Yes, I am too much of a vegetation lover to separate and keep the most vigorous too...though I think purists would suggest to go down to a single growth and pot separately (but who wants 20 pots of the same violet) :)

Hmmm - why do you want your green buddies to live in a collective farm? You do not sleep in a bed with 4 people...they do not want it too...

About four years ago I threw out all of our Michael's fake plants and decided to try real house plants again. I have tried lots of plants from Home Depot and eBay sellers. If they don't do well or get too big I just throw them out. I have everything from Adeniums and succulents in the south upstairs windows to Orchids in the north windows of our small townhouse. Many of my plants are in community pots because they take up less space and look more natural...to me anyway. When the "bloomers" are blooming, I move them around in the house to enjoy. I also like to take pictures of them to post on this forum.

" It blooms well twice then declines"
I think what Irina is trying to gently tell you is that if you separate the individual plants and give them their own space to grow in (instead of keeping them crowded all their lives) they might live longer for you and bloom better, too. And there is no reason to keep and pot up all the babies from your leaves so that shouldn't be a reason to keep them all crowded, either. Choose one or two of the strongest and throw the rest out. You shouldn't have trouble with that as you already seem comfortable throwing away plants that don't make you happy. :-)

Lol, I'm on the other side, I have to find homes for them...it pains me to throw out a plant. However, gesneriads other than AVs tend to be my better friends (AVs don't necessarily like me).

I am siding with AnneCecilia - spare violets make great gifts.. You do not need to keep the dozen of the same variety. And when you separate the clump - usually 2-3 plantlets are strong, the rest are strugglers - and can decorate the compost pile.

DBarron - I heard an opinion that the AVs do the best at the state they were hybridized. That's the way how they were selected - the culling of the batch of seedlings from a new cross starts by leaving only strong, symmetrical, healthy babies. The ones that can say - I Love Arkansas! So - I would try the AVs that originated in your neck of the woods - from more or less similar climate. You have the work cut for you - selecting the State AV. Did Jon Lindstrom work with AVs or only with other Gesneriads?

No one in my fairly large local family has the time or inclination to grow houseplants well. I have limited space. I can follow these procedures:

http://www.violetshowcase.com/rejuvenate_web.pdf

or just keep the one violet going with a pot of rooted leaf cuttings. I have other plants to display in the house while the cutting takes its 30 weeks or so to bloom.

I just have a different perspective of growing plants. I don't really have room for 9 - 10 inch diameter African violets or Streptocarpuses. My current problem is this thing:

Philodendron Prince of Orange. No one wants it and I just can't throw it out. It was a nice small plant when I bought it at Home Depot.

Bouldergrower -

your Philodendron is gorgeous - and - NO - I do not have space for it too. Office, Library - with some effort you can find a place for it before it'll choke you out of house and home.

You can grow small standards and semi-mini AVs - both rosettes and trailers - under 10" - you do not need to grow monsters. And you are correct - most Streptocarpus hybrids are large. There are smaller streps hybridized by Dale Martens - they will fit your requirements - but small plants do have smaller flowers, so the WOW factor is gone.

I am thinking - that with the choice of varieties - you can grow well grown and free blooming violets. It doesn't matter - if the plant is Xlarge or Xsmall - if it is healthy and happy - it brings you joy.

The rejuvenating instructions from Doug Crispin - the Violet Showcase - are about how to spruce up an old overgrown covered with suckers plant. And he recommends surgically separate them until you have 1 plant per pot. Works really well. And again - leave 1-2, chuck the rest. Wait until both are growing, keep the best.

With good culture and timely separation of babies grown from a leaf - you can get young ones to bloom faster and stay in bloom longer.

But - you have your own approach - and you like how it works for you - and it is fine. Having live plants is so much better than having artificial ones... and you sure have some very happy plants on your photo.

I know that I am totally blasphemous - but - live plants - for live people, dead - for dead. Artificial flowers make a good decoration at the cemetery...

Ohhhh, too bad I am not close to you. I would separate every little violet you have in a community pot. AND I would give the "I don't wants" a good home! I would also share with my daughter. She loves violets also!

Ok, something to think about. As violet growers we separate the babies and give them their own pot. Well, no one does that with the ones that grow outdoors naturally. In the wild so to speak. Is it the idea only the strong survive? I realize we have bred and refined the violets to a fault, but level the playing field. Just consider a violet rosette that any of us have vs. a rosette type that grows in the wild. Leaves break off, drop and possibly root with no one to separate them. We trim off leaves, hopefully root them and we do the separating.

Am I off base with this thought? Something I am missing???? Rosie

Rosie, Optimara carefully bred their own brand of violets over a long period of time to have the round, evenly spaced shape. I first learned about this from Irina a few years ago. Maybe we could refer to this as the domestication of the violet, that is, training it to look good indoors as a centerpiece. I like that look. Nature cooperated with optimara because plants "like" to grow evenly. I find with optimara, they grow this way on their own, because they need less light, i don't even have to rotate the pots. There is a Royal botanical garden in England where violets are planted in a natural setting. They have more of a trailing shape. The gardeners do groom them. Also in Hawaii are gardens with outdoor violets. Joanne

I grow some species - rosette species want to grow a pretty much perfect rosette, trailers and semitrailers - like Saintpaulia confusa - send suckers. In good conditions - no overcrouding, good light and no caterpillars or cows chomping on the leaves - rosette type Saintpaulias will grow symmetrically - it is a best way to utilize the light . So hybrids - including Optimara - were selected to preserve and enhance this trend. It is a work of the Mother Nature - and in a lot of cases - what we see as a beauty - is an example of a perfect adaptation. Everything is streamlined and economical. I think domestication is shown in large double sticktite flowers and variegated foliage. Both these features - not practical - but create interest for growers. Spent flowers are disposed of and plant cleans itself in nature if the flowers are droppers. Domesticated plants need the maid service to remove spent flowers. Variegated leaves do not produce as much as the perfectly green leaves - and in nature these plants would lose in competition and die out.

Thank you, this post is a keeper! Joanne

Trudy -

it is quite cold here in CO. Finally we have a warming up - so nights are getting to be around 20F instead of 5F. Since USPS is sending trucks with parcels to be loaded on the planes close to midnight... I think you got the picture. No shipping till April.

Irina, That's what I had in mind when I said "warms up". No one in their right mind would put plants in the postage in the Winter cold. We all look forward to April, even those of us in zone 9 which are expecting our 1st frost possibly Tuesday morning when we get our lowest night temp yet in mid 30's.

Trudy -

my apologies - I didn't read your post with a proper attention to details.

i.

.

At least two per pot. Starting the leaves in sphagnum moss worked fine but separating them was difficult. So, one died but this is the "harvest".

For contrast, here is Streptocarpus "Winter Wood" started from two leaf cuttings at about the same time as the violets.

What beautiful plants!! I'm the same way--I can't throw them out. I always keep and plant the babies separately if they're healthy, then gift later. I personally don't mind keeping lots of the same variety, but I have to give them away because my room is small and that's where all my plants live with me.

I'm glad you found a way that works for you for rooting leaves! For starting leaves I use pure vermiculite and when they root I switch to a 1-1-1 mix. It works well--they typically root in 2 weeks and have babies starting by 4.

Nice pix bouldergrower!!!!! Rosie

Bouldergrower, Your philodendron is definitely a Prince would love to have one to admire here in Oklahoma.

Hello :) I found a sucker or two on some AV's that I just bought. So if I were to trade with someone how do you all go about shipping these? Packing wise...