My Little Rescue (pic)

15 years ago

I wish I would have taken a picture of this plant back in October when I first got possession of it. It was a pathetic looking limp three leaves on a looong curled stem.

I came to this forum to read about how to save it, as it belonged to my mother who is now deceased and no one took care of it for a long time.

I cut the stem down to where I saw green and then scraped it. I dipped it in rooting hormone and planted it in this little 2" pot, covered it with a plastic water bottle as a dome and hoped for the best, not really expecting it to survive.

Slowly throughout the winter I noticed it was staying firm and greening up a bit and then it suddenly started growing more and more leaves!

Here it is today and it is still in the little 2" pot!

{{gwi:364035}}

I am so happy with it. I want to transplant it to a different pot, but I also wanted to enjoy it blooming for a little bit. It measures about 6" across now, so when I do transplant it should I use a 3" or 4" pot?

Thanks to all the great info on this forum, I saved this little remembrance of my mother.

Janet

Comments (7)

seattlemarigene
15 years ago
what a little sweetheart!You did great!!....:0)..marigene
lilypad22
15 years ago
It is pretty, has nice girl leaves. You did good! Thanks for letting us know. We wonder how someone made out that has a problem and posts here for help. They like to be kept potbound and the pot should be 1/3 the leaf span, so that would be 2" or 2 1/2. Did you take the plant from the pot to see if it needs a bigger pot? 4 is too big, there will be too much soil and roots might rot and if they don't, it might take a while to fill out the pot to bloom again. If you don't disturb it too much, it should keep blooming if it is still making buds. After a blooming cycle is a better time to repot and you can cut off some of the bottom roots and repot it in the same pot. tish
fred_hill
15 years ago
HI Janet,
YOu did a great job reviving that little gem. It really looks good and has nice symmetry which is hard to attain from a plant with girl leaves. Now is the time to repot into a 3 incher. Slide it out of the present pot and slip it into the new one and fill in with mix around it. Make sure the plant is in the center of the pot amd try not to disturb the root ball too much.
Fred in NJ
m3rma1d
15 years ago
AWESOME! We love success stories!!
maidinmontana
15 years ago
That is a sweet, delicate little thing. You must be so proud of her. I bet she will become your fav if she isn't already. That's what's so awesome about this website, so much information and advice.

ps what are girl leaves?
Christine
15 years ago
Hi,

Click on the link below and scroll down for a picture and description of "girl" leaves. It's amazing to see the variety of bloom and leaf shapes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Types of Blossoms and Leaves
ima_digger
15 years ago
Donna, thanks for that great site. Lots of good info for us violetoholics!