One african violet. Is that possible?

I had only one african violet for a few years--one of those tiny watermaid Optimaras you buy at Walmart. I bought it because it looked sad. That was my primary reason for buying plants in those days.

~Brambles

Many, many, many years ago I started out with 2 violets, given by my mother-in-law. Little did I realize then it would lead to an obsession, or maybe it's an addiction, to needing an overwhelming collection(which I love dearly)! Overwhelming refers to time spent watering, not to mention repotting and grooming all my plants. Doesn't matter, I still love them!!! :)

Elaine

Surprise!!! Yes, we have only one. I bought it at a church rummage sale and thought for sure I was giving it a death sentence.
It has thrived for two years in a house that is occupied full time in the summer only. The rest of the year it sits quietly on the kitchem table and waits for it's weekly watering.
The truly amazing thing is this plant seems to never quit blooming and most of this summer it has looked like a whole boquet of ruffly double lavendar flowers. jJst love it and came here looking for info as I'm wondering about getting more.

Hi Beth,

Welcome to this forum! By all means, please do yourself a favor and get some more. Violets are such rewarding plants, filling our homes with lots of blooms. There is an excellent website at www.rachelsreflections.com which has lots of information as does the AVSA site below. Check out their FAQ section which also has a wealth of information available.

Be warned, these plants are addictive!!! :0)

Elaine

Here is a link that might be useful: AVSA

they're like potato chips. you can't have just one.

-sigh-

Beth, You must remember to isolate when you get new ones. You wouldn't want to bring pesties into your beautiful old faithful.

-Mo (WV)

I used to have just one. Sigh. I had just one for *years*. A different one for each of several years. When I say years, I mean, like, 20 years. Maybe 25. It was just one of those plants I liked to have around. And then, last year, I moved into a new house. I put my violets (I had two at this time - cast-offs from my sister) in the kitchen window. And they *BLOOMED*!!! *That* had never happened before. And then I found this forum, and realized that there were people (*not* at the nursery) who could answer my questions and help me through. That was it. Now I'm an addict. I just bought some on e-bay!

Feelge,

Happily waiting for my plants to arrive....

A week ago I had zero. Now I have three (from a friend). And a really really nice person on the exchange offered to send me leaves so I'll have lots. They're so cool! I intend to have a bunch at work as well as at home. They're perfect.

--Carolyn

Hi,

I started out with two violets. I was given a leaf cutting from my grandmother. The cutting produced two plants. So, I have no idea what having one violet is like.

Larry

heh I should get more shouldent I?!

-Jc

I only have one African Violet *gasp!* I bought it on clearance and it has done well and has rebloomed again. It will be joined by new AVs soon, they are pretty great plants.

years ago you could get seed
i have been looking for 2 days on the net
no luck, anyone knows a seed suplier

Park's Seed has them occasionally...right now they're sold out, sigh...
Sharon

found one http://www.violetshowcase.com/seedoff.htm

I had only one violet for a few years since 1996 up until last year. It was one of my only plants until I decided I needed more plants in my life in the last few years. Then I bought another last year because the other wouldn't bloom. *Then* I figured out how to make it rebloom more often than once every year or so :-) (repotting...duh, that, and fertilizer). Then I overloved it and rotted it from the bottom...saved the leaves and now I have 16+ little plantlets...what do you do with so many? Are they easy to mail? When they get big enough maybe I can trade with y'all for some others. :-) It's a no-name but it's beautiful light blue with white edges and it's ruffly but not quite a double.

When I killed it, of course I bought a new one (another noID) :-) now I have way too many little plants and two big 'uns. I also managed to kill a mini violet that was an optimara and in one of those little 1" pots...so, so cute and it made me sad that I didn't care for it correctly, so that's how I ended up with my blue supermarket standard violet :-)

The latest one is a fantasy pink with blue flecks and the most beautiful glitter/sparkle of pink. I don't remember the blooms so well because it came with thrips and I had to cut off all of the blooms :-(. My deep purple double is ending it's cycle soon, but boy is it prolific. I hope it reblooms for me...I think I have lighting issues because they don't stay in constant bloom and I only use the sun through the windows. Imagine if I had a light stand!

So, um, yeah, long answer short: less than ten (two) if you don't count the little ones (which I cannot keep all, but maybe one or two).

minibot (way too chatty for Wednesday)

Your Ok if you have only one, but if you have 2 or more, don't turn your back. They are like rabbits, and you will have those little babies hopping all over your house. You know you are in trouble, when every window in your house is full and your looking for space at work for them. Please, Please, PLEASE someone keep me from going to the Sacramento show and sale this fall!

Lanay, you lucky dog, you have to go to Sacramento. I can't afford to get there, so I'll do it vicariously through you. Pleeeeeeeze?

Korina (feeling whiny and self-pitying)

Geez, I *never* had just one. When I bought my first, I bought a pair.

I have just one. Actually, just one leaf, which I rooted in water and just planted, and it has the beginnings of a plant. I didn't even plan to have an African violet, but was walking down the street in my neighborhood and there was a leaf, lying in the middle of the road, probably fallen from someone's balcony. What could I do? It was like finding a forlorn kitten, of course I "adopted" it. I don't even know what color it will be but I'm guessing pink. Time will tell! :)

Wow Sazji, now *that's* a found violet leaf! How fun!

minibot

Yes I have only one. I bought it in January. I don't know its name. It came in a pretty ribboned basket,you see. Had it on my desk at work for eight months, kept a grow light on it. Did a good job watering it and let it dry in between. Then I brought it home and put it in my south-facing window. It'd been there two months and I see flower heads forming. YIPPEE!

I went with a friend the other day and she bought 6 violets at our local greenhouse that specializes in African Violets and gave me one, so ya, for now, I have a no-name one and just remembered I was a member here on Garden Web, even though it had been awhile since I had visited here. Getting leaves by mail would be neat! And I NEVER knew that EBay had them...lookout! LOL
Got my first AF when we bought our first home 35 years ago when a neighbor brought it to me as a welcome gift.
Light colored AFs are my fav and I'm thinking about trying miniatures.. you see... I've got 3 10 gallon aquariums and one hood light..wonder how many would fit in there? (thinking crazy thots here)

And Baby Makes 3!

I bought a pretty purple noid from Pathmark (or Home Depot) years ago. It did all right for a while, then it struggled valiantly and expired!!! I got another, did some research and discovered self watering pots. Lots of trial and error...Now I have had it for at least 4 years and it is an ever-blooming joy. I suddenly realized it was one of the most dependable and satisfying plants I ever owned - in the garden or out. It just became very dear to me. So I bought another - its also deep purple with a yellow center/ I brought it to work...and it is in flower right now - under a lamp and on my desk - close enough to touch.

I finally got the nerve to dare for more - and I have a new trailer (galiwinku) and two streptocarps (Bristol's Very Berry and Bristol's Nightfall) in tiny 2.5" pots on the desk too. No blooms yet, though. I am "happy-like-a-child" right now. Um and I visit the forum every day to hear about other folks and to get it right from the start, this time!

(I bought a small turkey baster for watering the little 'uns from the top since their pots aren't self-watering.)

D

Goodness, this forum is great for the spirits and hard on the wallet and light garden space! Last week I had--well, I had more than one, but fewer than ten, mostly no ID Optimaras grown from leaves. I love to propagate AV's but I tend to propagate, then give away the plants once they're big enough. I just like the process.

Ahem. Until early last week, when I was browsing this forum on a whim. Now I have 6 or so AV leaves and 3 plants (plus 3 Chiritas and 2 Kohlerias) coming in the mail this week. And I rescued 2 other plants from a past-bloom nursery shelf. I know that doesn't seem like a lot to those who are really serious, but it way more than doubles my collection. Plus, I've been staying up very late looking at AV's for the past week...set up another light garden...this is kind of serious...

Amanda

That sucking sound you hear is Amanda's wallet going dry. She may not know it yet, but she's being lured into the lurid world of **AV ADDICTION**.

Hey, anyone want to make a film like Reefer Madness for us AV nuts? ;-D

Korina

I actually have only one AV, bought it about a year ago. Has nice green leaves but I never saw another bloom after the original ones fell off. Don't plan on buying another one unless this one blooms. If that happens I'll probably go crazy and won't stop buying them. They are beautifull after all (when they bloom that is :-))

Birgit

Brigit, check the FAQ on the forum's main page for cultural info. Also check the link below for Rachel's page; *tons* of info, with pics!

If you haven't repotted since you bought it, I'll bet a nickle that the soil's too heavy; the commercial stuff is almost solid peat. Repot immediately with a mix of 1 part coir or peat or commercial AV mix, 1 part perlite, and 1 part vermiculite. It'll be much happier. Also, they like to be constantly fed with a weak fertilizer. *And,* if the plant is lying flat in a nice rosette, you are giving it the proper amount of light. Oh, and make sure the diameter of the pot is equal to 1/3 the diameter of the plant; they like to be snug.

Good luck.

Korina

Here is a link that might be useful: Rachel's Reflections

I have just one Saintpaulia that I propagate annually and grow on in the bathroom - same with a single Maranta and a single Epipremnum.

{{gwi:373918}}

My Website

I have only one violet. Just bought it a week ago. I felt sorry for it as it had been knocked over on the store display and lost most of it's soil. So I bought it and a bag of AV soil and a new pot for the poor little thing. Are you all saying that I can't quit at just one and this will become an obsession?

I don't personally know anyone who has just one violet.

I have one here and one there. And a bunch on those shelves. ha.

Peter, nice plant. It looks like you have some suckers growing there. Check the FAQ on the forum's main page for information on what those are and what to do with them. Check out the link below to see pics.

Suckers can be used to make new plants, but they tend to drain the mother plant so you don't get as many flowers as you otherwise might. A nice flat rosette looks better, too.

Korina

Okay. Let's try this again.

Actual link below.

Suckers *left on* drain the mother plant.

Korina (more tea...)

Here is a link that might be useful: Sucker!

The reason why I only have one is because I only want one. I have a begonia rex that I propagate from a leaf cutting every other year. It's parentage goes back to 1985 when I brought it home form my work at the municipal nursery. My pleasure is not in quantity but in simple propagation.

This one is the vegetative parent of this years, the image I posted previously. Once the leaf cutting is well rooted I give the parent plant away.

{{gwi:373919}}

My Website

Well, you don't actually *have* to grow the suckers, you just could. You do know that the life span of an AV is indefinite, right? Or do you just like growing new ones?

Korina

I purchased one in August as a confidence builder. Was told if I could get an AV to bloom I could get a phal orchid to bloom. Unfortunately it had thrips, not knowing how to care for it, I threw it out and purchased another (mini with dark red flowers). Which had thrips too, but this time I got it a companion (standard, dark blue with fine white edged flowers). They convalesced together for 6 weeks and are now starting to bloom!

Now if only those orchids would do the same...

You guys are so inspiring! In the last week, I've bought three. (It started with one and...you know the rest). And it's been years since I tried to grow AV's...my old apartment was way too dark. I'm already plotting to buy more (just don't tell my husband--our windowsills are already covered, vertically and horizontally, with all sorts of green). Now I'm fantasizing about elegant "lightgardens" in the livingroom...Can light gardens be elegant??

I'm working my way up to changing the soil, excavating "suckers" (what a name!), and all that...after I read a bit more on this forum--what a great bunch of "addicts!" I'll gladly join!

Mm! I used to only have one, a NOId from a supermarket.. And then the leaf cuttings began, and I have lots of babies kicking around the house now.

Now I'm just waiting for someone to buy me some more for Christmas.. :D

Melanie

I had only one pink single for several years, but last summer spied a most unusual bicolor , with two petals of white and the others almost a dark red. Very unusual to say the least, but of course now that it's in it's second blooming period it's got almost solid red petals and the white is nearly gone. Gol durned if I can figure that one out , but I've often heard other folks inquire about various other flowers that have undergone changes in flower color over time, and I have that even with my Black Friar daylily , which was nearly black and still is mixed in with another very old clump of another variety, but all the divisions came out red with a yellow vein down each petal, and of course we all know about color changes for hydrangeas. I'm just wondering if changes in pH affect the color for AV's as well, or perhaps some other addition of a new trace mineral. Anyway, I hope the original color returns and I would like many more colors, so my days of having just one AV may be over for a long time as I add many more to the two I already have. After all , I've never had any other houseplant that can flower so well, and so reliably for me numerous times yearound , with gro-lites.
and the leaves are pretty too!!

Birdinthepalm,

Yes, pH can affect bloom color. So can temp, light, and fertilizer. Oh, age and stress, too. :-P

Korina

I live in Vietnam and used to have only one AV a year ago. Now I have ten. Recently I bought this plant,which looks like an AV, but I don't know if it really is an AF. Can anyone help me identify this one, please.
{{gwi:373920}}

Hmm, looks like a primrose (Primula). No relation to Saintpaulia, but pretty.

Korina

Thank you Korina. I will have to check to see if primrose produces suckers because I'd like to have more of this plant.

An elderly lady I know had ONE lovely, ruffled leaf pale amethyst African violet on her kitchen window sill for about 30 years. It was always in bloom, but then, she lived in San Diego, and what doesn't bloom there? I moved 9 years ago to Salt Lake City and my precious collection of weird succulents, jasmines, orchids and AVs was largely decimated. I've managed over the years to learn that the gardenias must come in for the winter, I cannot grow orchids here in plastic pots, and the AV's benefit from having all blooms removed as soon as they bud (or if you buy them in bloom) for about the first year or so. I tried this after hearing it on Martha Stewart. I did so on one plant and it had only bloomed intermittently. It is now covered with blooms and has been since early December. It gets fertilized with the same commercial grade osmocote that I use on my orchids, once a year. I only have 3 AVs now and would like to get more---preferably with varigated leaves, ruffled leaves and/or picotee flowers and double flowers. Sometimes, the local WalMart or Loewe's gets some amazing looking AVs, but alas! No name markers :( which makes it hard to know what you've got!

Don't you mean, can I get one more to fit on the shelf?

I think more people would have more violets if the stores sold the named varieties, the really beautiful and reblooming ones that are available to us thru trades and violet sellers. Walmart and Home Depo sell the same ones over and over, rarely do I ever find a gem, they are sold is soil that holds too much water and they don't rebloom very often, also the leaves aren't special, rarely see a ruffled, girl or varigated leaf nor are there semi-minature, mini (except again for the same optimara)or trailing violets. For years I've had a few violets then 3 yrs ago I found out about the trailing, mini, and semi-mini. I was amazed there were so many varieties of violets! Now I have no more shelf space but I want more plants!!!

tish

I bought my first one on November 17th 2007, only a day. I have immediately repotted it and have added water to the soil below the leaves. I was told to avoid getting water on the leaves. I was also told to allow the soil to mostly dry before watering again. So far so good. I also well make sure the powdery mildew does not appear on my plant.
Thanks for all the help everyone. It is much appretiated.

Tish,
Just this July I started out with one av and quickly went to 18. Now I'm downsizing to fit my downsized apartment and feel more comfortable with what's left.
Re Wal Mart, Home Depot and others: I've figured out why the av's I bought from area supermarkets are pest-free and very pretty -- and that is that supermarkets are really paranoid about bugs. The ones I got at WM turned out to be loaded with thrips and I also suspect the ones from HD. The employees in those type stores don't know a thing about av's or most other plants. They just water 'em and sell 'em fast. I did get a couple of very nice ones from my local gardening store as well. The best, of course, are those I bought from Deb here on the Forum. They get personal care, they have names, they are healthy and they are beautiful. So now I'll only buy something unusual, keeping in mind the space available.
I'm very happy with the ones I now have and hope to keep them in perfect health for a long time.
Krys
PS Is there an AV Anonymous somewhere?

I only have one AV... at the moment... you can't really count the tray of leaf cuttings I have rooting, as they just went in the tray a few days ago...

I've had this one, plain lavender, no name, AV for the last three or four years, and it seemed to bloom perpetually! It only just stopped blooming recently... it had a bad case of long-neck... thanks to information found at Rachel's Reflections, I cured the long-neck... and saved the removed leaves to make more plant babies with!

I can't get any more AV's as I have nowhere to put them... you see, I'm also a Hippeastrum Addict, and most of my window space and shelf space has been taken up with pots of giant bulbs in various states of bloom and growth!! I also have a small collection of orchids vying for space, along with a hodge podge of other common houseplants, such as English Ivies and salvaged Geraniums, Spider plants and Mother-In-Law's-Tongue...

Did I mention that all this is packed within a small apartment, along with a husband and two dogs?? It's a jungle in here!!

When my grandmother passed away in 1999 I rescued an AV from her kitchen table. Her house had already been closed up for a few weeks when we went to clean it out, and it was mid-summer, so the poor thing had essentially been in an oven. It was all brown and dried out, and my heart went out to it. I had no idea what it was, but I took it home... and promptly killed it by over-watering it.

Enter AV #2, because clearly I needed to prove to myself that I could take care of one and not kill it. So for a little while, yes, I had only one AV.

However, AVs #3, 4, 5, and 6 followed closely thereafter.

Then I moved from Boston to LA. My apartment I was moving into didn't get any light and I was worried the AVs would die during the road trip, so I left them all with my mother. That was years ago and she's taken wonderful care of them. She always shows them off to me when I visit them. I mean her. :0)

Now for the most recent round of obsession... Three years ago I rescued an AV off of a co-workers desk after she quit unexpectedly (that's the one that's never bloomed until now). For a few weeks, yes, I owned only one. But then I happened to see one with girl foliage at the supermarket, and found it so unusual that I had to buy it.

For three years I had just the two AVs, but now I'm in full-on obsession mode again. It started when I moved into my condo over the summer and had all this sunlight flooding in... and, well, you can imagine the rest!