Lesson Learned
Due to personal taste, I guess, I have never been terribly fond of African Violets. I like the flowers (only if they are the right shade of blue/purple) and I am fussy about the leaf colour too . . . I know, fussy, fussy, fussy.
But last June when we visited Sherwin's sister she had a violet that is said to have been handed down from my mother-in-law, Charlotte, to her granddaughter Stephanie, passed on to Rose, the mother of Stephanie and now I was being offered this plant.
Violets sometimes have the look of having gone on a long journey without packing the proper clothes, you know, sort of ragged and rough. That is how my violet was starting to look and I determined to figure out how one is REALLY supposed to care for them.
Google is a wonderful tool and so I set my mind to learning all I could about the tender love and care necessary to having a happy violet.
The first thing I learned was that the violet needs to be transplanted once a year.
The violet also does not like too big a pot. Measure your plant and if it is 9" from tip to tip of the petals then your pot should be a 3" pot. That seemed pretty small to me but that is what the experts say and they know more than I do.
I also read that the stem that shows above the soil should be scraped down and buried under the soil so new roots can shoot off of it and give you lovely new growth.
One thing I did know from previous experience with transplanting other small house plants was to put the finished plant into a mini-greenhouse atmosphere. I happen to have an old fruit ripener from 20 years ago that works very well. Once my violet has started giving up new leaves I can take it out of that environment and let it just be.
One more care-tip that was not on Google, but I know helps, is the singing and talking-to that a plant requires to flourish. Soft lullabies are good, anything with a sweet comforting sound.
So now, when you come to visit, I do hope to have a lovely violet for you to admire. If you do not see a violet in my sitting room you will know that it met the compost heap out back.
Now that looks like a grannie blog, for sure!
Have a lovely day, rain or shine, and be well.
But last June when we visited Sherwin's sister she had a violet that is said to have been handed down from my mother-in-law, Charlotte, to her granddaughter Stephanie, passed on to Rose, the mother of Stephanie and now I was being offered this plant.
Violets sometimes have the look of having gone on a long journey without packing the proper clothes, you know, sort of ragged and rough. That is how my violet was starting to look and I determined to figure out how one is REALLY supposed to care for them.
Google is a wonderful tool and so I set my mind to learning all I could about the tender love and care necessary to having a happy violet.
The first thing I learned was that the violet needs to be transplanted once a year.
The violet also does not like too big a pot. Measure your plant and if it is 9" from tip to tip of the petals then your pot should be a 3" pot. That seemed pretty small to me but that is what the experts say and they know more than I do.
I also read that the stem that shows above the soil should be scraped down and buried under the soil so new roots can shoot off of it and give you lovely new growth.
One thing I did know from previous experience with transplanting other small house plants was to put the finished plant into a mini-greenhouse atmosphere. I happen to have an old fruit ripener from 20 years ago that works very well. Once my violet has started giving up new leaves I can take it out of that environment and let it just be.
One more care-tip that was not on Google, but I know helps, is the singing and talking-to that a plant requires to flourish. Soft lullabies are good, anything with a sweet comforting sound.
So now, when you come to visit, I do hope to have a lovely violet for you to admire. If you do not see a violet in my sitting room you will know that it met the compost heap out back.
Now that looks like a grannie blog, for sure!
Have a lovely day, rain or shine, and be well.
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