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!)

Changes Can Cause Problems

But WHICH CHANGES?

For a couple of months I watched as things did not quite look right with some of my plants. 
About a 3rd of the plants were in bloom and seemed fine.  By the time blooms started to fade though, centers started looking like crap.
Other, smaller recently divided plants developed a second crown or looked stunted. 

Centers that don't look "right"

makes me worry. 

I've been through this before!

 
BUT some things had gradually changed:

• For most of the winter cold months I had rolled the shelving unit to the hallway off the kitchen so we could close off the area they normally grew. They went back once it got "warmer". Too soon?
• I had started wick-watering more, with some bottom watering in individual saucers. That meant less leaching from top watering.
• Domes were removed. 
• Usual soil mix ingredients were out of stock all winter. I experimented! ONE WAS HIGH IN CLAY AND SAND texture. The other got horrible reviews. Were those people right?

Over Memorial Day Weekend I repotted EVERYTHING. Lots of duplicates got chucked into the trash if they looked too bad.   Nothing was really overdue for repotting but when I started turning out the plants it was clear the soil mix since December was too sandy. It was drying out way too soon. Some of the plants were still in Solo Cups. If what was happening was something toxic in the mix or a lack of nutrients, the small containers were perhaps bringing it on faster?

THINGS ARE IMPROVING...
(It's only been 2 weeks but I am an optimist!)

• I bought Miracle Grow potting soil and just added a little perlite. 
• I potted a lot of things UP to a size larger than I had been doing, especially standards. (Future topic: SOLO CUPS...Solution or Part of the Problem?)
• I put TALL domes back over everything on 2 of 3 shelves. THOSE look the most improved!

(At my request!) A local nursery started stocking TALLER DOMES when they opened for the spring. They're pricier than they should be! But the larger micro-climate seems easier to control for my conditions than the short domes. I'm going to go back to more of my tried & true top-watering method. Domes mean less watering, although over-watering is more obvious when I get it wrong!

On a positive note:
Violet Voice has it's latest Virtual Show online right now.
 (Go vote!)

I managed to get a few things entered before they started failing miserably. Some were sacrificed willingly for practicing more Design efforts. 
More about those efforts later! 

 

I'll do the best I can NOT to kill my African Violets on purpose. 
But crap happens sometimes! I'll see soon enough if I'm dealing with this right...

Virtual African Violet Show!

Countdown begins...

Violet Voice is once again planning an online African Violet Show. Members who wish to participate will spend the next 14 weeks "growing to show" and then will enter the results for display, in categories just as an actual show would be set up.

Instead of delivering our plants to the show location, we try to take the very best photo we can and submit our entries. 

New members are sure to be welcomed, so drop by soon and see what's happening! 

You might find you're in the mood to Grow To Show, too :)

Week 14:
What to do this week - Lesson One online.

Meanwhile, on my shelves . . .  
Things are growing!
Not sure if it's just my imagination or what, but perhaps they know spring is around the corner as I swear things are taking a growth spurt this week.  
I finally found the Jack's Classic 20-20-20 blend of fertilizer and will gladly set aside the Shultz brand so I can see how the plants respond to this more balanced diet.

Darling Blue Trail on the right is the cutting that arrived in September from Montana. The one on the left was started from a leaf from that cutting. 
The littler one that's blooming past it's mother is being allowed do grow pretty much however it chooses.  CUTE!

The larger plant is not being allowed to bloom. Leaves have been removed from the bottom rows and the plant has been lowered into the pot. Repeatedly.
(Leaves are bigger? And I've removed about 3 bloom stalks a week since it arrived!)
It has 2 well formed crowns and tiny little leaves that I'm hoping will become the next crown. (We need 3 Darling if you want to go to the show!)

A few of the plants started from leaves from the Round Robin have started to bloom. Von's Baby Jay, Optimara Little Crystal and Teen Bride are just beginning to brighten my stand with their blooms.
(In order from top, clockwise.)
 
Teen Bride was the only plant from the wick experiment to thrive. The others are barely surviving and I am about ready to call it quits on the constant wick-watering method.

I've spent two days rearranging my shelving unit so I could add an extra shelf of lights. I've had to give up some storage room but I've gotten my sewing table back! (It had become an overflow shelf, but 3 trays of plants in the middle of my cutting table makes quilting a little difficult.)

I have a quilt project that went on hold while I did some knitting. At the risk of blocking air movement, I found a place to display wall-hangings. 
As seen from the doorway.

When the obvious stares back at you...

Temperature control and a bit of humidity can't hurt! 

In the past, growing plants under domes hasn't worked that well for me. 

The climate inside tends to be too moist.  

Self-confessed hoverers tend to over-water?

Condensation is generally excessive. 

I looked at 2 trays side-by-side on the shelf the other day and realized Tiger Trail babies under a vented dome were growing faster than than those in open air.  

Well, what do you know?! 

I went and found an extra dome for the tray without one. I do have the ends propped open with clothespins for maximum venting. 

And I'm trying hard to resist watering too much!

Temperatures are below seasonably cold right now and the wood stove gives the thermostat a false sense of what's "warm enough" for the rest of the house. 

I'm stubbornly nurturing ALL of these as treasured prizes and ignoring the "limit your collection" resolution for this variety. 

Never mind pointing out how big they'll get! 

The cream colored variegation seems to holding well for the ones that started that way. The pink tinged ones seem to be consistent as well. 

I like them all! 

I think I put one in a box I was packing to send home with Sara after Christmas.

And then I took it back.  How stingy?!

Nobody asked me, but ...

The latest issue of AVSA's magazine is out.
People are putting it down asking for hugs it's that depressing.
It was probably not by design that so many of the articles are about dead plants or terminal AV diseases that there's no cure for.
It's the dead of winter for many of us.
A little Hope & Hurry up Spring would have gone a long way to lift the spirits!

Even the lady who took over the Miniature column showcased what she called "mistakes".

I'm sorry... those are some seriously neglected plants.

The Thinking Small column was always my favorite of the magazine when written by Pat Richards.

Small Talk seems to suffer from "it's all been said before" syndrome.
Or "confession is good for the soul"?   (For goodness sake... snap out of it!)

A mistake is accidentally  ruining the center of the little plant in a thumb pot just as it's about to bloom. 

Over fertilized, over watered or over zealous repotting. OR all 3!

I'm letting it bloom and trying to ignore how I crapped it up so fast.

A mistake MIGHT be planting a "strawberry" Mickey Mouse Jar full of plantlets you could not bring yourself to throw into the compost bin.

Mickey Mouse (H. Inpijn) Double dark blue. Dark green, pointed/red back. Miniature.

I might have gotten carried away with deciding which Mickey Mouse plantlets to keep. 

So I kept all of them! Shut up.

A few "Mickey Mouse" extras went into the terrarium that's been coasting along since it was blogged about here a very long time ago. (2009?) These were the "too little to bother with" plantlets that totally should have been discarded. And I would have too. Except the terrarium was nearly empty.
And they're living... for now!

One of my terrarium's biggest mistakes was using perlite in the soil and not getting around to fixing that after killing the moss that was going to hide it originally. All of the other plants have come and gone, too. Except the possible "Ming (false?) Arailia" growing in back.
It fills the jar now, but I still don't know what it is!

Progress Takes Its Own Time

Two weeks of growth in my  pasteurized "earth mix" at right.  Center plant is peat comparison. 
No swarm of creepy crawlies have shown themselves to suggest this was a very bad idea.  Yet.
I've pulled 4 or 5 tiny weeds. 
Hoping that's not an omen of other things able to survive 225 degrees in an oven.

 

Ma's Second Thoughts is giving me a second chance.  It was down to about 3 leaves. I walked it out to the window ledge for a few weeks of east facing sunshine. Except it's a bit cold and drafty. And I tend to forget to water things on that shelf often enough. Most of them are cactus plants so that works for them.  AVs not so much! 
It's back under lights.

Tiger Trail (PINK vs CREAM) have been divided. 
PINK seems less pink? 
CREAM is holding its color! 
One has been added to a MODIFIED 2-piece planter. 

All planters failed their former experiments and the plants in them removed and re-potted in an attempt to save them. 





Ness' Fantasy Gold and Sky n' Snow are doing much better. If you consider being once again back down to just 3 or 4 leaves better?   They both seem to prefer it OUT of those damn pots!  Hats off to those can make them work.  I fixed them . . .
(Well, time will tell if that's true or not!!)

MODIFIED 2-Piece Planters:
I took a power drill with a masonry bit and drilled a quarter-inch hole right through the middle of the inner pots. It took a really long time to drill through with a regular bit. 
Mason's bit (for cement) ...worked just like butter!

Not convinced plants fare well without drainage/leaching option.
Now there's space in the outer pot to catch drips if watered from top and can act as a saucer to water from bottom. Maybe. 
(Time will tell!)

"6 of one...half dozen of another"

"Graft" Babies on their own.

I separated the graft experiment offspring a couple of weeks ago and saved nearly all of the plantlets, no matter the size. There were slightly more variegated leaves than plain.
The plain leaves seem less unruly?

The odds any of them are actually a cross of Heaven's Reflection & Lime Jewel are probably slim. But what the heck!

The variegated leaf kept growing and the 2 parent leaves didn't seem to be "stitched together" at any place along the stems, although babies & roots were certainly mixed.   
The 2 types of leaves grew mixed around both stems.   
Probably to be expected!

Below the egg container is an actual plantlet of Lime Jewel and also Heaven's Reflections for comparison.

As sold by Ebay seller in August

Lime Jewel - December 2012

The original Lime Jewel received in August is proving difficult to grow! 
Leaves were removed. 
At first simply in an attempt to give the center leaves room to grow. And then just because I HATED the way they looked. 
It was Live or Die.


All new growth has developed but it's not what I'd call a well behaved plant in the least!

I'm determined to see this one through to blooming stage.  
The almost leafless plant photo below shows my Golden Rule:  
"Be Ye not afraid to yank the freaking leaves off!"
They grow back. Most of the time ;)

All the way down to this!

It looks as if it's "hungry" but I'm terrified of feeding it too much. I've started reducing number of hours lights are left on from 12 to 10. Mostly because it "feels" like stems are never really long enough and I'm wondering if length of hours lights are left on has something to do with this, rather than water pH or fertilizer. I continue to feed only twice a month - 15th(ish) and 30th(ish). 
Ish equals a day or so later, but not earlier usually(ish).

Growth of an African Violet Trailer

Darling, don't be Blue (yet)!

Darling Blue Trail

This tiny, little plant has been trying to bloom since the first week I planted it. 

We've come a long way already, huh? 
Okay. So, it grows itself...just as advertised! 
All I have to do is pluck a leaf now and then or nudge out the tiniest little buds you ever saw! 

Seriously.  
Have faith in the forgiving ease of growing a trailer!
We went from this (on the left) to this (on the right) in just 2 months! Once the center grew out I removed the longest, lanky leaves and set it lower in the pot. Since, I've only taken one leaf off directly over the new crown. 
 

It has 2 crowns and several more sprouts I'm watching. Hoping they're not blossoms?
It's true.  Read this somewhere: Get the leaves the way you want them BEFORE it blossoms. 

Oh, flowers!

How could this NOT brighten your day?

S. ionantha

With the all too vivid memory of how fast a collection of African Violets goes downhill if you don't pay attention to them - at least a little bit - every day, I'm relieved to be still enjoying their care after nearly 3 months.   
And happy to see I can still coax them into putting on a show! 

S. ionantha was a gift from Mrs. John in Montana and I'm so pleased this one forgave my rough treatment and has settled in. I've grown this before and would easily add it to my Top Ten Favorites List!  :)

Most days my second cup of coffee in the morning competes with the attention needed by a shelf of plants.

Rob's Heat Wave

Often the coffee goes cold!

I remember very well the overwhelming "I'll do it tomorrow" lack of energy that took over before, almost without realizing it was happening, until all my plants were dead or dying.  
I do not want to follow that path again. 
I keep remembering a quote from one of the vintage African violet books I own that scolds, "Don't be at it all the time." 
But it feels like so long as I'm "at it" I'll catch problems before they snowball out of my control.

Kandy Kitchen, maybe?

I'll admit there are still times when the plants might prefer a gentler, softer touch than my Rip, Repot and Ask Questions Later method!

Kandy Kitchen suffered a bit of a set back when I went to lift it back onto a higher shelf after watering and noticed some frighteningly red leaf backs.  So of course my first thought was "I've done something wrong!" - thus following the Rip & Repot routine one more time. I've been told this is likely birth marking, combined with sporting and not actually my fault. I'm not totally convinced it wasn't brought on by something I've done, but it was in pretty dreadful shape when I got it!

It was just looking as if it had turned the corner and lots of buds had begun to appear. Of course I didn't remember to go find a camera to document how the plant looked until AFTER I ripped off all its leaves.  I disbudded all but one bloomstalk. I wanted to at least see what it was going to look like in bloom.  
Turns out it's bloom is supposed to be quite different.   
I like it this way, but several new plantlets have been separated off on their own to see if they might grow better under my conditions from the beginning. 
Perhaps one will bloom true. And then we'll see which is nicer. 
Unless Mother Nature has other ideas!

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.

Some Improvement, right?

24 days of Change

   (Arrival date -August 14)                                                                                   (September 7, 2012)

 

Heaven's Reflections

(Improved!)

Blueberry Kisses

(Accidentally broke off a leaf right in the center. You can hardly tell? Will probably crowd itself like most girl-leaf AVs. )

 

Rob's Combustible Pigeon

(Wished for some variegation. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR! Culture change, you think?!)

 
Beca's Pink Crochet
(Trouble free - shapes on it's own it seems. Starting to put out buds.)

Storybook Princess

(Fast grower! Still a little twisty and leaves are sand-paper rough.)

Reflections of Spring

(Feels like VELVET!  Yes, I've petted & caressed the leaves every time I've picked it up. Daily. At least. Poor little thing! ;)

Cupid's Jewel

(Still a little twisted .. . . center not so tight.)

Rob's Heat Wave
(2 more leaves to take off from culture break.)

Lollipop Kid

(Have taken sucker leaves off every other day. Slower grower but new leaves seem softer, nicer.)

Kandy Kitchen

(Ummm . . . ?)