African Violets are what first got me into houseplants! My favorite variegated one is Fishermans Paradise, it's absolutely beautiful. To anyone looking to collect named Violets, be sure to check for an African Violet club in your area. Mine is wonderful and people bring leaves and propogations to share. Such a lovely community. Thank you for the video! I hope more people give African Violets a chance after watching. It makes me sad when people call them "old lady plants" 😂
I think having an “old lady plant” sounds cool! Makes me feel connected to plant ladies from generations before me. 😊 my great grandma always had African violets and I think she would be happy to see me taking care of them too!
I love African violets! I work at a grocery store and I have gotten many violets in our employee free bin! I have found a lot of cute self watering African violet pots at thrift stores. I’ve even successfully propagated them! I am always on the hunt for variegated ones! So far never seen them in my area, I’ll probably just buy some online though. 😊 thanks for the video!
Highly recommend buying a potting mix for African violets. Getting the soil composition right for these guys can be complex. I regularly make my own soil mixes, but for these guys I don't do it. Espoma also makes a Nice soil mix that may be more accessible for some. Enjoy these under appreciated beauties!
Hi Ashley, thank you for this video and for all the tips and information. Very enjoyable to watch! African Violets are classic plants for good reason. They are beautiful and they can be grown successfully. 🥰. For me, the watering was the hardest part of keeping them happy. Also, I may have fussed over them a little too much in the beginning!😵💫 Many thanks for encouraging the plant community to try this rewarding plant! 👌🪴🥰
Hi thank you for your tips . After many tries I finally had one bloom continuously ! I’m so excited! I put it under a small grow light on a timer , and wow it’s taking off ! Ashley where did you buy those cute planters ? Perfect size for African violets !
I love African violets! I have a variegated plant that has variegated light blue frilly flowers that have more white appear as the flowers age. I propagated a bunch of leaves and am waiting for them to grow clones. The African violet pots make my life a lot easier. I live in Arizona and small pots dry out so quickly. My violets are always either in bloom or are growing buds. I love the Espoma Violets African violet food. I add it to the water in the reservoir biweekly so the plants soak up the food as needed then I switch the water out to tap water the following week.
I’m so happy your loving violets! I have always kept them & during the rona I went wild with them but lost a bunch after going back to work. I know you love the variegated leaves! Look up watermelon snow! Tell me if you like it & I can send you leaves if you want
The wick is the way to go. I too wick. Usually though, I use a 50 percent potting soil and 50 percent perlite. Works for me. I especially love filling the reservoir instead of watering the plant. My reservoirs usually last about ten days. One reservoir goes dry it is not the end of the world.
I love the variegated ones but I never see them in stores! Do you have a website you order them from or are you just really lucky at finding them in person?
I just picked up a very tiny variegated African violet and a cute small self watering pot. Watching your video really helps although I should have watched it first before getting one (it was a spontaneous purchase) 😂
Sooooo excited for this vid! I have one African violet and after a year of being under my care, it’s bloomed 🥹😄 thank you for the tips, I look forward to using them.
Don't freak out when a variegated violet gets a flush of solid green leaves. It is not reverting. Be patient and after a couple months it will grow a variegated flush. This habit depends on the cultivar. Some don't do this, some do. My theory is those varieties need more photosynthesis than variegation alone can provide. Bloom colors can have different flushes too. I bought one blooming white with blue picotee and the third flush had lots of green mixed in. Next flush had almost no green. It's fun to see how it will be when a set of new buds appear.
I have 2 that have rebloomed multiple times, it's so rewarding! My 3rd one hasn't rebloomed yet, the pot is very full with many plants, do you think they need to be separated in order to bloom?
i got 6 in the mail today, boy are they wet haha, so i will add a few teaspoons of perilite to the soil and work it in, and let them sit for a week or longer and let them just dry out, it takes a while
Mine do not care if they dry out. I always forget them but they always bloom. They will drop and then I always have that dread feeling that I forgot them. 🤷
They are so finicky for me 😢 I've killed 2 so far. Currently have one that hasnt died... my "trick" for this one has been not to repot it from its original potting media. Fingers crossed it stay around longer than the other two
I don’t recommend you plant them together. Each needs its own pot and not together. One single African violent only needs to have a single crown in one pot as well.
I've had African Violets for a long time, I just love them. But about 15 years ago i had a small collection of 7 plants, all of a sudden the new leaves coming up grew to about the size of a dime, got hard and the plants eventually died. I tried taking the leaves off as they started to get hard but nothing worked. I lost all 7! Has anyone heard of this before? It has never happened to me again and I've asked around at local nurseries and they had never heard of it either. I'm from Montreal, Canada!
Now I'm sure I can take care of this plant, Thanks to you! My first doctor told me that she gives old (expired) birth control pills to hers and they liked it a lot! This is weird but I really want to try it haha
Have you noticed a difference in your plants from when you water with filtered water vs tap? I give the rest of my plants tap water, but my African Violet seems to hate it! That, or its the soil 🥴
I've had one African violet plant that was a deep purple propagated a lot of plants from the one then I get a plant that decides to be half white and half purple from the same plant how is this possible when that's only been the one plant
Your African Violets are too large… It’s not the bigger the better. You should renew and revitalize your old plants by taking off some old leaves from outside and make the plant compact and replant it with side stalks covered with new potting soil. Those leaves serve no purpose as they’re too old, and prevents it from blooming. You would need much more brighter light as it didn’t look like bright enough. You need to remove spent blooms. Leaving old spent blooms like that will keep your violet from blooming more profusely. That’s why they’re all not flowering much, just with bunch of leaves. Fertilizer for African violets aren’t in equal in NPK, it’s much higher in Phosphorus as African violets need much more of it to keep blooming continuously. The soil you said “slightly acidic”…, they need slightly alkaline soil NOT slightly acidic. This is why you add lime and sea lime etc as it needs slightly alkaline environment to counter the acidity of peat moss. Sorry to keep contradicting but your comments aren’t really correct. I’ve been growing them for a long time. And know a lot about them. Most regular African Violets do not prefer shallow pots either. Only trailing varieties do. I liked your down to earth presentation, but a lot about what you said about African Violets aren’t really accurate. There are a lot more to it, like it likes to be root bound to flower profusely. Potting in such large pots is why your African Violets aren’t blooming a lot.
Oh no! Only repot every 1-2 Years!!!!! This is not good advice! Violets must be repotted every six months to keep blooming and stay healthy. Mine bloom 4-6 times a year.
One of the main reasons for repotting every 6 months is to avoid fertilizer build up , and also excess mineral build up, especially when using tap water. Leaving plants too long in the same old soil can result in root burn.
