Hi and welcome to the forum.

Your plants are taking a breather in between blooms. Be gentle, patient and loving with them and they'll bloom again within the next 2 to 3 months.

Hope you'll stick around.
Share some pics if you're able.
Dora

Well, I'm gonna try uploading some pictures.

This is one of my violets sitting in the East Window. It's a little pathetic looking, but it's blooming.
{{gwi:367615}}

This is another one, same window:
{{gwi:367616}}

This is one of the ones in my West Window:
{{gwi:367617}}

Here's the same plant when it was in bloom:
{{gwi:367618}}

Here's my other one that is in the west window:
{{gwi:367617}}

And here it is in bloom:
{{gwi:367619}}

And today, I went to a greenhouse, and couldn't resist these two: I don't even know what the blooms look like, but the leaves were so pretty, I couldn't don't care, lol.

Buckeye Colossal
{{gwi:367620}}

Wrangler's Winter Hawk:
{{gwi:367621}}

My camera is brand new, and I have no idea how to turn off the flash, but that last one, the flash didn't go off, so it's leaves just naturally have that much white in them.

WOW! VERY nice AVs! Welcome!

Welcome Abigail,

This is a very friendly, helpful group. There are a lot of people here who have been growing for a long time. If you have any questions, just ask. You will get answers. What works for one does not always work for another. There's not "one" correct way. Your plants are very nice. I love all the plants, but really like varigated leaves. Have fun!

Mary

yes they are all very pretty love the last 2 i have one that was that way went green now changing back weird huh and i have growen av's for 40 years and I have learned trial and error i the best teacher but someone to help you is the very best.
Heck I am still learning things and throwing out violets it makes me cry...but i am now learning that all this time a lot could have been my dumb soil I was using.
bye for now hope to see you around.
j.bees

Thanks everyone! I'm learning that plants are so unpredictable. Does anyone have any advice about potting mix? I'm planning to wick water all of my violets, and I wanna make sure I put them in something good. Currently, they're all either in African Violet mix or whatever they came in. I've never seen Vermiculite around here anywhere, though I do have a bag of Perlite.

I don't use vermiculite at all. I just cut a light potting mix (I use the one from Bluebird Greenhouse) with perlite, often up to 50%. They do well this way. I tried making my own mix before, with peat, vermiculite, and perlite, and found that I don't care much for the vermiculite part of that formula. I'd rather just use more perlite. Maybe that's just me, though.

There are as many different recipes for soil as there are growers, I think :)

I like a slight variation of the 1:1:1 recipe.

I mix up equal parts of Pro Mix Peat Moss, vermiculite and perlite and then I add a little more perlite until I get it looking like I want it.
The last time I did a repotting, I mixed my Marathon granules into the bag of soil before I started. I knew I was going to use the entire bag of mix that I'd done so I felt this was acceptable.

This hobby/lifestyle has really been about gathering information from experienced sources and then going through huge periods of trial and error to see what works best for you, the plant varieties that you have and your growing conditions.

We learn as we grow :)
Dora

Welcome to the forum!

If you plan to wick water, it is really important to have a potting medium that is very light, meaning there is a lot of air spaces in the mix. This is what the perlite and vermiculite do for you. Commercial African violet mixes such as MiracleGro, Black Orchid, etc. are almost all peat moss. This will hold waaaay too much water when wicking, and you will have root rot in a NY minute. By using Dora's 1-1-1 mix for wicking, you will have more success.

If you have an AV club in your area, I encourage you to attend the meetings. You'll meet a great group of people that love to share their knowledge with you, and they are very generous in sharing plants or leaves also. You can find clubs listed on the AVSA website. There is also a lot of growing info.

If no clubs, read everything you can get your hands on about AV's. 'Growing to Show' by Pauline Bartholomew is jam-packed with info that is as relevant to the hobby grower as the show grower.

And, of course, your friendly forum members will help you too!

Barbara

Here is a link that might be useful: AVSA website

Thank you all so much for your kind welcomes! I honestly have been soaking up all of the information on this site and some other ones like a sponge! I actually feel like I know something about African Violets now instead of oh, it's a pretty plant my mom used to raise.

So, I did manage to find Vermiculite around here. I have that, along with some perilite. For the third part, should I use African Violet mix or Peat Moss? I do have both, though the peat is Sphagnum peat moss ... and is that the same thing as peat?

Any of those would be fine.

The violet mix from the store is readily available and that makes it easier to use. Around here, it's easy to find Vermiculite int he spring but not any other time. Once you find what you like, buy it in quantities to last you a while.

Dora

Welcome Abigail!
Your story gave me a chuckle. Thank you for posting your pictures. It is always such a treat to get to see what others are growing. Someday I will have to learn how to post them. Your 6th picture down looks a lot like my first violet that I named Eve. What beautiful blooms yours has.
Raven

Welcome! You have a great assortment of bloom and leaf colors in your new plants. Please post more photos as your plants mature and come into full bloom.

I just wanted to point out that if you use an African Violet potting mix, to check and see if it contains fertilizer. I use Miracle Grow and it has fertilizer already in it. I wick my plants so I add perlite and vermiculite to it. The only brand of perlite the stores here carry is Miracle Grow and there's even fertilizer in it! Check the bags and see how long the fertilizer lasts and don't fertilize your plants during that period. I don't want what happened to some of my poor newly potted plants when I immediately fertilized them to happen to yours!