Satrina0's African Violet
Saintpaulia

This plant had some leaf damage that I thought was caused by water droplets, but the problem seems to be more serious than that. I went to trim off some yellowing leaves at the base, and the entire plant came up out of the soil. It seems to have had some kind of problem with root rot. Since most of the top of the plant still looked healthy, I trimmed leaves for new cuttings. In the process, I discovered minor scarring on the undersides of the petioles. Insects?

I’m just going to try again and hope the problem doesn’t resurface.

This African violet is flowering again. The first time, the flowers pretty much stayed single, but this time they’re ruffled and double. This is the second time that it has flowered. The other African violet that was started from a leaf hasn’t bloomed once yet.

I fertilized both plants today. They were planted in African violet potting soil to begin with, which was probably a mistake in retrospect. I’m wondering if this plant had its growth screwed up by an extra clump of fertilizer. That would explain the aphids. This plant has them, the other one doesn’t. So I’ll be spraying this one with rubbing alcohol today.

Once the aphids are gone, I think I’ll try repotting it.

I started eight leaf cuttings back in January from three separate parent plants. Somehow, I managed to kill off six of the eight cuttings, but two survived, and the first one has started blooming!

Despite my poor success rate (or perhaps because of it), I think I’ve got a good grip on starting African violets from leaves now. I’ve never been very interested in African violets, except for the fact that my mom had a nice collection of them and was good at growing them. (The leaf cuttings were from her collection). But this project has been so rewarding that I’m tempted to try again.