets From Seeds
Growing African violets from seeds is fun and an easy way to have a large collection of colors and forms. If you are a beginner, order your first lot of seeds from a reliable house. Later on, try to hybridize and produce some of your varieties.
The yellow sacs inside the blossom are the anthers filled with powdery yellow pollen. The elongated threadlike appendage near the anthers is the pistil.
When ready for pollination, the top of the pistil, called the stigma, enlarges and reveals a near-white color.
For pollination, select two blossoms from the same plant or cross-pollinate by applying pollen from one plant to the stigma of another.
The plant receiving the pollen will be the seed parent and bear the pod. If pollination is successful, the blossom will fall off, and you will note a slight swelling at the base of the pistil.
This is the beginning of the seed pod. Seed ripens in four to nine months, depending on the variety. As the pod ripens, it loses color and softens. You can pick it and lay it away to dry or let it dry on the plant.
Let the seed ripen two or three weeks after harvesting. Sow these dustlike seeds on vermiculite, moistened sand, or sphagnum moss.
A covered glass casserole or transparent plastic ice box dish makes a good planter.
Set the planting in a warm (room temperature) area. When you note flecks of green appearing on the surface, move the planting to the light or place it about 3” or 4” inches from 40-watt fluorescent light tubes.
When seedlings have four to six good leaves, prick them out by slipping a pencil or pickle fork under them—plant several of them in a pot of regular growing mixture.
Pests and Diseases
African violets are subject to several pests and diseases. However, growing them in sterilized soil and spraying them weekly with a house plant aerosol bomb will help you avoid trouble. New plants should always be isolated from older plants for three or four weeks.
Crown Rot
Crown rot, a systemic disorder, strikes most often during the summer when days are hot and excessively humid.
The first symptoms show you a plant that looks like it needs watering. It is waterlogged and can’t absorb any more water. Dump it out of the container, and you’ll find the soil moist—even wet.
In the home, treat such plants by cutting off all large outer leaves. Next, take a sharp knife and cut off the end of the root stalk.
Suppose it shows signs of decay (brownish spots or rings); cut until you reach firm, clean, green plant tissues.
Slip this paired violet into a glass of water, set it in a cool, light place to recover, and it will soon send out roots—Replant when the roots are about an inch long.
If you grow under lights or in the greenhouse, place the treated plant in sand or light soil, and it will recover.
If an old favorite has developed a “turkey neck” or shows a lot of bare trunks, cut it off at the soil line, and reroot it in water, sand, or vermiculite. Or you might remove it from its pot, select a deeper pot and replant it to a depth where the bare trunk is covered.
Often the outer row of leaves rots off at the pot rim. This is because of chemical salts from fertilizers. If you grow in clay pots, line the rim with foil.
Mites
Mites are real African violet enemies. You’ll know a plant has mites when center leaves become gnarled and excessively hairy, and distorted flowers bloom on shortened “stalks.”
Mites are so small you cannot see them with the naked eye, but they can destroy plants. Therefore, isolate such a plant immediately.
You can save it by cutting out the center or mite-infested leaves if it’s your favorite. Then, please remove it from the soil, wash the roots, and slip the plant into a glass of water.
Spray it with one of the house plant pressure bombs, give it good light, and before long new center leaves will form. However, the crop will be heavy, so cut out all but the center leaves.
When the plant has a clean bill of health, replant it. When handling mite-infested plants, wash your hands thoroughly before touching other plants. Use sodium selenate capsules (according to directions) in the soil as a preventative.
Other African Violet Enemies
Springtails, harmless but undesirable soil-borne insects, hop around like a batch of fleas. Kill them with a whiff of a house plant spray bomb.
Mealybugs (often brought in on coleus) look like small bits of cotton and can be eradicated by touching them with a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol or with the house plant bomb.
Nematodes are the worst of all African violet enemies. Infested plants take on a dull look, and as infestation spreads, “blisters” may appear on the roots—it’s best to burn a nematode-infested plant.
For Rare Infested Plants
If it’s a rare one, save and root a few of the outer leaves. If planting soil is sterilized and you are careful about setting incoming plants away from older ones, you may never know nematodes.
There is a product on the market to be applied to the soil of infested plants, but I haven’t found anyone who has given it a thorough test.
Out of the thousands of varieties on the market, these are a few of my favorites—chosen merely because they are pretty and perform well, not because they are the newest or have been big prize winners.
In the singles:
- White-flowered ‘Snow Prince’
- ‘Innocence,’ and crinkled edged ‘Clementine’
- Pink-flowered ‘Pink Wonder’
- ‘Georgia Peach’
- ‘Zephyr Pink’
- “Pink Delight’
- Pale-blue Saintpaulia tongwensis
- Blue ‘Hi-Loa’
- Purple-flowered ‘Ruffled Triumph’
- Wine flowered ‘Silver Slippers’
- The striped “Show” series
In the doubles:
- ‘White Pride’
- Pink-flowered ‘Minneapolis’
- ‘Pot O’ Gold’
- ‘Pink Swan’
- Blue-and-white ‘Azure Beauty’
- Llight orchid ‘Revelation
- Purple ‘Double Neptune’
- Bright blue ‘Bernice’
The price range on these is from 15-50 cents per leaf; on small plants, from 35c-$2.50.
Many years ago, early enthusiasts of the African violet organized the African Violet Society of America. Anyone interested in growing African violets may become a member.
The society publishes a quarterly publication, the African Violet Magazine, which is included with a membership of $3.00 per year. Membership application should be addressed to Mrs. Arthur Radtke, P.O. Box 116 Madisonville Station, Cincinnati 27, Ohio.
African violets are just what a window garden needs. Enjoy some in your garden very soon.
44659 by Peggie Schulz