The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Love African violets? Get growing
Isn’t it about time you grew African violets?
Imagine a house plant that blooms all the time and can do so for years — up to half a century or more, by some accounts. In fact, if two months go by without any flowers, it means you need to make some adjustments to your African violet’s maintenance regime.
Moreover, this is a plant that is constantly giving you clones of itself — suckers that spring up around its base. These should be detached, however, since their presence will diminish flowering. You can root the suckers easily enough if you want to grow more of the same variety, or pass them along to friends.
African violet (Saintpaulia ionantha) was first domesticated in 1892 after Walter von Saint-paul Illaire saw it growing on a rock outcrop in a mountainous rainforest near the border of Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa. African violets are endemic to this area, meaning their habitat is restricted to this single location on earth. Saint-paul sent two species of the plant back to Germany, where they were hybridized and their offspring hybridized. Presently, more than 10,000 African violet varieties exist. Flowers appear in every version of violet, purple and pink, and there is even a yellow cultivar that was bred with painstaking persistence. Leaves may even have ruffled edges.
African violets should be repotted soon after purchase, since the soil they are grown in consists almost entirely of peat moss. Peat moss is a hydrophobic material that quickly goes bone dry unless it is kept in a humid greenhouse. There are plenty of African violet soil mixes available at nurseries, but you should mix them half and half with perlite to create ideal soil conditions. You can also make your own mix consisting of 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite and 1/3 perlite.
Since fertilization can be as frequent as every time you water, there will be a buildup of salts that will necessitate changing your soil every six months to a year. Note: The soil of all tropical indoor plants should be changed no less than once a year. Crowding in a pot, however, can increase flowering in certain
plants, so just because you change the soil does not mean you need to replace your current container with a larger one. With African violets, the rule of thumb is to keep a plant in the samesize pot until the distance of the foliage from one end to the other is more than three times the diameter of the pot. It is also wise to grow African violets in shallow pots, no more than 2 or 3 inches deep, keeping in mind that, in their habitat, their roots grow on the surface of moss-covered rocks, and growing in soil is unnatural to them. Deeper pots result in lots of root growth at the expense of more leaves and flowers.
Water when the soil surface is dry. Distilled water is best, but those who use tap water should let it sit for 24 hours before application, since this will allow chlorine, which may burn African violet foliage, to volatilize harmlessly into the air. Watering itself can be done from above or below. In either case, the pot should not be left in standing water for more than a few minutes to avoid soil fungus problems. To keep humidity high, put pebbles in a dish of water under your plant, making sure the bottom of the pot rests on the pebbles, or place more African violets or other tropical plants close by. A humidifier designed for indoor plants will also keep relative humidity elevated, which for African violets should be at least 50%. Keep water off the leaves and keep your hands off them too. If you are going on vacation, make sure your soil is moist, then place your
plant in a zippered plastic bag to keep it hydrated.
Fertilization is best done weekly. Some liquid fertilizers will tell you to put a certain number of drops in a gallon of water with each watering. Others may recommend a teaspoon of fertilizer in a gallon of water once a month. But since you should water weekly, better to add a quarter teaspoon of this product per gallon a week. A balanced fertilizer (2020-20) is generally recommended although to encourage flowering, the percentage of phosphorus (the middle number) may be elevated above the other two (nitrogen and potassium).
African violets do best with 12 hours or more of ambient light but cannot tolerate direct light, since it burns their leaves. An eastern, morning exposure is the best, like for the ubiquitous moth orchid (Phalaenopsis), with your plant kept 1218 inches from the window glass. Low light results in thin, deep green leaves, while too much light may lead to rampant leaf growth. In both cases, flowering will be sparse to nonexistent. You can test your exposure by putting your hand between your African violet and the adjacent window with the back of your hand next to the window. If a shadow is cast, the light is sufficiently bright, but if the back of your hand heats up, then the sun is too hot for your plant and will burn its leaves. If your residence is without sufficient natural light, you can employ either fluorescent or LED lights to grow African violets. Keep the lights on for 10-12 hours a day 12
inches above the plants.
African violets are easily propagated from their leaves. Detach newly formed leaves in the spring; cut into the leaf stems or petioles at a 45-degree angle, leaving an inch of petiole below the leaf; and insert into a light soil mix, such as half sand, half vermiculite. Within one month, roots will begin to form from the petioles (leaf stems), and by the end of the second month, new baby leaves will emerge at the soil surface. By the end of six months, plants will be of sufficient size to be placed in pots of their own. Leaf stems, like those of many other indoor plants, will also root in water. Older outer leaves should be discarded and not used for propagation.
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Due to the widespread quarantine of citrus trees because of citrus greening disease, local nurseries selling citrus trees are now rare. However, Mark Meahl informed me that Garden View Nursery in Irwindale has hundreds of citrus trees certified by the state that are growing in screen houses. The nursery is under power lines at 12901 Lower Azusa Road. It also has hundreds of avocado and other fruit trees in 5-gallon to 30-inch box sizes. Nursery hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-saturdays and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sundays.