Saintpaulias are responsive plants to grow. Indeed, their popularity is partially due to the ease of extending a collection or increasing the number of plants of some appealing variety.
Through the neighborly exchange of leaves or their reciprocal mailing to unmet but not unknown distant “violet friends,” almost every desired combination may be acquired and the windows of a house soon filled with oncoming youngsters.
Saintpaulias lend themselves readily to increase through division or leaf propagation, in which both soil and water methods prove practical. With a mature specimen with a thick crown, you can separate it into several smaller individual plants with care.
Just remove the pot and gently pull the plant’s sections apart. Several single divisions will readily appear, but some may cling together in small clumps of two or three.
You can try transplanting these African violets as they are or take the chance, not consistently successful, of cutting them apart with a sharp knife and then potting them separately.
Three-inch pots or the smallest pan will not be too large for most divisions. With plenty of surface room, they will soon develop their large handsome leaves to the fullest and maintain an open crown from which an almost constant procession of flowering stems will push forth.
Use the same soil as before – equal thirds of sand, loam, and leaf mold or humus – or use leaf mold alone, if that is easier for you. I go the already bagged African violet mix from the local garden center.
Related: How To Handle Shipped Mail Order African Violets
Use Of Vermiculite
Many people use Vermiculite, a mica product that comes in the bag. The coarser particles they find best for the potting mixture, the more delicate part for rooting, and the finest for planting seeds.
If Vermiculite is pressed through a quarter-inch mesh screen, it readily separates into the material with different degrees of coarseness.
The majority who have used this medium consider it a preventative of crown rot and find that it aids the germination of seeds and the development of the plant.
Wonderful plants can also be grown from mature leaves cut with stems or petioles from parent plants. These rooted in water or a sandy soil mixture, develop into flowering-sized plants in about eight to nine months, rarely in six.
Still, the length of time depends on cultural conditions and the nature of the variety being propagated. Sometimes within a year, such plains are large enough for division.
So all you need to satisfy even an unlimited enthusiasm for African violets is a few leaves from plants of the varieties you admire and considerable patience.
Propagation Note: Plant patents protect some African violets; you may not propagate violets without permission.
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