Hi, shw104,

Welcome to this forum, I know you'll find lots of information or places to find information.

It sounds like you have a plant that had a 'sucker' start early on and continue to grow. Suckers are sort of an 'auxilliary' plant that starts from the side of the plant, not the center. If allowed to grow, they will indeed bloom, but they distort the main plant. Ideally, it should have been removed when it first appeared. I would suggest you remove it, or at this point it may be 'splitting' the plant, repot the main plant, repot the sucker, and now you;ll have two plants! Please go the the Rachel's Reflections website for more information and photos. It's an encyclopedia of violet information.

Now, having said all that, there are types of violets that are 'trailing', and ideally produce multiple crowns. I would not think that is the case for you because there appear to be only two of almost equal size. If you had a trailer there would most likely be multiple crowns of varying size.

So to answer your questions, yes, yes, and yes.

Let us know how it goes. And we love pictures!

Barbara

hello, I found a sucker growing on my irish whisper AV. When i removed the sucker it had been there long enough to have a flower. now i have 2 irish whispers.

Thanks for the advice.. i'll post a pic or two soon..

any advice for separating the two plants? i'm concerned that I'll cause damage to the root systems when I separate them.

Okay, back to basics. I would suggest you have handy another pot, and make a batch of potting medium. We highly recommend a mix of 1 part each of peat moss, coarse vermiculite, and coarse perlite. Usually the soil most commercially grown violets ae planted in are way too heavy for prolonged growth. If you use a commercial av potting mix, add up to 1/2 perlite to it to lighten it up and not keep your violet waterlogged.

Also have handy a sharp razor blade or exacto knife.

Take the plant out of the pot and closely look at the stem and root system. You will want to split into two parts keeping as much of the root system with each part as possible. After splitting them, remove as much of the existing soil as possible. Repot into fresh mix but do not pack it down at all, you want to keep it nice and light. Lightly water, and place inside a baggie for a couple of weeks while new roots get established.

While you have the plants separated and dirtless, it is easier to see any other suckers that may be growing.

Again, go to Rachels Reflections for more info. There is also an abundance of potting tips in old threads on the forum.

Good luck.

Barbara

Here is a pic of the violet in question:

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:381582}}

Congratulations!!! You are going to have TRIPLETS!!!! Maybe even Quadruplets!!

If you look at the photo, in the very center of the two dimensional view, there is clearly one crown. Off to the left, there is another. There is another on the back side of the plant, and there are so many leaves I wouldn't be surprised if there is more. It is possible that this was planted with multiple plants, or it may have just suckered very early in its growth.

So, how can you tell where to split it? Some people think of the plant having a 'face', which is really the 'rosette' leaf formation. If you can pick a spot and see that all the leaves radiate out from that point, that would be the center of the plant. It is like looking into rose blossoms, there is a center and the petals surround it. When there are multiple crowns (or 'faces') and they are as crowded as this one is, many of the leaves from one crown will be mixed in with leaves of another, but usually not facing the same way. So when you see the rosette pattern, usually leaves facing in the wrong direction belong to another crown.

I find it easienst to make these divisions after taking as much dirt off as possible. You are going to end up also taking/breaking off some leaves, and you can pot these up or not, depending on haw much room you have.

After you have performed the surgery, don't despair that your nice full plant is now a bunch of small and sparse plants. They will grow and thrive in their new space.

Thanks for the photo. Be sure to give us a post-op pic.

Barbara

If you really only want one plant. Pick the crown that you think looks best, is the strongest and using a sharp knife cut the rest off and toss them (hurts me to say that!). there is no law that says you have to keep them all. But they are easily rooted into new plants. When you repot your violet, you want to keep the same size pot. You cut off some of the roots on the bottom, add a little new soil put the plant back in the pot and add more soil to the top. Now, if after you cut the other crowns off the plant you have a "neck", you can gently scrape it to remove any old stem places and add soil to cover the neck (it will grow roots). If you do this you will probably have to cut off a little more of the root ball so the plant will fit into the pot. Thats' okay, it will quickly grow new roots. You can put it under plastic bag or something for a few days if it looks a little droopy. Open the plastic a little before you take it out to get used to the real world again.

I have a varigated plant that has 3 crowns. I didn't realize this when I bought it and it has to be about 4 years old now and they are all living in the pot. They do crowd each other some and I remove the inner leaves, but it did grow to a special effect - it's tri-sided and I like it's look. It must be happy cause it blooms alot.

Good luck. It should be fine. It's always hard the first time!

*And*, for a more graphic approach, check out Rachel's Reflections; she has all kinds of cultural info, with pictures. I like pictures.

Korina

Here is a link that might be useful: Rachel's Reflections

any photos on how the "surgery" turned out?