Saving an African Violet
- Jan 27, 2016
- 2 min read
I have an African Violet that my coworker recently gave me. She had moved into a new house and the previous tenant was a house plant enthusiast who had left the African Violet in the powder room. The flower had been neglected in-between tenants and was not doing well when I received it. It's leaves were curled up as though it had too much sun. The flower was so dry it probably only weighted a few grams!
You can see in these pictures that it is a very light green colour. The plant was very limp. I watered it as soon as I got it. It was so dry that the plant floated on top of the water for a while before actually aborsbing enough to be heavier than the water! I moved it into a shader area of my home. I have kept it fairly moist since then. The pictures below show how well the plant has rebounded. The leaves have mostly uncurled. The color is becoming deeper and richer. The plants is also must firmer and stronger. I was quite surprised to find two babies (pictured below)! Eventually, I will be separating them. When I do I will explain it to all of you.
African Violets are great house plants! They are very easy to maintain. The biggest problem with them is how easy they are to over water. One way to avoid this is to water them from the bottom up so the plant can take as much as it needs. Put a little in the tray and see how quickly it is absorbed by the plant. African Violets don't like water on their leaves. If exposed to water the leaves will become brown and dry. There aremany different kinds of African Violets. The other one I have is a much darker colour with purple blooms (I don't know what colour of blooms the one my coworker gave me has, I'm actually excited to find out). I bought this African Violet a few weeks ago now.
African Violets require specific soil and proper fertilization in order to bloom well. In the past every time I had one of these I always wondered why they had difficulty blooming again. I had a few that bloomed a second time but many just stayed green. This is because the plant requires it's own type of soil and fertilizer. Approximently the end of February, I will be repotting this guy at that time I will also be pruning a few leaves and attempting to reproduce this African Violet from leaf cuttings.
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