I urge you to visit your local library or half-priced book store to see what they have to offer.

I prefer my books to have nice photos (for inspiration) and attention to the issues I am currently having.

I took a look at the offerings on Amazon, and those offerings are either a bit out of date (with likely faded photos), ... or they are newer offerings with questionable content. (I perused one recent offering which showed a sweet violet on the cover). You're going to want to get a good look at what you're getting.

I know that it can be disappointing to lose a plant that you have put so much time into. The difficulty with violets, I've found, is that they can be unforgiving of a single mis-step.

A little too much water, exposure to mealybugs/mites, over-fertilization, etc. can spell the end for violets that you have put years of effort into. Being well-informed is part of the solution, but another tip is daily surveillance (so that you might be able to catch these mis-steps before they take down the plant). For instance, I will occasionally discover a plant which has been over-watered (where water has collected at the plant's saucer) , ... and am therefore able to pour off the excess water before it causes root rot. Wait one day too long, and I've waited too long.

And since you periodically are away from you plants for a week or more, it would be good to see if you can find a growing partner who can keep an AV grower's eye on your plants while you're gone. A local AV grower's group might be a good resource for you.

<The difficulty with violets, I've found, is that they can be unforgiving of a single mis-step.>

I could not agree with this more! This is exactly the problem I have had in the past 3 years since I began growing AV-s. Everything will go perfectly well until something happens (I DO NOT know what) and they start becoming limp/soft and off they go.

There have been many times when I had no idea what happened, they just went. This can be very frustrating because you don't know what misstep to avoid next time.

Another example: I had a very tiny/young plant of Buckeye Seductress under a dome with a few others that I received in the mail from a forum fellow. They sat in 3 oz cups.

It was one of the ones growing best, it looked so happy...until one day when I took it out to start acclimating it to the room environment. It did well a few days...and one day I found its leaves slightly less turgid...and then it went downhill from there.

Could I have dropped in a bit too much water? I doubt it, as I spray carefully.

Could I have dropped some water with a small dose of fertilizer when the plant was still too small to accept fert?

Could I have let it go a bit too dry before I watered it again? I doubt it because I check the plants every day and keep the soil evenly moist.

We will never know.

And THIS is my huge problem.

Eventually every violet goes and I don't know why. Longest I had one was 2 years.

All About African Violets by Montague Free

An interesting book with a wealth of information from the days when African Violets were not commercial. It can be read at openlibrary or Gutenberg. Or Amazon has the hard copy.

Thank you!

But would it be relevant to commercial violets?

Begonia, what do you mean by the term "commercial violets" ? Rosie

Rosie

I used the term. What I meant is there have been many commercial advances that make African Violets user friendly.

Now I can buy prepackaged potting mixes, fertilizers. I can find a wealth of information about pots, wicking, capillary mats, lights, all of which make it much easier to grow African Violets.

The newer hybrids seem to be better adapted to house culture if only in terms of size and sticktite qualities. I think the Optimaras are especially suited to window sills whereas size alone would preclude the earlier Species and hybrids.

We are fortunate to have the accumulated wisdom and products available.

Where I find Free's book fascinating and valuable is he had to discover what the plant required and manufacture those conditions from materials he had locally. The chapters on mixes is extremely helpful. Now so much of advice is #1 buy this #2 do this according to these instructions. Yes, all that of that buy and do by the numbers is the accumulated wisdom of a million growers and millions of dollars in research. Thank you.

But when I read Free's book, I understood the "why" we buy this and do the procedures, such as repotting, in the way we do. I tried to fudge and adapt the African Violets to my conditions. Free's book is a different approach.

I now know that African Violets grow on gravel very well. I cannot plant them in heavier soil because they dry so quickly in light mix. African Violets must have light mix and the drying/watering is my problem.

Commercial is a good thing, arguably but Free did not have the luxury. The book is a good read about basic culture from the early pioneers in the hobby.

I agree that there is good information in many of the older books. However you do need to have enough basic knowledge to discard the outdated information such as that about pesticides or maybe going out and getting garden loam. You probably don't want to do that. Still there are techniques that work just fine and are not in the "Idiot's Guide to Perfect Plants in 39 Pages" (16 of which are pictures). I made it up but I think I probably bought the equivalent at some point.

Of course not all the old violets were big. So many remember their grandmother with a row on the windowsill or likely it would be the great-grandmother now.

There is the Storks' book which I have in ebook form. Given Joyce Stork's responses, I would think it should help with problems. I have not actually read it though. It is searchable as an ebook but perhaps you might enjoy it more in hard copy.

Also are you going to grow show plants or be a for home grower? If you are a for home grower, do not expect to get the same blossoms and plants as a show plant at its peak unless you are willing to disbud and do without flowers for months at a time. Maybe it is worth it to you. It is not worth it to me. I haven't seen the latest "Growing to Show" but the old one was well worth it. I have never had a group but I do think it is probably only as good as its members.

Some of advancing is very much in learning about your own conditions and how to do things yourself and no one can do that but you.

Diana

Episode 71 of All About African Violets podcast by "Annie" has a list of books she discusses for intermediate growers. In the "good old days," we cooked the soil in the oven. These days, soil is not used. So the older books are to be taken for there historical value and providing a basic foundation of knowledge. For example, Miracle Gro is a short cut remedy that was not available in the old days. It is nice to have interest in these historical topics, especially with your family's professional background.