African Violets - any fanciers here?
Posted: Oct 27, 2010 3:40 pm
I will be the first to admit, I've never been particularly successful with them. However, I was in the grocery a few of months ago, and saw a really pretty one with dark green foliage and magenta flowers. I usually buy a bunch of cut flowers for my master bath and toss them after a week, but this AV was so pretty and the same price as a bunch I decided to buy it. It started looking ratty about 2 weeks later, so I took it out of the bath (no windows) and stuck it in a windowsill in my sitting area. I gave it a little water and pretty much forgot about it. Two weeks later, I noticed it was looking perkier again so I picked it up and noticed there were 4 new bloom stems coming from the crown. Wow! This thing LIKES this spot! so over the last couple of months I have moved it in and out of the bathroom and actually bought a bottle of AV fert to add a drop when I water.
Fast forward to last week. I was poking around on ebay, and for no good reason decided to look at AV auctions. OMG! There are as many AVs out there as hostas! So what is a plant addict to do in the fall, but buy a leaf auction. Oh goody! Not just ANY leaf auction, I got a "sellers choice" of 24 different leaves (for a good price, shipping included). The very generous seller sent multiple leaves of most varieties and there were over 30 bags of leaves! So I went from 1 grocery store AV to 2 mini gerenhouses filled with 30 odd varieties that I have hopes at least some will survive. I do have them all labeled so I know what I have. I am absolutely astounded at the variations in foliage, and that doesn;t even include having ANY idea wht the blooms will look like! I am totally enthralled with these little babies and would love to compare notes with someone else who is "into" them too.
BTW - what is "girl" foliage? I have googled it and seen it used as a descriptor, but I haven;t seen an associated photo so I am not sure what that means.
Alexa
Fast forward to last week. I was poking around on ebay, and for no good reason decided to look at AV auctions. OMG! There are as many AVs out there as hostas! So what is a plant addict to do in the fall, but buy a leaf auction. Oh goody! Not just ANY leaf auction, I got a "sellers choice" of 24 different leaves (for a good price, shipping included). The very generous seller sent multiple leaves of most varieties and there were over 30 bags of leaves! So I went from 1 grocery store AV to 2 mini gerenhouses filled with 30 odd varieties that I have hopes at least some will survive. I do have them all labeled so I know what I have. I am absolutely astounded at the variations in foliage, and that doesn;t even include having ANY idea wht the blooms will look like! I am totally enthralled with these little babies and would love to compare notes with someone else who is "into" them too.
BTW - what is "girl" foliage? I have googled it and seen it used as a descriptor, but I haven;t seen an associated photo so I am not sure what that means.
Alexa