Meh, I had a little crown rot forming on a couple plants, but de-crowning them seemed to do the trick. I only lost one. This is my first winter in my place, too, and my first winter with AVs in many years. I'm pretty pleased with how it went. I switched fertilizers in October and had buds start up right away, and they took all winter to mature and open. As soon as early spring hit I had blooms, and it looks as though the bloom cycle is going to continue for a while. So I think I fared okay!

Yep, bad here too for violets. Lost half my violets due to mildew and probably just too darn cold. I had to keep the house between 59-62F because heat has gone up so much, so I wasn't surprised. It was really hard to keep them just damp enough to be happy without being too wet in such cool conditions. Guess the houseplants will go the way of a lot of other non-essentials if the cost of living keeps going up. Who knows how bad it will be next winter; I shudder to think....

My phals did great tho...go figure. They are all blooming right now, spikes galore. And these are *tropicals*!

100+ inches of snow here over the season, taught myself how to use the snowblower, wore out one snow shovel, broke three brush/scraper thingies cleaning off cars, one rock ding in the car window, discovered 1-1-1 mix can be used instead of sand or ice melter in a pinch. Put the heating oil man on my income tax return as a dependent. Thinking Florida in the winter is do-able.

Plants never looked better. Had lots of indoor time to spend with them.

Daffodils are emerging as the snow recedes from the flower beds, anxious tulips are coming up thru two inches of snow left on the ground. For those of us that say in November that we are looking forward to winter, it must be like childbirth, and we forgot about the last winter.

Barbara

Yikes, over 100 inches of snow... barely saw any snow this winter. For someone who grew up in Chicago, I gotta say I find no snow in the winter kinda weird. Still not used to it, really. Tee hee about the heating oil man comment. I had heating issues... it was frequently 75 to almost 80 degrees up here, and 65 downstairs. Turns out that the vent to the downstairs was blocked, and downstairs is where the thermostat was. Had crazy gas bills. And when it warmed up enough that it actually was 65 or warmer consistently downstairs, so that the heat wouldn't kick in, then the temp upstairs would drop to 65 or below. And rearranging my AVs after all the streps died kind of annoyed them, as did letting them dry out due to an overactive work schedule. So, not the best winter for the AVs, but like I said, the orchids liked it, for some reason. I had some unexpected die offs too, really vigorous ones that suddenly tanked, early on too, like late fall/early winter. That started the whole frustrated at my violets moments which contributed to the drying out... Oh well. Most are still with me, and are picking up.

Didnt really have a bad winter , seemed rather mild here. I have a gas furnace and water heater and when bills started going up I went to space heaters, I would rather pay a larger electric bill that a much larger gas bill. I only have a few AV plants but they are doing ok. But Ive been gaining plants and thru germination for the upcoming hummingbird season which is about ready to get into full swing. Its an exciting time for me, just thought I would log in here to let interested observers know Im still kicking.

Well, I just discovered that my winter was bad...I have AVs that are 16 years old, and were doing fantastic, but over the last few weeks, the leaves looked a bit droopy. After reading some, I suspected that the roots were rotted, so I tried to do some damage control. Today, I tried to take off some leaves and help them out. Sadly, I discovered the roots balls were no longer there. I only have stems, and even portions of those are gone. I have 4 plants and two of them are now in glasses on my windowsill awaiting some good advice and next steps. These plants have huge sentimental value, so any advice to save them is really appreciated! Thank you,
Alexa

Alexa,

You can try to save the crown of the plant. Cut off the brown mushy part of the stem, and go as high as you need to to get to good green stem. You will need to remove ALL of the rotted part. If you have any stem left, remove all the lower leaves, leaving 2-3 rows. Take a solo cup, fill it with dampened 1-1-1 mix, make a hole for the stem, and place the stem in the hole. Definitely bag the plant for about 3 weeks. Also, put down some of the leaves you removed, but not the really old ones. If you can't get any stem out of it, just put down the leaves and start anew. Keep the bagged plant out of direct sun, but place in good indirect light.

Theere is a violet show in the 'U' district on the 27th of April, sponsored by the Seattle AV Society. AVSA website has more information. I encourage you to try to get there.

Good luck.

Barbara

Here is a link that might be useful: AVSA website

Thank you Barbara. I'm not sure what 1-1-1 mix is, but perhaps my nursery will know. When you say "put down the old leaves" what does that mean? Sorry, I'm new to saving AVs.

By "put down the old leaves," he means to root one or two of the leaves you took off, but not the oldest ones. 1-1-1 is a very light soil mix that is good for rooting cuttings in, but I don't recall what the ratios are of. Most likely, though, your regular AV potting mix will work fine for cuttings if you don't want to worry about mixing up soil.
-Jmcat

Alexa,

1-1-1 mix is potting mix you make up yourself using 1 part of peat moss, 1 part of vermiculite, and 1 part of perlite. You can use this for starting leaves ("putting them down") but it is what most growers use for their mature plants also. Most African violet potting mixes are way too heavy, meaning they have too much peat and will hold too much water, making root rot very easy to come by. By having a nice 'light' mix, you decrease the chances for root rot. If you have African violet potting mix that you bought, use it as you would peat moss in your 1-1-1 mix.

Yes you can use a slightly heavier mix for starting leaves, but not necessary.

Barbara (not a he the last time I looked! LOL)

Thank you all for your advice. I went to the nursery today, and got the AV potting soil. I asked the indoor plant "expert" what 1-1-1 was, and she wasn't sure. I'll give the AV potting soil a whirl. She recommended putting them in terra cotta pots since those don't hold moisture. I went ahead and checked the other two plants, and thankfully those are not suffering from root rot. I did transfer them to the new pots to do a little preventative maint. and kept some rocks at the bottom to assure drainage. I also used rooting hormone to encourage the roots to develop. I hope it works. Thanks again!
Alexa

Hi. Sticking my two cents in.

1. Do not use terra cotta; the clay will damage any leaves that come in contact with it, and the stuff dries out too fast.

2. Don't put rocks in the bottom for drainage. That's what your soil mix is for. If you went with a commercial mix, go get some perlite and add a goodly amount to it.

3. Don't use rooting hormone. The hormone encourages roots, but discourages suckers; those are your babies -- you want suckers. Also, AVs have enough of their own hormones that they can root quite well on their own.

Other than that, everything's fine. :-D

It's all a learning curve, Alexa; I can guarantee you that everyone on this forum has killed more than one plant; I know *I'm* a mass murderer.

Good luck with your plants, and keep asking questions.

Korina