#african violet
Saintpaulia ionantha subsp. rupicola is in the family Gesneriaceae. Commonly known as African violet, it is native to the cloud forests of eastern Africa, including Tanzania and Kenya. African violets are small herbs that only grow up to 1 foot tall, producing a basal rosette of velvet heart-shaped leaves and terminal panicles of blue to violet flowers. African violets are among of the most popular houseplants due to their ease of cultivation and tolerance of low light conditions. Many varieties have been bred by horticulturalists to exhibit a range of flower colors and shapes. Despite their popularity in the gardening world, native populations of African violets are at risk because of habitat loss from agricultural development.
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Acrylic still life of an African violet on paper I made myself from other paper.
My Saint Paulina isn’t flowering at the moment but she’s looking really healthy :)
Afternoon sunshine on the windowsill.
I love the ways these flowers sparkle in the sunshine ✨
I’ve been away for three weeks and everyone is still alive!
New flowers on the way!
Baby’s first African Violet!!
I’ve never seen a variegated one before, so when I saw this in the grocery store, I had to get it. Finally just repotted it into its permanent hone - it’s a special pot designed for African Violets. There are 2 pots, the round one homds water, and the wavy one holds the flower. The wavy one is unglazed on the inside, so it will wick moisture into the soul without water ever touching the hydro-phobic plant. ((How do they ever grow in the wild if water on their leaves kills them?!?!?! I’m too scared to test it out on my first baby.))
The soil is leftover monstera mix I made, and then some good water control Miracle-gro soil. I left the root ball mostly in place - usually I tear up all the old soil, but I’m trying to be so careful with this. I always remember being told as a kid that these will die if you touch them (same with orchids - it was actually just my family trying to keep my kid-hands off the plants lol! Turns out orchids are super hardy to the touch, and these can handle a touch as well.) The leaves are sooo fuzzy!
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i started a prop box !! im so excited to watch them root and grow !!
brasil philodendron, lemon lime philodendron, manjula pothos, golden pothos, monstera adansonii, rhaphidophora tetrasperma, albo syngonium, pilea glauca, peperomia hope, african violet, variegated african violet
Experimenting With Plants
Idk if this is controversial or not, and I have no idea if it will work for you. I’m just saying what I did when I wanted my African violet to bloom again.
They say to keep the soil evenly moist, but I’ve also read that stress can encourage blooming. So I took a shot in the dark and started letting it dry out. I never water until it’s bone dry.
I like the results so far; I hope they last.
One of the very few plants I take the time to bottom water. Happy Halloween, btw!
Rob’s Gundaroo - I just love all Ralph Robinson’s hybrids. His trailing African violets can’t be beat as far as profuse bloomers go. I must see if anyone in the violet groups has any more leaves to trade. I do have another one of his semi-miniature varieties, Rob’s Combustible Pigeon, though. It’s a young plant that hasn’t bloomed for me yet, but I love it’s variegation.
had to break off all the healthy leaves because rot :(
guess I’ll see what I can get them to do
the one water-rooted one is doing very well, though still has yet to actually start a new plantlet
this is the one with green flowers so I really want to keep it going
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Accidentally broke a leaf off the African violet and am now attempting to propagate it. It’s been in there with that other plant for almost 2 weeks now.
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I got this African violet… sometime in the summer. From Lowe’s, for like $4. I went for it because a) I thought it might be one of these awesome space violets since it’s so weirdly frilly, and b) I’d never seen an African violet with green flowers before.
So last night I finally went to the Optimara site to find the cultivar, and… turns out this is mySensation, a new and rare cultivar, and apparently the only green one, which explains why I’d never seen one before!
Also, is that a sucker there? Where it’s pushing the flower stalks apart?
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Tumblr wouldn’t let me make my detailed marimo experiment post, so for now I’m just gonna post my new mini violets
maybe I’ll get a better pic with my phone when it’s charged, because my regular camera just does not play nice with light-colored flowers (or I just haven’t found the right setting for that anytime in the 10 or so years I’ve had this camera)
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A baby from a sick marimo, after being sat in fertilizer water for… like a week, I think. We’ll see how the AV leaf does in this, too.
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