Hi All,

I've been reading here on the forum for a while now, but have finally gotten around to "joining" today.

I've had a lot of AVs in the past, just as a home gardener with a beautiful sun room full of violets, ivy, spider plants, orchids... After a friends grandmother passed, I inherited on of the grandmothers violets and was charged with it's safe keeping. I then made some cross country moves and left the particular violet in the care of my mother. She kept it alive - but that's about it. It was in heavy potting soi, limp, wilted, and in a huge clay pot looking rough.

Now that I'm a bit more settled, I took the violet back a few months ago and really used the advice listed on this forum to get it back to health. I split it up into two plants. The "mother" is actually quite small, but blooming, and the "sucker" is now a large plant and doing well. It's budding, but I'm going to cut those off to help the root system and leaves grow stronger first.

I've also picked up a few mini violets. One of them arrived (mail order from the Selective Gardner) healthy, but very uneven. Almost all the growth was on one side of the plant. Today, my Exacto knife and I took off MANY leaves from this mini. It's the "Creek Girl" - you can look it up at the Selective Gardners website. Pretty plant with pink flowers. The leaves actually have stems that I think are a bit long for a mini, so it might actually be a semi-mini, or it might be that way because it was so off center in the pot.

Anyway, I JUST cut these leaves off and would be glad to send them along to anyone. They are quite healthy, pest and disease free - although, I do have a pet rabbit, so you might find a bunny hair or two along for the ride!

Please let me know if you'd like to send a leaf or two your way!

Again, thanks for putting up such great advice!

Amber