More from AVSA magazine

Back issues worth another look

African Violet
Question Box from the March - April 2014 issue by Sue Haffner answers a question about "mossing off".  Although she had never heard the term, after further research she concluded it was another name for "air layering".  
She directed readers to a previous issue from May - June 2013 with an article by Sharon Rosenzweig, "Air Layering your leggy African violets." 

For African Violets it would be a way to root a long "neck".  Instead of decapitating the plant and taking your chance that it survives the surgery, you root the bare stem first. Remove several rows of old leaves and scrape the stem slightly. Wrap damp sphagnum moss around the stem and secure plastic wrap at the base and near first row of leaves. Roots will grow into the moss over the next few weeks and THEN you cut the lower half of the old plant off. Genius. 
I'm trying it on one of mum's palm trees!
 

http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/live/g1853/build/

 
In an effort to document some of my new arrivals as they become a part of my daily routine of hovering over plants again, I plopped my sample onto the page of one found in the magazine.

I found an example of Jolly Orchid photographed in the May - June 2014 issue.

Rob's Slap Happy was pictured in the January - February 2014 issue.

My first online African Violet mentor was Fred Hill from the GardenWeb site. (It has recently changed ownership and is now called Houzz.) His was a wise voice, suggesting common sense advice on how to coax mom's AV's into living longer and blooming better at my house. It was a running theme with my mom that I would liberate a blooming AV from her overcrowded windowsill and bring it to my house . . . to finish blooming and die. (She always laughed and said she had plenty more!) 

Fred offered practical advice and stayed above the fray when different factions of online groups sometimes failed to play nicely.  Soon after finding GardenWeb I came across a brand new MSN site called Violet Voice. I posted my exciting new find and was promptly yelled at by someone named Spike.  Fred followed me over there anyways and we became some of Mrs. John's first Charter Members.

My last issue of African Violet magazine before my membership lapsed had his In Memory tribute (July - August 2014).
Fred once sent me several leaves of Persian Prince. He placed them in a plain envelope with spacers so they wouldn't get crushed: for the price of a couple of first class stamps they arrived in just a few days and successfully grew on to become beautiful plants. 

I regret losing that one. Perhaps it's time to renew my membership with AVSA in his honor.
Plant pictured is Ma's Melody Girl and I am also growing Jersey Girl Trail.

From the March - April 2005 issue I found Nancy Robitaille's show schedule, "Disbudding For Show" and since I don't have the Grow To Show book, this is the next best thing I can find at the moment.  Not that there's any shows around here!
But I do like to grow out a plant for a while before letting it bloom. 
The African Violet world recently lost Nancy's knowledgeable voice. I counted her as one of my favorite online mentors as well.

Below is the list of most of my new collection. I have several that still need to be entered into First Class 2 manually. My version hasn't been updated since 2013.

Berry Splash (4107) 11/10/1980 (E. Champion) Double pink and fuchsia. Variegated, plain. Standard

Celery Sport Celery: Single blue wasp; Variegated longifolia, bustled. The sport is not variegated. (User Database)

Frosted Denim (8513) 11/09/1996 (S. Sorano) Semidouble light blue pansy/white edge. Medium green, plain, quilted. Miniature

Grape Glory (10531) 04/09/2012 (P. Sorano/Lyndon Lyon Greenhouses) Semidouble-double blue ruffled star/lavender fantasy, white edge. Medium green, plain, serrated. Standard

Jersey Girl Trail (10374) 11/22/2010 (R. Kurzynski) Single-semidouble fuchsia pansy. Medium green girl foliage. Miniature trailer

Jolly Cutie Pie (9712) 01/15/2007 (H. Pittman) Single-semidouble pink pansy. Dark green, plain, pointed, glossy. Miniature (TX Hyb, DAVS 1639)

Jolly Orchid (9719) 01/15/2007 (H. Pittman) Double orchid and white pansy. Medium green, plain, quilted. Miniature (TX Hyb, DAVS 1661)

Jolly Victory (9915) 03/07/2008 (H. Pittman) Double burgundy-red pansy. Medium green, plain. Miniature (DAVS 1669)

Lil Glimpse o' Spring (9932) 03/22/2008 (Lyndon Lyon Greenhouses/P. Sorano) Semidouble-double white pansy/green frilled edge. Medium green, wavy, serrated. Semiminiature

Mac's Elegant Green (MacDonald) Sdbl. white pansies with green edge. Medium green semiminiature foliage. Semiminiature (User Database)

Ma's Melody Girl (9132) 05/31/2002 (O. Robinson) Semidouble coral star/raspberry fantasy, band; thin white-green edge. Dark green, quilted girl foliage. Standard

Ness' Antique Red (D. Ness) Double dark red. Dark green, pointed, serrated/red back. Standard

Ness' Crinkle Blue (8136) 01/19/1995 (D. Ness) Double dark blue star/thin white edge. Dark green, quilted, serrated/red back. Semiminiature

Pixie Blue (2598) 09/16/1974 (L. Lyon) Single purple-blue/darker center. Plain, ovate. Miniature trailer

Ramblin' Lace (6361) 08/28/1986 (S. Sorano) Double light pink star. Variegated, plain. Standard trailer

Ramblin' Spots (7220) 10/21/1989 (S. Sorano) Semidouble-double pink/blue fantasy. Crown variegated medium green, plain. Standard trailer

Rob's Cool Fruit (8608) 05/31/1997 (R. Robinson) Double white pansy/rose-pink edge. Crown variegated medium green, white and yellow, pointed, serrated. Semiminiature

Rob's Heat Wave (7887) 06/02/1993 (R. Robinson) Semidouble light pink sticktite pansy/wide red frosted edge. Medium-dark green, quilted, serrated. Semiminiature

Rob's Love Bite (9039) 05/31/2001 (R. Robinson) Semidouble black-red pansy. Crown variegated dark green, cream and beige/red back. Miniature

Rob's Pewter Bells (7740) 07/06/1992 (R. Robinson) Semidouble silver-light blue large bell. Variegated dark green and white, pointed, quilted. Semiminiature

Rob's Whoa Nellie (8617) 05/31/1997 (R. Robinson) Double fuchsia pansy/white edge. Variegated medium green and white, pebbled, glossy. Semiminiature

SK-Apple Orchard (Kuznetsov) Beautiful "apple blossom" semidouble white blooms with light, rose-pink tips and edges to some petals. Medium, apple-green foliage. Semiminiature (User Database)

Spring Rose (9959) 03/22/2008 (Lyndon Lyon Greenhouses/P. Sorano) Double white star/frilled green edge. Light green, wavy, serrated. Standard

Wizard's Sunstrike (S. Jones) Single white wasp/yellow streaks. Light green, hairy/bustle back. Large

Lapsed AVSA Membership

Looking Back

My last issue of the magazine African Violet was July-August 2014.  Truth be told the final few issues I received before my membership expired went mostly unread. At about the same rate plant care went into a free fall worrying about other things.

I gathered my hoarded past issues onto the table and took another look. Catching my interest first, from the January-February 2014 issue, was A Beginner's Journey with 'Rob's Love Bite' by Jeannie M. Myers.  
This interested me most because I just ordered it! 
It arrived from Travis Violets as a baby still attached to the mama leaf. Included was a full page apology for his shipping delay and quality of plants not being up to his usual standard.  
6 plants arrived including a free, fairly large gift of Rob's Slap Happy. They seem fine!
 
My order of 8 plants from Rob's Violets also included a plant, Ramblin' Lace, still attached to the mama leaf. There was no note, plus they charged me about $5 more for shipping than the actual cost. That's like another plant . . . so I was a little cranky. I did leave a review on their website in order to receive the 8th plant "free" so my level of crankiness has subsided.

SK-Apple Orchard was the "freebie" and its uniqueness will be interesting to try growing out. Very light green leaves with the outer leaves looking almost like they are lacking something and might very well be the first to go if it thrives. The blossoms look like they came from an apple tree!

Ness Crinkle Blue is my prized treasure at the moment. 2 plants were actually sent! I set a few leaves right away of course.  And one had suckers that needed plucking right away. 
I stuck them in the pot to see if they live . . . 
WHAT! 
(Limit Your Collection doesn't count for this one!)

Blossoms Finally!

THIS IS NICE . . .

I have blooming African Violets once again!

Luckily, I'm only growing them for my own enjoyment as the ones supposedly described with "fantasy blooms" are not very fantastic at the moment. 

One blue splotch finally showed up on the newest bud of Storybook Princess.

Reflections of Spring

Huge bloom stalk leaf!

Reflections of Spring is the plant with velvety-soft leaves I've pet every time I've come near it.  It started putting out buds first on the shelf, but they seemed to have taken forever to finally begin opening. 

Great huge cabbage-heads of green!  

I've never been a fan of green blooms, especially green edged ones, but these are curious enough make me reconsider!   

 

Plant ID - Double stars of gray/blue are outlined with a wide green edge that's slightly fringed. Medium green, standard foliage is tailored and slightly quilted. 

Ness' Fantasy Gold

Ness' Fantasy Gold is lovely - even without much gold!

This one is in a self-watering planter. It seems to be doing okay.  I'm wondering if the ceramic actually acts as a filter from my "hard" water?

I have leaves propagating to try the plant with my conditions from the start. This is one of the larger plants from my friend in Montana actually doing the best. Dropping a clipboard on a couple of their heads a month ago didn't help much!

UNUSUAL CONTAINERS!

I separated babies from mother leaves already of Blueberry  Kisses! August 15 - October 15.

These perfectly formed little plantlets were the only ones produced per leaf. Makes starting them off on their own easier to do because untangling them from the mother leaf was not an issue.

PLUS population is under control when only one baby is produced per leaf. Except I started about 6 leaves!

Turns out insurance leaves of this one was a good idea, since I moved my adult plant to the living room to see if less light would make the leaf stems grow longer (make the center less tight) and promptly chilled one side of the plant. Lost at least 3 leaves closest to the window and another looks suspect. 

But it started to bloom!

Do you see the face? I glued some of my "rock collection" into a sculpture! The face rock was found on a sandbar of Pleasant River while fishing along behind Tom. Lollipop Kid (another newly propagated baby - but questionable as to how it's adjusting) in a container rock found Letterboxing with Sara while she was home for a quick visit.

"It takes a long time to grow an old friend."

Happily, an old friend and AV Mentor accepted my long overdue note in the spirit it was intended. What began to feel like an unforgivable absence was gracefully forgiven.

AND African Violets filled my mailbox!

Actually, the mail lady arrived finally at 4:52 p.m. and delivered the box straight into my waiting arms. The box had been on the floor next to her feet and the bottom was red hot. I feared the worst as I raced to the house with my precious cargo. So much so that blog photos I imagined of the new arrivals were forgotten.

Plants needed to get out!

AND LEAVES!

Affectionately referred to as Area 51. 

9/14/12 total leaf count came to fifty-one.

Anyone care to refresh our memory about the Golden Rule? :)

I challenge you to reach out to someone you owe a note or a phone call and renew your spirit. Don't take friends for granted.

And don't be afraid a friendship can't be mended, so you don't try. 

It may be just the boost you both need. 

I feel blessed! ♥

Experiment #1

Forsyth Pot Propagation

In the AVSA African Violet Magazine from July/August 2010 Sue Haffner's QUESTION BOX answers a reader's question about "Forsyth Pots" (or "Forsyth Gardens"). She had never heard of it and had to do a little research, describing it as "an old fashioned method of rooting cuttings of all sorts of plants" using a clay pot (with the hole plugged) filled with water and placed in the center of a larger pot filled with vermiculite. 

The leaf or other plant cuttings are placed around the rim.

The outer pot could be plastic, but the center pot must be clay so that the water soaks through to the rooting leaves. I had to make plant stake markers to identify my leaves as nothing would stick to the damp clay pot. 

Rob's Combustible Pigeon, Storybook Princess and Kandy Kitchen.

This PDF file from the University of Minnesota Extension Service describes the process more fully.

They note: * Plants that are somewhat difficult to root also have a better chance in a forsythe pot. 

For African Violet leaves they suggest you:

"...poke the petiole into the vermiculite so there is contact between the underside of the leaf blade and the moist vermiculite.  New plantlets will form at the base of the leaf blade."

It is not necessary that you "poke" the leaf all the way down so the the bottom touches the vermiculite as pictured on page 18 of the file. IMHO.

*Nobody seems to know who Forsythe was . . . ?

Update* This method may have been invented by a Mr. Forsyth as described in The Book of the Garden from 1853. That would make it an idea that's been around a while!

UPDATE September 17, 2012

Fuzzy mold growing on the outer clay pot drove home why clay pot use is widely discontinued! 

Wiped it down with handi-wipe. ASAP! Will consider moving it farther away from plants if mold returns too soon. 

Leaves are surprisingly still firm, although one seems to be "birth marking". I thought it was going mushy, but the discolored sections on the leaf seem firm. 

• I wonder if straight vermiculite causes it?
• Constant moist conditions of the method?
  
  
  UPDATE October 15, 2012: ENDED EXPERIMENT.

Mold on outside of pot and rims not acceptable risk for contaminating surroundings. Green algae build up inside smaller pot a cesspool of primordial goo! I quit this one. 100% vermiculite will NOT be my choice for propagating leaves. Roots went straight down but no sign of babies in this time frame. Normal soil less mix seems to have a faster success rate.

African Violet Plant Food

Schultz 8-14-9 African Violet Plus Micro-nutrients

www.schultz.com

I filled out the contact form at www.schultz.com with questions about the percentage of Nitrogen in their product made up from urea. It seems to be widely believed urea is bad for African Violets. An entire new industry seems to have grown up promoting the fact that they DON'T use it in their products and nearly everything written will scream not to use it.

 

I did find one article written by Joyce Stork in an old AVSA magazine from Nov/Dec 2009 titled, "Urea-Based Fertilizers" on page 51. She suggests many articles written have condemned urea based fertilizers because "it is the safest course of action." She seemed to feel some of the cases being blamed on this ingredient had other issues associated with the problems.

 

Of course, I bought some :) 

It was the AV plant food with the least percentage of Urea I could find locally out of 4 stores I checked with.

 

So I wondered why a well established company would continue to include it?

When you wonder something, you should go looking for answers! 

This was their very swift company reply:

Thank you for contacting United Industries.

Nitrogen can come in many different forms, each of which has different qualities. Some, like nitrate nitrogen, are immediately available to the plant and others, like ammoniacal nitrogen and urea nitrogen, become available over time. That is why, as you see, our Nitrogen consists of three different types, which ensures that the plants will get some nitrogen immediately, and some later.
If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us at 1-800-332-5553.

Product Specialist
United Industries
A subsidiary of Spectrum Brands

I will add the usual cautions:

"If what you're using works, don't change what you're doing!"

Time will tell how my plants do. 

Perhaps an excellent experiment once I have an over abundance of offspring to play with. Which of their directions should you follow? Half strength every watering? Once a month at the full dose?
For now I'm leaning towards a happy medium - half strength middle and end of month.
(Will entertain any and all advice!)

Growing slowly but surely

After 3 weeks * 2 weeks and a day of hovering patiently monitoring my new African Violets, most of the curly, twisted plants are looking better. It's what I'm telling myself, anyway!

An honest count of the leaves I've put down as insurance points out there may be a problem. IF every one of them produces one healthy, strong plant... that's 36. The reality of leaf propagation is you might multiply that by 3. Or more. 
(I once had a leaf that put out 17 plantlets.)

If you do the math, you see the potential for chaos & over population from one innocent looking tray.

* Clearly math is NOT my strong suit.

Taking final stock

Rob's Combustible Pigeon

Documentation - Day 3.

I thought I would get pictures of the last of my Ebay-purchase plants for purposes of tracking their progress.

I hope I'm not wrong to think these can all improve in a short time. With each round of new leaves, and as leaves grow out full sized, if there's no marked improvement I'm going to be bitterly disappointed!

Perhaps my hopes & expectations are set a bit too high?

Beca's Pink Crochet

With each new photo I took this morning and with every edit & trim, the imperfections were magnified. It is a little disheartening knowing how far some most of these have to go.

I hope I don't regret this Ebay impulse! 

"I reserve the right to revise and extend my remarks!"

Reflection's of Spring

Lollipop Kid

Kandy Kitchen

Cupid's Jewel

Back away from the plants!

Lime Jewel

Later on Day 2.

Halfway into writing the previous entry I went to the light stand to take a few pictures. You must have pictures on a blog!

I wanted to document the curly leaves of Lime Jewel so that if when it improves I can show happy before and after pictures.

That's the plan...

While I was at it I wanted to get pictures of my recycled reservoir.

Recognize it? 

Coleslaw dish from Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Told Tom we were going to eat there again soon. For a good cause!

I was kind of messy re-potting the new arrivals. Nothing has had a bath or even been brushed with a soft paint brush yet for any kind of grooming. Figured they had enough stress trekking across country.  It could wait a few days. 

There was dust all over the top of the red cover so without thinking I blew onto it to take some of the dirt out of the next camera shot. Went flying in all directions for 2 feet across my sewing room table.  CRAP.

Lime Jewel may be one of those plants I'll need to start by leaf and grow completely under my own conditions. Right now it's hard to believe this ugly little duckling is ever going to straighten out. I took at least 5 leaves off when it arrived and several are propagating. 
(I did pretty well NOT planting every leaf I removed.)

Already with the oops!

Storybook Princess

Day 2.

I turned on the lights for the day and stopped to take a quick peek to see how everything was doing. (Because so much could happen in 24 hours, right?!)

Are leaves still firm? 

Hefted a plant pot to check weight - nothing is dried out so leave the water bottle alone!

Are the leaves relaxing yet and becoming less curled?

And then it happened.

I TOUCHED LEAVES.

Blueberry Kisses

I admit it: I touch leaves. 

Just about everything ever written say's don't do it!  

But it seems I {still} can't seem to help myself. 

Maybe they need help laying flatter?  

I rotate pots trying to get the leaves to turn towards the light in attempt to help them self-straighten. I pressed down lightly on Storybook Princess and there was lots of flexibility. I thought, "You look better already!" 

And moved on to her neighbor, Blueberry Kisses. 

A light press of my finger to see if that leaf sticking up in the air would settle down. Crunch. The sound and feel of a leaf stem snapping nearly off. Damn!

The little voice in my head said, "See, I told you so...no hovering!"

The tag "oops" will probably see many more entries fall into that category as I go along. {Sigh.}

3rd time's the charm?

Let's begin with forgiveness.

I didn't kill all those other African Violets on purpose!  I'm going to try very hard to treat the ones that come into my possession in the future much better.

Honest, I will do my best.

I'm starting over.

(Turning over a new leaf!)

The lights are back on.

I found a 30% off sale and shipping was 1/2 off if you ordered 10.

So, I ordered 10 from Jack's Violets on Ebay :)

Kandy Kitchen
Storybook Princess

Beca's Pink Crochet
Blueberry Kisses

Heaven's Reflection

Lime Jewel

Reflections of Spring

Rob's Heat Wave

Cupid's Jewel
Lollipop Kid

Rob's Heat Wave

Rob’s Combustible Pigeon (Gift)

My starting-over order arrived Tuesday!

According to track and confirm it was mailed Saturday from Texas and landed in Maine Sunday night/Monday morning. Delivered safely into my hands before the mail lady got halfway up the drive Tuesday because I saw her coming from around the block and walked down to meet her.

I will say the packing may have been the best I've opened ever. Less than 10 over the years as the measuring stick, for what that's worth. 
But still . . . !

Hardly a speck of soil out of place, only a few immature leaves on the edges mushy, a few broken stems - admittedly two during unwrapping! A couple of plants have center leaf damage - cracks from getting folded and will need to be removed eventually, as the plant grows out. The plants show a bit of twisting and curly leaf growth that looks more like perhaps they were crowded and a lack of grooming, rather than real problems. They're clearly young starter plants, but at 30% off and half-price shipping I have no complaints. 
(Full price might have been another story.)

Heaven's Reflections

There's a long way to go before any of these are "show quality" . . . although the only shows I've ever participated in were the virtual kind on Violet Voice. Mostly it's going to take patience while they do their thing.

And NO Hovering!

I had my nephews for the day so not much beyond unpacking them and spreading them out in a tray happened yesterday. Today I got to put my fingers into plant pots and make a tidy little mess. At a relaxed pace so I could enjoy AVs once again.

My 1st order in 3 years have been re-potted, suckers removed with great care. Oops. Perhaps one little slip with an Exacto knife trying to cut a sucker off so that it might be big enough to keep. We'll see how that went in a few days!

Sorry, Laurie.

that's me :)