Floridabear,

Get thee to the AVSA website and check out the listings for all the Florida clubs. There are at least two 'close' to you in Boynton Beach and Miami. Not knowing all the geography of the state you may find something even closer. Go to a meeting and take your two plants and potting supplies, and they will gladly help you properly repot them. Then join the club! Tons of information, lots of nice people, and some clubs have very active leaf and plantlet exchanges. I would rather see you learn how to do it than try to 'hire' someone, especially since that someone will probably teach you for free!

Good luck, and let us know how it turned out.

Barbara

Here is a link that might be useful: AVSA website

Hi Florida Bear,
If you email me I can send you a few sheets I have written and pass out to clubs when I speak on AV's.
Fred in NJ

I'm not near either of those places,I am right in between,by MANY MANY miles, each way! I have written to you Fred. I dont know if any information will help me. I have killed all the violets I have tried to repot and get rid of the necks...and what about these big suckers on my Splatter Kake. Can I save them? How? what about the suckers around the crown on my Winnie The Pooh? Can I pull them off? Help!!!

You can get off suckers with an X-Acto knife and/or tweezers.

What I've found helpful is to buy a coupla African Violets when they get discounted and sent to the clearance shelves at (like supermarkets, or big box stores like Wal*Mart or home imporovement stores like Home Depot or Lowe's) and then I have something to practice surgery and/or putting leaves down from, and I'm not out a really "beloved" plant or very much money if I mess up something. :-)

Florida Bear,

With 3 inch necks, you or your expert will have to chop off the entire rootball, cut the neck to about one and one half inches, scrape it like a carrot and insert in really good AV soil less mix (1/3 peat moss, 1/3 pearlite, 1/3 vermiculite).

Then you will have to place a plastic bag or sack over the entire plant and leave it there for at least two weeks. This will provide enough humidity from the damp soil less mix to keep those bottom leaves from dying from the stress and shock it has received.

This is a pretty basic job for AV growers. Best advice is to find at least one AV club and join. You will soon be doing this just like the "pros."

Nancy

FloridaBear - I found you the club pretty close - again - check AVSA local clubs for contact info.

(FL) - The Violet Patch of South Florida

Location: Broward County Extension Center
Location Address: 3245 College Ave
Location City: Davie
Location State: FL

Meeting Times: First Tuesday each month 7:30 p.m.

This place should be the closest to you. You can check with the contact person - may be somebody even lives next door to you and can help you personally.

Good luck

Irina

I tried to find the phone number of that violet society and couldnt find one. So I could hopefully find a member to do this for me or to help me do it. But I didnt even find the listing,now i have your listing...I will have to write to them and hope someone replys.

I found this as the contact info for the Violet Patch club:

Jennifer Kellum
15831 SW 54 Place
Davie, FL 33331

Email: jskellum@aol.com

Phone: 954-434-4550

Maybe you've already tried her, don't know, wanted to post it just in case.

This J Kellum is unreachable...the email comes back as undeliverable..and calling the number, i get no one. I give up. I am going to hack away at my violets,and watch them die in plastic bags this time. no one goes into details on how to do it. Wet soil? Damp soil? Tightly closed bag? Open it daily? Keep it closed? No information. 'Just jump in and do it'. EVERY THIME I HAVE DONE IT, THEY HAVE ALL DIED! All i wanted to do was pay someone to do it. Someone must live near me and know all about violets and could do it and if they die, then I know it isnt just me! But no one will tell me if anyone is near me..i have told you all where I am at..reccommend someone PLEASE!!!!! Commercial Blvd and Andrews Ave. ANYONE KNOW ANYONE NEAR ME???? That would like the challange. What do I do with teh huge suckers on my Splatter Kake? I might be throwing out 5-6 plants. But no one says how to take care of them, what do to with them. So I will pull them off and throw them out, and probably loose 5-6 perfectly good plants! IF I only knew how to plant them up...IF it is possible, they are as big as the Splatter Kake was when I got it! But no one will help. So Tomorrow is beheading day. I give up. They die, I will buy new ones and do it all over again! What a waste of 2 great plants!

FloridaBear -

regarding your questions:

soil should be moist, not wet. You can keep the bag closed, or you can let a small hole - the idea is to have close to 100% humidity. If you wet your soil too much - you will have the condensate on your baggie - you need to open the baggie a bit to let it dry. If you do not have condensate in your bag - you can keep it close. Plastic container with cover - like an angel cake box - is even better. You just keep your suckers inside and you can see what's going on.

Good luck - and keep trying, never give up.

Irina

Floridabear,

Please check the AVSA website and Rachels Reflections website, they both have fairly detailed information that may help you.

Barbara

Here is a link that might be useful: AVSA

Hi Floridabear and all AV lovers here,

Floridabear, I'm new to AVs myself, so cannot even begin to confidently perform surgery on your AVs. But what I can offer is this. I live in Ft Lauderdale also, off 17st Causeway, west. If you haven't linked up to a pro and have any interest, maybe we can learn together? If this interests you at all, you can pack up your printed directions off the AVSA website and Rachels Reflections website, or the ones kindly offered by Fred in NJ, and we can try it together at my place. I've got a big kitchen table and we can make a cuppa coffee or whatever you like, and just get our feet wet together. :-)

I am also new to AVs, precisely I'm trying the mini AVs. I do have a couple that don't look too happy right now (just arrived in the mail a couple of weeks ago). Even tho this is Floridabear's thread it's helping me alot. I'm going to put the two laggers in baggies this morning to see if I can perk them up.

As for the AV club in Davie, sounds like fun! I checked Mapquest, and that one is less than 8 miles from here, very do-able.

Best wishes! Oh and Fred, if it's OK, may I mail you for copies of those handouts too?

Thanks everybody!
Girlsaylor

Girlsaylor,

Yeah, this is what it's all about, doing and learning together. Thanks for stepping up.

I believe you posted elsewhere you did a liveaboard in Wash. state. I lived there for 40 years and still have some property up in the San Juans. Where were you?

Welcome to the forum.

Barbara

I will take on this project of repotting your violets. Please supply the following:

1. Round trip airline ticket San Francisco to Ft. Lauderdale (Jet Blue $457.00)

2 Two nights stay at Holiday Inn-Ft. Lauderdale Airport
($185.99 per night)

3. Per diem for meals and necessities ($100.00 per day)

4. Hourly rate for horticultural expertise ($75.00 per hour - 8 hour minimum)

5. I can be there as soon as next Friday.

Hope this works for you.

Hi peoples!

First off, I never intended to hijack the thread. I'm learning alot, and even maintaining my sense of humor with the maternal concerns that go along with any new hobby and the learning curve, lol.

Barbara, thanks for the welcome to the AV forum. I'll be starting my own thread shortly, so as to monitor the responses, if that's ok. I'll try to not duplicate the same questions, so you kind folks don't feel put off for having to retype the same info ad nauseum, lol. Wow, that's a long stint in the San Juans! I am so glad to have had the year and a half I lived in WA. First we lived in Anacortes, had a house, with our boat in Olympia. Then DH changed jobs and we moved up to the San Juans, in Anacortes. One of the many high points of my time there was cruising past Orcas Island and ending up in a pod of Orca Whales! One breached (?) alongside our 30 foot boat with that awesome big eye staring me in the face! It was only a few months later we got a bigger boat, lololol. Another of the fun times was living next to Kenny G in Friday Harbor for a weekend. I absolutely loved Friday Harbor!!

Now then, Vall3fam, you have me rolling on the floor in stitches this morning! What a wild sense of humor you have. I'm afraid your prices are a bit steep for me, though I'm sure you are well worth it! Maybe I can interest you in some a weekend onboard, in the master cabin with your own lexan hatch, with a view of the mast, moon, stars. Then hang a line over the transom and see what we can catch for dinner. Or perhaps next morning a sunrise cruise with champagne and orange juice mimosas, bagels and cream cheese, fresh air with a gentle breeze, beautiful palm trees for scenery... All this for maybe an hour or two of the two of us playing in the dirt with my baby mini AVs?! I realize you are in CA in a beautiful climate and don't need to come here for our sunshine and balmy winter weather, but if I could twist your potting arm just a little....hee hee.

Fondly,
Girlsaylor

Vallfam, you are cracking me up!

Barbara

(off-topic)

Hey Barbara--I sent you in email, didja get it? :-)