A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 african violet

I have several violets right now...some of them I have had for 3 or more years. My question is, do you remove faded flowers? Some of them have flowers that there is really nothing wrong with except they are old. Also I have some lighter colored leaves on some of the plants, I think these are older too. I know to remove the leaves if they look bad or are damaged so the plant won't focus energy on trying to make them better, does it hurt the plant to have these faded leaves and flowers on them? Also I have some of them potted in the self watering pots. Do you need to let the water totally evaporate? I just potted those in the self watering pots and they make me kinda nervous! I tend to water a little every other day so I don't overwater anything that way.

Thanks!
Connie

Here I have them all lined up for a photo:

Hi Connie,

Love your picture. Beginning gardener here so I don't know the answer to your question but someone will.

Thanks for the complement! Several of the violets I bought for about $0.50...they were on clearance and looked pretty sad, but not too far gone!

hi connie,
i have about 7 violets myself(just love 'em
hope this helps

I'm just comming out of the kill everything stage of gardening and into the easy grow plants stick around about a year stage. My mom tried african violets once. It wasn't pretty. But when I get ready to try them I know exactly where to come for information.

Enjoy the forum

I grow a few minis& one of the larger ones.I also root my leafs for more plants.I use bottom watering& in my winter time I use a dome.

blooms.you pinch the old blooms off unless you are trying to set seed.pinching the blooms off helps keep it blooming.
I use a AV fertilizer everytime I water and they bloom most all the time(exceept when you mix rooting stuff in the fertilizer jug,from not paying attention)I let my plants bottom thing dry out before filling again.I plan to wick my babies I'm growing.I bought 4 small terra cotta pots for them.
If you go to re pot them,I usually trim off bottom,shake a lil old soil off and clean the pot real well and re pot in same pot with fresher soil.I use schultz AV mix.I didn't care for MG stuff.
I useually use my older leaves for rooting.I don't soil root no more,but really like the water rooting.i fill clear class with water poke holes for stems& set leaves in and watch the leaves sprout mouse ears.I also now use tape or rubber band with the plastic cause I can use a leaf over a year as long as stays healthy and keep getting babies.I got 7 babies off one leaf,then I pot them into creamer cups with holes in bottom and set on a butter lid& keep bottom fertilized water,but on the weak side.

your leaves may be lighter due to lighting or your water may have high chlorine,(let you water set for 5 days and the chlorine will evaporate or collect rainwater for them.)They grow good with east-west lighting for 6-8 hours& good humidity.My babies are getting west lighting through soloar screen and are behind a post slightly.I have good humidity yr round.I use a domed type lid in the winter time cause our temps can be dropping and riseing 50 degrees at times& keeps my plant in a more stable inviroment...when it warms up algee grows& dome goes vacation.

If you want more info...I have a bunch of AV files& could show you pics of their cuz's gesneriads& gloxinia.
Also forgot to mention I use small gravel in bottom of pots so pots not setting directly in water.my large pot is just set in another terra cotta pot the same size.I broke my saucer,thats how it got fixed.i've even painted it.its white with pink& red hearts.you have some nice vilots.I like your pink in the very front.I been searching thrift store for small fancy teacups with matching saucers.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I am thinking maybe it is too much sun making their flowers and leaves look faded. But it is not every plant, only a few of them. Maybe they are a bit more delicate than the others. I do use rainwater. We hoarde it like gold in our basement LOL. We had company once and they were like "what's up with all the gallons of water in your basement".

I have never tried to root out any new plants. I have seperated babies from the adult plants and have a few right now that are blooming that I got that way.

I will let the pots dry all the way out before refilling. I have yet to fertilize them yet in these new pots. Is it ok to do this in the self watering pots? I usually fertilize my violets when I do my orchids. They love the place the violets are and I have one that has been in bloom for over a year. I keep thinking it will need a break soon! But then I look and it has more blooms on it.

Thanks again! Connie

Hi guys,

I was wondering if anyone can tell me why some of my AV leaves have hard dark areas around the ends. Otherwise, it has been beautiful with lots of blooms. If you want me to post a photo, let me know.
Thanks!