Don't leave it alone. This may sound scary, but what you need to do is decapitate it! Below is a link explaining the process. When you repot, put it into a smaller, shorter pot. Your coworker's African Violet only has a couple of blooms and eventually when the "neck" gets long enough, the plant will quit blooming entirely and eventually die ( voice of experience talking - when I was a teen I had a palm tree African Violet - I didn't know they weren't supposed to grow that way). The plant will be much happier once you've resored it!

Here is a link that might be useful: Restoring a Violet

Okay, I've re-potted it. Here are some pics. It was blooming really well for a while. I picked a TON of spent blossoms off a few weeks ago and there were three more on there before I took the picture.

Here is what I was left with. I didn't have a shallow pot, but I did have a smaller one.

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The guy at the garden shop told me to score the "trunk" a bit, so I did that carefully with a knife. I also dusted on some rooting hormone. I don't want to take any chances. Honestly, the guy said I could keep it, but I feel bad taking his plant. I'm hoping to bring it back to him once it's rooted and settle for taking care of it for him in his own office. :)

The rooting hormone should help - a lot of people use it on necks and suckers. The link wasn't very explicit, but since the plant no longer has roots, it may not be able to support all of the mature leaves it had. You might want to remove the outer ring of leaves. Don't worry, new ones will quickly grow in. The pot is still a bit too large for a plant without roots, so be sure the soil isn't too soggy, which could rot the stem. If you haven't thrown the leaves away you could plant a couple for insurance and make babies so your coworker gets a nice plant again one way or another (and you get one or more too!). Good luck. The flowers are really pretty.

I did start a few leaves. I removed about a dozen. Should I remove a few more?

Kim,

Do you have Pauline Bartholomew's book, "Growing to Show?" It might be helpful.

I have an older version and hadn't read much of it until recently. I hated to disagree with such an expert but when she wrote that "it is almost sure death to pot them in a standard pot...the inch or so of space at the bottom...is unused by the roots, the soil stays wet and soggy," I think I yelled BS!

I grew mine in standard pots for years and had no sure deaths and still use a standard pot once in awhile. When I take the plant out, there are roots at the bottom.

However, further along in the book, she started talking about 6" and even 7" and 8" pots. Okay. I've never put a violet in a pot that big and I agreed that it would be too deep. Since you seem to gravitate toward somewhat larger pots, you might find some useful tips there. (I have that original pot in white and it is way too big for a violet if it's the same size as mine. I can grow a big coleus in it.) I think your pots around 5"-6" and very nice but not as easy for violets, especially when a plant doesn't have a large root system.

Another way to get a bigger plant is to let them get suckers, but I have always grown single crowned plants. County fairs would often have a huge multi-crowned african violet sporting a blue ribbon :).

Diana

Hi Diana,
Yes, the original pot is 5"-6". The pink one I put it into is a 4". When I brought the AV home, it was about 12" across, so using the 1/3 rule, I thought a 4" would be a good size. Of course, I then trimmed some of the larger leaves off, so it's not 12" across anymore. I'm sure this will be fine as long as I am careful about watering. I moistened the soil before I stuck the "stump" in it and it is now covered with a bag until the roots form. Do you think I should trim even more leaves?

I'm keeping my hopes up on this one. :)

Hi Kim,

If it were me, I'd take off a few more of the oldest outer leaves. There's no one right way to do it: for example, some growers recommend just leaving 8 or 9 leaves total, while others just leave the crown and a couple of rows of leaves. While it seems drastic to remove so many leaves, it's better for the rootless plant not to have the stress of trying to support too many of them.

Donna

Okay, I plucked a couple more rows off. I'll keep a close eye on it. It fits better in the bag this way, anyways. :)

Thanks Donna!