Rejuvenating your african violet
http://www.violetshowcase.com/rejuvenate_web.pdf

Not all African Violets consistently form a single
crown or rosette.

Depending on the variety, some will start to grow side clumps of leaves very soon. These side clumps can be removed and started on
their own. They may or may not form a single crown.
Some will, some won't.
Plants that do this probably have trailer genes in their
history.
When ordering a plant from an on-line catalog, study
the written description. It might state whether or not the
plant forms a single crown.

Others plants start to form side clumps very soon due to
stressful growing conditions such as not enough space to grow.

I and others have observed that some varieties of O plants
tend to do this, while others will not.

The same is true of more expensive violets bought
through direct mail.

In the winter, plants slow down and go into survival mode, so they will tend to show less than perfect growth patterns than when conditions are ideal.

Hope this helps. Joanne