The leaves are what produce the buds. The buds don't grow until the leaves have reached a specific level of maturity. The buds grow from beneath leaves in the second or third rows and slowly emerge. They grow in a specific rounded pattern, just like the leaves grow in the round. It takes several weeks from the emergence of the first bloom stalk to the appearance of the bloom, then a few more days or even weeks to open up. Karin has documented this in her experiments from growing from seedlings.
The only leaves that would ever be pruned would be from the very outside row, but only if they are looking worn out and dry, which is not the case here. If you prune too many from the outer row, you will end up with a plant with a long neck, which is not desirable. Your plant looks fine. The leaves are all growing in a whorl like they are s'posed to.
If you think your plant looks "bunchy" in the crown, it is healthy leaves growing out.
The plant IS the leaves. They are the engines that enable the plant to bloom.
Violets maintain their shape. The only time you need to prune them is if they grow a sucker on the side. Then you simply pop off the sucker and repot it in a new pot.
Some AV plants just like to grow large.
If you remove a leaf from a growing point on the plant, say, anywhere else besides the bottom row, a sucker might grow in that spot. Which you do not want to happen.
Violets are slow growers, the blooms take a long time to pop out. Sometimes they will grow tall on the bloom stalk and stand high above the leaves. Others will dangle gracefully beneath the leaves. They will be visible. If your plant is an Optimara, the blossoms will probably stand tall in a bunch.
Joanne

African Violet flower buds will find their own way out of the plant's foliage.

I second all that Joanne has said ....

Okay cool. I won't mess with it then. There is a hidden clump of leaves that look a bit like it's own plant in there. What's that called?

That would be a sucker, which, essentially, is a baby AV which is still connected to the main plant.

As Joanne has said, suckers can be removed from the main plant and started on their own in their own pot.

It can take a bit of finesse to remove a sucker intact (so that it can be replanted) ,,, and to not damage the rest of the plant.

OTOH, if the sucker is allowed to remain on the plant indefinitely, it and the main plant will eventually be competing for the same water and nutrients (that come through the main plant's root system). It also will eventually make for a very crowded pot where none of the competing plants will get enough nutrient to grow properly or bloom.

If it were me, I might wait until the plant was through blooming BEFORE I attempted to remove the sucker. That way, you can avoid the risk of damaging the bloom buds (while removing the sucker) ... AND the sucker itself will be larger and therefore easier to remove.

This post was edited by aegis500 on Tue, Feb 3, 15 at 10:40

Yes, yes, and yes to what Aegis said. The general rule is don't mess with the plant when it is putting all its energy into blooming. It needs every leaf it has.

As for suckers, refer back to your similar question and excellent and detailed responses Aegis provided a month or so ago when giving you diagrams and illustrations of suckers.

Again, when the plant is in the bloom cycle, don't mess with the leaves. It needs its energy to focus on blooming and will not be growing leaves for a while. If your plant is an Optimara, which it likely is if you bought it in a store, most likely it will sucker freely. Optimaras are vigorous growers that easily propagate by suckering. The time to remove them is after blooming is complete, some months from now. Optimara blooms tend to hang on for a looooong time. This is the blooming season, so just relax and enjoy the display about to start.

Now, you might want to ask folks' opinions about fertilizing during blooming. That a is another complex topic! If you have been applying fertilizer all along, you can stop now. If you have not, then you might want to start using a dilute amount. Joanne

It didn't have a label on it. Optimara is a company right? I got it at a greenhouse.

I know how to gently push a little to help the flower buds finding their way. Do not push hard which will break them.

Probably not an Optimara, their plants are usually labelled with their company name and come in a thin 4" clay color plastic pot with a black interior. Some greenhouses are licensed to grow Optimara and put their own label but the pot is the same.
Although the bud can be poked, without experience, it is best to leave it alone. Nature makes way for it to emerge. Buds seek the light so try to position the pot so light reaches the buds. J

The one on the left is an Optimara- it came in one of their pots. The big one on the right didn't have a tag. The little green one in the middle is a rare Australian species.

Nice!