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Summary:“African Violets My Way ” comes from the personal growing experience of Evelyn Pelt … a long time agriculturist of the wonderful house plant life . This is one way I have gained so much knowledge in learning how to get all eccentric of plant … enjoy .
In the most pleasurable place in my house , my home office - works room , the windows are fill with African - violets .
They are arrange in a decorative manner and are on view all the time . My way is to have African - violet in good order in front of me most of the fourth dimension .
Though it is only 11 by 13 infantry and has a northeast exposure , my flora elbow room has the tone of a little greenhouse and serves almost the same role .
I enjoy it and so also do visitant who , I notice , always glance appreciatively at my works .
I sympathize with plant collectors who grow a tremendous number of varieties , which they rate in every available window and afterwards , as a last resort , take to the downstairs game way , where their rocking horse need know no bounce .
But there is such a thing , I believe , as have too many plants . numerosity and multitasking can become a curse;African - violets are just too adorable to hideor jam together for the saki of ingest a lot .
Last winter I set up new windowpane gardens in a way decorated particularly for my African - violets . As a background I take a wallpaper of white block set off by a vine pattern .
Botanically , the paper is incorrect , for the vine has wisteria leaves and trumpet - vine prime that are purple .
However , it suit my African - violet to a “ T ” , picking up their shine blue and violet tones and thus enhancing their knockout – as if that were indeed necessary . The carpeting is balmy leafage - super acid .
The room originally had only two windows , but recently I had two more put in , one on either side of the individual east window .
Here I have a 12″-inch shelf 10′ feet long that hold three galvanized iron pebble trays , each 10 - 1/2″ inches wide , 34″ column inch long and 1″ inch late .
Below , at the sides of the ledge , are cabinets to hold my files of plant powder magazine , glasshouse catalogs and also the inevitable African - violet supplying .
The two side windows in the readiness of three are fitted with glass shelves ( the halfway window is kept unobstructed so I can see out ) .
The lowest shelf , extending only halfway across the window , is 16 inch long ; it hangs 14 inches above the tray , thereby leaving ample room for the plants below .
The middle ledge , extending from the latch cartoon strip , is 31 inches long as is the third shelf also . The ledge vary in width , the humble being 6 in , the in-between one 8 inch and the top one only 5 inches .
At one side of the window hangs a peachy pinkish pot of extravagant grapevine - ivy . On the other side is a three - sectioned , cast - iron wall bracket , which once hold oil lamps but now holds three of my favorite tag African - violets . I do delight in these rangy varieties descend from Saintpaulia grotei , but they need room to wander .
At the end of the way a north windowpane , which is clear up by light reflected from a white service department rampart , curb three more glass shelf . Also , at the windowpane level there is a white , two-fold - decker , wire flora stand mount on casters . It is loose to roll the standstill to sunnier fourth when very dark winter days become too frequent .
The plant life stand is fitted also with pebble trays , which I fill with water . In this small room the atmosphere is being incessantly moisturise by the dehydration of water which just scarce covers the Harlan Fisk Stone in the trays .
In my plant room there are neither drapery nor draperies , the African - violet being embroidery enough ; and the windowpane do not count desolate . In summer the bounteous windowpane has an sunshade , which I raise and lower as often as the strength of the eastern sunshine dictate . At the north window no blending is required ; normally in the summertime I move the plants from the shelves to a big viewpoint on the porch , where they can be delight by everybody .
Incidentally , I find that it is not necessary to polish off the shelves in summertime . Enough ventilation is put up by the north windowpane , which can be opened a small without breaking the glass ledge , and the unobstructed pith window .
The industrial plant for my window garden had to be shipped in December , for the elbow room was n’t quick until then . However , the care taken by my near industrial plant mature friends , resulted in the safe arrival of every one . It took me fifteen minute to discover each plant . While I was thus happily engaged , the Felis concolor came into the kitchen . Like everyone else , he had his two cents ’ deserving to put in and , watch the plant that I was unpacking , enunciate , “ Lady , you ’ve got to be a doctor to turn those things ! ”
You do n’t have to be a MD to grow African violets , of form . It is a help though , to know about their brand of preventive medicine . give proper con - ditions … and they are very definite bunco game - ditions , let ’s let in it – genus Saintpaulia wo n’t need doctoring . However , they , more than other house plants , are dependent on regular care . And when they are n’t comfortable , African - violets will start to sulk sooner and do it more obviously than any works I ’ve ever known .
Before the windowpane was put up on the north side , the plants complain vociferously of the frigidity . In January they complain aloud of the poor light , depict their outrage by elongating their leaf stems . have no fluorescent fixtures in my niggling “ develop ” elbow room , I had to make do with a lamp gibe with a 150 - James Watt bulb . I turned this on for six hours a day ( starting from 4 P.M. on the saturnine twenty-four hour period ) , letting the light fall directly on the plant stand . This auxiliary spark help oneself some , but not as much as did propel the stand to a brighter , southern window in the living way .
At a north window , if there ’s not full light , a little winter sunshine and warmheartedness to 72 ° , your African - violets and , for that issue , any other plants are not go to have a lot of efflorescence . But if a northern exposure is what you have , use it , add to it a fluorescent light if you like , to see your flora through the dark twenty-four hours .
sterilised grime is an right-down must . Today it is well-to-do to buy bagged soil in pocket-sized quantities or , if you ask a lot , you could sterilise the grime yourself by baking it for an hour in an oven set at 180 ° . After the dirt cools , stir it to aerate it ; then wait three days before using it . I just would n’t attempt to develop saintpaulias in soil that was n’t infertile .
Then , there is the matter of watering . Once , when I had to refuse a weekend away because I had made no provisions for having my African - violet watered , my friend say , “ Oh , I irrigate mine only every other day . ” Now that ’s smart if you could wield it , but I find that I must examine my plants every day ; sometimes they need pee and sometimes they do n’t . Perhaps I pamper them too much , but the same plants never seem to involve water on the same day . They just wo n’t go according to schedule . Heat , sunshine and their own condition of maturation and flowering are the variable they respond to .
Another reason I have to visit my plant so often is that some are arise in 2 - 1/2 -inch can and some in demitasse cup . If you ’ve never grown African - violet in these diminutive cup , I hope you ’ll assay these most ornamental containers . I ca n’t imagine anything pretty than the sweet , doubly - bloom , white - edged African Violet for instance , in a demitasse loving cup with a faint “ gray-headed lace ” pattern . As soon as I am able to purchase more cups like the ones I have , I ’ll grow more African - violets this way . These cups , which are just right , are 2 - 1/2 inches mysterious and somewhat less than 2 - 1/2 inches across the top . For drain I bring half an in of small gravel to the bottom of each loving cup .
The petioles of African - violets grow in China cups or charge plate tummy are not as prepared to molder as those originate in the Great Compromiser pots . In 3 - column inch unripened plastic jackpot , which rest in plastic saucers , I have numerous ones all doing very well . Plants growing in the cup or the charge card pots need to be watered only about every third daytime ( but to be sure the plants need water , feel the soil between the fingers to see if it ’s dry ) .
Wick Fed pot
I also grow African violets in wick - feed flock , which are well designed and convenient . Before refill the dish reservoirs of these pots , I take care to let the soil really dry out out . Sometimes I water these pots from the top to carry the fertilizer table salt aside from the soil airfoil . The plants set on pebble tray and those growing in wick - fed pot are the easy to leave unwatched for a few days .
When I irrigate the tray plants , I impart water until the pebbles are just barely spread over . Then the plants can attract up what wet they require . After a few hours the water level ought to be no higher than the nates of the pots . ( And do n’t laugh , but when I ’ve swamp the trays , as I ’ve sometimes done , I ’ve been wild enough to habituate a baster to pull off the excess water supply . I know that it would evaporate in time , but meanwhile it worry me to see the plants digest in it for so long . )
Room Temperature Water
It run without suppose that the water supply used for African - reddish blue must be of room temperature or tepid , as for a baby ’s bath . On a humble bookcase ledge I always keep a lacrimation pot replete with water ; thus I always have water supply on script that is the correct temperature . When I postulate more water that must be taken from the spigot , I always make indisputable it is halfhearted . H2O used to syringe the African - violet foliage or to load an insecticide should also be lukewarm .
The plants can be watered from the top or the bottom ; either is all proper ; however , it ’s unmanageable to irrigate the little pots for the foliation soon gets so dense that it is hard to bump an opening through which the piss can be applied . However , occasionally I like to water the plant from above so that plant food salts do n’t gather on top of the soil .
Saucer tearing is in all probability the simplest method acting . My three trail African - violets viewpoint in cryptical crank saucers . Every first light I decant a little water system in each saucer , and if it is n’t gone by noon , I pour it off , knowing that I have applied too much . Indeed , I cerebrate that we all be given to overwater plants . I recognise I do . And the reason , I suppose , is that watering African - violets is such playfulness !
Groups of African - violets in shallow bowls or planter add greater variety to the windowpane garden than rows and rows of pots . The planter I put on one of the half shelf catches everybody ’s eye . I peculiarly care the loving cup plantings , for they too are attention - getters . lay on the top shelf , they lighten the weightiness of the wider ledge below . I also use the planter or specimens growing in cups as table centerpieces ; A “ blue flowered variety ” is the gross emphasis for a lavender and flatware - striped tiffin set , and the pink varieties wait charming with squares of rose linen paper .
I ’m not enthusiastic about large plants , and even the big ones must be content for a long while to grow in a 3 - in hatful . To keep my African - reddish blue in scale of measurement with their small pots and also with the window garden , I oftentimes remove some of their KO’d leaves . Of course , I am not maturate exhibition plants which must have gross whorl of leaves positioned on the button . The way I remove leafage from my African - violets might even be term mutilation by shower ’s standards . Great exhibition plants can be giving indeed . However , to receive a plant with a 2 - foot gap , you must have an area passably more than 2 feet across to develop it in , and lots of us ca n’t spare that much elbow room .
When plants develop multiple pate and become quite large , they seem to be ask to be separate or at least to be given big quarters . But this petition I do not accept . I taste to detect multiple crown pieces early enough so that I can cut them off without scarring the plants . I need prime from my works , not a lot of fat foliage .
To upgrade flowering , I apply a liquid plant life solid food to my African - violets each week . I have found that it ’s a honorable plan to flip-flop the materials so as to change the plant ’ diet . During obtuse wintertime day , when my plant life are not being helped along withartificial lights , I do not seek to stimulate them to flower ; this would be asking too much . But when the plants have good light , I demand good performance from them and so feed in them consequently . My African - violet are mighty moderately decent now .
An African - violet ’s condition is evidence as to whether or not it is get enough light or sun . commonly full wintertime sunshine is n’t too potent , though it can be if it is intensified by superb reflections from the Baron Snow of Leicester . Last wintertime I returned one evening to find many of my pallid varieties either freckled or frankly sunburn .
The shopworn advice that African - violets motive shade is , broadly speaking , awry . When I ’m testify plants that wo n’t bloom , I usually discover that they were :
( 1 ) not at a window,(2 ) standing in water or(3 ) so thick covered with multiple crown pieces that a flower stems could n’t defend its way through the foliage .
An agreeable aspect of farm saintpaulias is that they care the same atmosphere we do . It should be about 70 ° to 72 ° . They can endure it a little cooler and do n’t beware it somewhat warmer . I am amazed at the extensive temperature variant that the works endure with composure . Sometimes the temperature has variegate from 60 ° to 75 ° . A drop of 10 ° at night , as occurs outdoors when the sun goes down , is preferred to keep the stiff heat of the day . Saintpaulia also desire a refreshing air . Except on moth-eaten days I lower the midway window about an inch or so from the top in the morning and again in the mid - afternoon . Such a minuscule room as mine can get stodgy , and both the African - violets and I need plenty of brisk air .
I too would not know much about dirt ball and diseases if I had n’t teach about most of them elsewhere than in my own window gar - den . Only petiole rot has pass on my plants . The house - plant which I keep indoors run on a clean ship … I only spray my other foliation plants .
In my windows I have some works other than African - violets because I like fragrance ; if genus Saintpaulia have a fault , it is that they are scentless . Heliotrope , jasmine , narcissus , hyacinth and cherubic - leaved geranium attract to me because of their redolence . Amazingly enough , all grow happily with my African - violet . And the occasional aphid which fly the coop my eagle eye and clamber over the geranium , heliotrope , narcissus and other plant fortunately do not stray to my African - violet .
have ’s all spread the Logos that African - violets are really easy to grow . With full short , sterile grease , room - temperature pee , sufficient heat and ventilation they are bound to expand . Without these basic environmental conditions , African - violets are n’t difficult to mature , they ’re impossible !
No , you do n’t ask to be a doctor to grow genus Saintpaulia , but the drill of preventive medicine – their form – is of the essence . And if you have healthy plants , by all way grow some of them my way – where they can be seen and enjoyed . Everybody care to look at African - violets !
