They are much too wet... you can try putting a kleenex or paper towel on top of the dirt to help them get dried out faster. You can also take a good leaf off of the plants and put it in water and try to start a new plant that way. Once it gets roots you can plant it in a pot with dirt.

Melsmile -

I would use an advice Wakechick gave you - definitely take the healthy leaves for rooting and if the plants are already rotting - I would toss them. Next time bring home only the best, the healthiest, the prettiest bloom etc. Do not burden yourself with the dogs. The local store people do not have the experience and conditions to care properly for these plants - and whatever is not sold in first 10 days will end dead.

Good Luck

Irina

Sometimes we buy our own problems! You are probably lucky to only have root rot. What if the roots are full of soil mealy bug, or the crown is full of cyclamen mite!

At this point, I would repeat the advice of planting a leaf. Then take the plant out of the pot and let it dry on newspaper or toweling. Once dry, scrape as much of the soil off as you can and cut any brown roots then repot in fresh soil. Plants die quicker from root rot (over watering) than for any other reason.

You're not really saving money when you have to work so hard to get a plant into healthy condition. Good luck with it.

Nancy

Irina and Nancy are positively right. Like you I used to bring home dying african violets from local stores - the last time I did that 2 1/2 years ago I lost my entire african violet collection to mites. The cheap plants turned expensive as I bought stuff to save them and all of my hybrids then finally gave up as the mites kept winning. A healthy african violet from the store is welcome, with quarantine, but a dying one isn't coming here again. I too would toss the plant (and hopefully any bugs etc) and keep a leaf or two (I'd rinse the leaf in barely warm water mixed with a tiny amount of mild dish soap to hopefully get rid of anything I couldn't see - yes paranoid here) and start it instead.

Ouch!

To add to A-CAT suggestions - when I bring leaves to plant from outside world - I usually make 3 bowls - water with Clorax bleach - 1/3-1/4 concentration, water with dish soap - and clean water. Newspaper, razor blade, solo cups with 1:1:1 soil and Sharpie marker.

The leaf goes to bleach for a minute, gets rinsed there - tweezers help - rinsed in soapy water and soaked in pure water. Then I cut the stem with a razor blade - and stick it in a solo cup and use the marker to write the name on the cup. This way - they all got desinfected and potted - and to the transparent plastic box it goes - and 2 months later I have mouse ears all over the place.

You can bring all possible bugs with a plant from somewhere else - working with leaves is much safer. The only thing that survives bleach - is virus - so do not propagate from a plant with distorted and spotted leaves.

Good Luck and Enjoy Your Bloom!

Irina