Don’t let their reputation scare you
Stop by any good garden center this winter and you’ll see them sitting quietly on their greenhouse bench huddled together wearing their little velvet suits and hoping you’ll stop by and fall in love with them.
African violets don’t demand much – just a little space beside an east or north window so they can grab a few hours of light each morning. Then, given just good houseplant care, they’ll take it from there. Unlike ficuses and philodendrons, they won’t try to take over. They’ll just take over their own spaces and keep blooming for months, maybe years.
Here are their basics…
• Common name: African violets
• Scientific name: Saintpaulia ionantha
• Plant family: Gesneriaceae
• Native home: Tanzania (in the Usambara Mountains)
• Discovered: 1892 by German colonial district commissioner Baron Walter von Saint Paulillaire.
• Preferred lighting: Bright indirect light or artificial lighting specifically designed for African violets and their relatives.
• Preferred soil mix: Highly organic with generous amounts of sphagnum peat moss. Perlite or vermiculite for aeration. Lightweight due to its composition. Several good “African violet” potting soil mixes are available on the market.
• Fertilizer requirements: Keep plants growing actively with regular feedings of a specialty African violet plant food. Frequency will vary with time of year, more often in spring and summer, less often in mid-winter.
• Methods of propagation:
Leaf cuttings (most common): Individual leaves are cut with ½ to 1 in. of petiole in place, then inserted into very lightweight African violet potting soil mix. The mix is kept constantly moist (not wet) and covered loosely to maintain humidity. Tiny plantlets will start to develop at the bases of the leaves after 6 to 10 weeks.
Crown division: Enthusiasts prefer African violets that resemble wagon wheels with leaves radiating out like the wooden spokes. However, as the plants grow, they develop offsets. Every year or so the clumping plants can be carefully removed from their pots, and those offsets can be gently teased loose from the mother plants and potted up on their own. Spring and early summer are great times to do this since growing conditions are best at those times.
Seed: Because of their incredibly small size, seeds are used only by hybridizers. They require great patience and sterile growing conditions. Results are extremely variable and unpredictable.
Want to learn more?
African Violet Society of America
Based in Beaumont, they publish African Violet Magazine, run the national shows, and more.
The organization’s website is https://africanvioletsocietyofamerica.org.