Hello there,

No, they are limited by the variety. What you buy in a grocery store is mostly standard size varieties - and they are usually 8 to 16 inches at most, some of them will be on a smaller side, some - on a larger. Plus - they do not like too big pots, they get root rot.

I am with you - the well grown African violet should have a beautiful symmetrical rosette of healthy leaves. That's how the judges on AV shows decide which one is a winner. Most of the points are for the well grown plant. And well grown plant blooms well too.

If you are interested in growing large AV violets - you need to start with finding the varieties that belong to the category Large. If standards usually are happy in pots of 4" diameters - large will require 5" and 6" when they are mature. You can get the foliage to grow to 24-26" in diameter. Plus you will have another bonus - usually the bloom is huge too.

I am thinking about varieties - Designer Dress has beautiful wavy leaves and pink star flowers with dark pink middle, Rainman - blue star flowers with white edge, Nancy just mentioned Happy Cricket - two tone purple double flowers..
Beachcomber - double white-blue flowers - and huge light green rounded leaves, grows very symmetrical.

I think Lyndon Lyon's carries a lot of large varieties. they do not ship till spring, but you can look them up now. Look under Old favorites - standards and check for "large" .

Since you are going to grow these spectacular varieties - while you are waiting for spring to arrive and your order to be shipped, I would recommend you to get better acquainted with the information about how to grow them in a most successful way - Rachelsreflections.com site is good to start with.

Good luck with your 26" violets

irina

Here is a link that might be useful: Lyndon Lyon

Once you get those varieties that are marked LARGE, you should use a good fertilizer for the leaves, one that has a fairly high first number, such as 20-20-20. Change fertilizers about every two months so you feed the whole plant and not just the foliage.

Nancy

Thank you!! Well, that means I'll have to buy some smaller pots then, which is fine. The first thing I did when I got my babies was to repot them in larger pots. I've had dozens of plants, I studied horticulture, and first thing you always do with a new baby is give then a new "room". I'll just keep the larger (6") pots for the big fuzzies. I hope my hubby won't kill me. : ) Thanks again!

Yeah - we all have problems with our everpatient DH. From time to time they start preaching that we need to cut down our collection.

i.

Don't forget the soil! Most Av growers use a soilless mix of 1 part peat, 1 part vermiculite, and 1 part perlite. If and when you get into wick watering (to help accommodate the dozens to hundreds of plants you *will* end up with) you'll want to change it to 2 parts perlite.

As you can see, African violets (more properly, Saintpaulias) need lots of air in their roots and are very suceptible to root rot if they don't get it.

Normally they like a fairly balanced fertilizer (no urea, of course), but a higher nitrogen fert would work fine.

Are any of your new babies variegated? If you like foliage, boy are you in for a treat.

Have fun and keep asking questions.

Oh, and when you re-pot, don't pack the soil down; they like it loose. I just spoon it in and tap the side of the pot to sift it down into the roots; works great.
Korina

Since you like foliage, you may enjoy a slide show at the AVSA website. From the menu on the left, select AVSA library, and under 'Photoshows', there is the Florida 2006 program. There is of course some knockout stuff, and I was particularly impressed with the variegated plants.

Enjoy!

Barbara

Here is a link that might be useful: AV society website

You can always pinch off the flower buds, I don't know if that would put that much more energy into the foliage, cause the next time it wants to bloom, it will put out even more bloom stalks. I just wanted to add that there are wonderful leaf variations, I have some that are almost striped with green and white. I have some Rob's violet varieties that have pinks and creams too. tish

Let's not forget Rob's Lucky Penny and Lucky Charm, both chimera varigated leaves! I'll link the page below.

Then there's Senk. David Senk. He's on the bleeding edge of hybridizing our favorite plants (and if you don't believe it, check eBay for a variety called 'Balloons'). Twilightchild, there are a couple of guys in (I think) your neck of the woods who sell many of his varieties on eBay under the name 'saintpaulias4u'. Well, the Shenandoah Valley, which is a heckuva lot closer than I am. David has created such amazing African violet varieties as Beanstalk (yes, it actually grows a stem), Long Legs (long, strappy leaves; he has several varieties like that), and many wasps. When I get to work tomorrow, I'll find that web page that shows leaf types; that'll keep you drooling for a while.

Korina, Senk fan

Here is a link that might be useful: Rob's Chimeras

I'm with Nancy on the more balanced fertilizer for foliage growth. I'd say you can even go w/one that's a more general plant food that might have an even higher "first number" (I think this is the concentration of Nitrogen). General plant foods are more likely to have nitrogen from urea, though, and this can burn your plants' roots, so watch out for that.

I've had regular grocery-store varieties get to 24" across before I noticed how big they were getting, but of course your experience may be different, and there are plenty of hybridizers out there who go for larger-sized plants, anyway.

For gorgeously variegated large plants I personally recommend Ness' Orange Pekoe, Victorian Ribbons (chimera) or any of the Buckeye varieties (esp. "Buckeye Colossal").

Happy growing.