Personally I dont like those pots, tried them with some of my Carnivorous but rapidly abandoned them as too difficult.

If you want to change from the original pot, a reasonable quality 4 inch pot that is no more than 3 inches deep is ideal for the majority of violets you buy from the store.
Dont let the watering thing rule your life. When youve repotted the store plant simply drop the pot into tepid water about one third of the way up from the bottom. Remove after 20 minutes and thats it.
This watering should last at least 2 weeks or longer depending of course on local conditions and after that you can repeat the treatment.
My personal rule is If in doubt, dont water.
To maintain constant blooming you really need to add food every time you water.

Good luck
Andrew

Here's a link for informations about African Violets. It has everythink you need to know, and them some. It's a great site.

http://rachelsreflections.org

I have a lot of violets, and I wick water them. You have only a few, so you can just hand water. Don't over-water. Pick up the pot and if it feels light, it needs water. If heavy, wait a day or two and try again. Too much water will kill them. If you change your potting mix, you can add a little perlite to lighten the soil. The mix the grower plants them in is heavy and holds water too long. The roots like to breathe.
You will get lots of replys and great help here. Keep asking questions.

Thank you so much for your advice.
I just don't know whether I should already change the soil to a 1/2AV mix + 1/2 perlite from the soil it came with it...or whether I should wait to do this when I repot 5-6 months from now.

As to soil change now, only you can decide. Some growers repot immediately into their familiar growing medium. Others prefer to wait until the plant has adjusted to its new home knowing there is always some culture shock moving around. In general I do the latter taking care to adjust any watering needs. However, if the soil is really heavy, I will repot at once. So I would try to ascertain how heavy is the soil and act accordingly.

I have used an earlier version of WalMarts self watering pots. I placed a layer of perlite in the bottom and then my regular mix. For me they worked fine and I would fill up the lip especially when away for awhile. Otherwise, I top watered them also, pouring out any accumulated water. . . kind of a two way system.

First, let me welcome you to the world of African violets.

You will find a wealth of information and varied opinions. I, personally, have used these waterers and liked them. Same as Terrilou, I put a layer of perlite in the bottom. They are fine for standard African violets. However, I'd ditch the AV soil entirely and buy peat to mix 3:1 with your perlite. I use Metro Mix with my perlite but am not sure if you can buy bags small enough. If you do use the soil, I would make it 3:1. And these planters already add humidity so you probably don't need the pebble trays.

You can buy premixed soil formulated especially for wick watering from places like www.AVPlanters.com. I tried the Violet Barn soil once but it was a bit heavy for me.

Once a month or so take your AVs to the sink and run water through them until it drains clear. This way you flush out the salts. Also, fertilize each time you water with 1/2 strength fertilizer. My caveat would be I don't know what you do if you're using AV soil with fertilizer already mix in. Someone else can answer that one. Irina?

Oh, and I don't care for the ceramic self-watering pots only because you can't flush them.

Again, welcome,

Linda

PS: Do not feel guilty if you lose a plant. Sometimes, even with the best of care, they just don't thrive.

Thank you stonesriver and everyone else for the kind welcome. Yes, I think I may have been a bit bitten by the "gardening" germ. Granted, I am nowhere close to where most people on this forum probably are. I am mainly a "decorator" who feels that a house without any indoor plants is sad, dry and too much of a sign of our rushed times. So I decided I HAVE TO get some reasonably elegant indoors plants established.
The only thing close to caring for a plant I've done before were some geraniums. They did OK, I managed not to kill them and they bloomed quite a bit over the winter even if they did get leggy. Oh, well. Now I took them outside and I decided that they will go in the basemenent for wintering when times comes. I will no longer keep them in the house because they are not really elegant, gracious plants. I like their bright colors outside in the summer but that's that for now.

So I decided it was time for something finer and elegant to go with our classic/traditional living room as well as my busy schedule. I also knew this was going to be harder than a geranium which are quite hard to kill anyway.
So off I went to Pikes and I grabbed some plants I had heard were not hard to care for and would do well on our Eastern bay window. A Peace Lily, four AV-s and two yellow begonias.
(I did kill a begonia last year but later, after more reading, I realized I was making mistakes with it).
A real gardener I will never be - not with a full-time academic career and two small children; but By God, these few plants must stay alive, do well, and even bloom nicely - this is all I hope for.
I don't plan to do any complicated wick watering (at least it sounds complicated to me) or much propagation or anything - I just want to keep my living room looking as pretty as it is now, with lots of healthy blooms, if this is not too much to ask.

Since I've heard so much about how important the soil is, I think I am going to change the soil the plants came in pretty soon; at least for the AV-s, I don't know whether I should do the same thing for the begonias, but probably should.

Having a month between waterings sounds like a lot to me. These are small pots (4" I believe) and I think all moisture would evaporate altogether from such a small pot well before the 1 month mark; especially if I change the soil to something more airy.

I did fertilize the AV-s when I watered them the first time - with some 5-7 drops of liquid fertilizer from MIracle-Gro, as indicated on the package. I am a super novice so I just did the novice thing.

I guess changing the soil will also change the present routine.

Some of the flowers on my AV-s are starting to fade now- they are starting to have little burnt patches on the petals, but I assume this is the natural cycle of the flower - as I bought them with quite a few blooms from the nursery and it might just be their time to go.

I am just hoping they will continue to bloom for a while.

Thank you again for the kind welcome, I wil certainly be around because I have been clearly "bitten". :-)