Ya know Leon,,,,,I think that is a good idea! Rosie

Rosie,

You sounded like me. I have an addictive personality when it comes to hobbies.

One day a friend told me about nail polish top coat and base coat. The next thing I know I have 500+ bottles of nail polishes.

Lately I got into house plants. Now every room in my house has plants. Today at lunch time I was shopping for wick suppliers, which I swore I am not getting into.

I tell you what to do with nail polish. If you have roses - when you dead head them or trim in spring - you need to seal the cut. It prevents thea cane borer from putting an egg on a cut and the larva from going down killing the whole cane.

Hi Julie! Now, you do know that you can make your own wick supplies for very reasonable (nil to no) money, right???? I may have an addictive personality, but I do all of my hobbies as inexpensively as I can. THAT way I have more money to spend on things I can't come up with cheap or free!!!!

And Irina is right about what to do with nail polish. My nails are always short and either breaking or ripping off so nail polish for me is not a good thing! Man 500 bottles????? Oh wait,,,,for a minute I thought you had me beaten. But you haven't seen my fabric/sewing/ sewing machine/needlework stash! Rosie

Hello everyone! Julie, I can relate to the nail polish addiction. I have so many bottles! My most expensive hobbie is knitting, my stash is really taking over my whole walkin closet! Now I am into plants, especially AV... I don't want to spend too much money on special equipment I don't need!

Hi Catherine! Read a lot of the back posts and you will find very inexpensive ways to have this hobby! Your biggest expense is what you are willing to spend on some of the more expensive (and beautiful) violets! But a lot of us try to trade leaves etc. Good luck! Rosie

Thought I'd mention, for an outlet for unwanted plants: I have a neighbor who works at the state prison near here (in Arizona, south of Phoenix). He runs a gardening program at the prison. He'll take any and all plants, so maybe you have something similar near you? Often they'll come pick up, too. Another idea is nursing homes and hospitals. Everyone is cheered up by seeing an AV. Downside there is, it's of course best if they're blooming plants.

I would have never thought of a prison. I can see taking outdoor gardening plants or left over vegetable seedlings,,,but violets also? COOL! Rosie

Hi Rosie!

I asked the guy, who did originally ask for "outdoor" plants, if he wanted AVs. He said it was a good idea - that inmates interested can keep AVs in their cells. I didn't ask what they'd do for light, but maybe the windows are big enough? <shrug> But most likely, they have shop lights set up somewhere, or maybe a greenhouse. In AZ, I doubt greenhouses work year 'round, 'cause everything would bake.

Wow, well good for the person that allows that program! Raising ANY plant would help with a persons "softer" side. They would CARE for something. That is a good thing. Good for you for contributing to this program DJ! Rosie

I don't know if I could throw out all those babies or not. LOL Right now I'm nurturing some extras for friends and plan to sell what's left next spring when I have a plant sale. I still have lots of window space so if you or others ever have the urge to take control and get rid of your extras, I'd be willing to pay the shipping for them and give them loving homes. :)

Hi Emmsmommy!

I will definitely have extras! I recently got back into the hobby, and being rusty at it, I tended to put up too many leaves, thinking a lot of babies would die. Wrong! Now I am inundated with babies! I put 4 up two weeks ago of Frosty Cherry, and yesterday potted up 6 of Watermelon Snow. I have many more varieties coming up! My plan was (is?) to grow them to blooming, to be sure they bloom true, and I will do that with some. But I don't have the room to do that with all of them, so it will be great to ship them off to whomever here might want them. :)

DJ Curtiss，

Me me me! I want more plants. I have a sliding door face south in the basement. I can fill the whole door.

I have a doorwall in my kitchen! I would LOVE to make a floor to top shelf unit for it. But these darn people insist on using it to go in and out of the house! grrrr!!!!!

Keep me in mind DJ!!!! I still have a few nooks and crannies!!!!! Thanks! Rosie

PS. shhhhhh,,,,hope Irina doesn't read this post! lol

Dear Rosie and Julie -

Definitely! I will send to anyone who wants what I have. Right now, I have to wait until October because where I live (near Phoenix, az) it's 110! Can't imagine anything making it out of here alive. I don't think October would be too cold in most parts of the country, so hopefully you guys can wait. By then, most of the babies should be blooming, too!

And, dear Rosie - who the heck needs a door, anyway?! hehe

THAT is exactly what I said! But the vote was 3 to 1 and I lost! darn. And yes,,,I would hesitate to ship now anyway. October seems nice! Rosie

DJ，October sounds good!

DJ that would be awesome!

I can take extras. I currently have plants in only one room of the house. I also am giving leaves to coworkers. They are amazed by the O violets that I have blooming of course I have only one named, Yellowstone and it is blooming its fool head off.

Hi Julia -

Looks like I'll be busy shipping AVs in October. :) Glad you're sharing them with co-workers. The ones I have are a lot more sensitive than O violets. Hopefully by then some of your co-workers will have gained experience.

I'm home nearly all the time, and my light carts are literally right by my bed. So I see my AVs every day. All except leaves and very newly potted up babies are on communal reservoirs, so it's fairly easy to take care of them. Still, I run into occasional problems with these more sensitive cultivars. In other words, they still keep me worrying sometimes - lol.

Have a great week!

DJ，

when you send the plants to me, let me know the rough cost of shipping. I can send you the money by PayPal.

julie

Ohhhhhh Nooooooo! I just read this entire thread right to the last post! I am laughing so hard right now! This was supposed to be ME learning my lesson!

The posts closer to the end have re-evolved right back to enabling including ME!!!!!!!

Oh my! What a monster I may have created?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?! Who is fooling whom? I am still laughing so hard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OCD at its best! Rosie

Rosie,

when I saw you want more, I was scratching my head. But I understand addiction.

I'm still laughing!!!!!!!!!! Rosie

Dear Rosie -

The temperatures here near Phoenix is the only reason I have control! But the slowing down is also positive in the sense that, while I can't get more AVs, I am paying closer attention to the ones I have.

Posting my strategy for dealing with desert heat in another thread, as it's way off-topic here. :)

I understand,,,,,I can't ship/recieve ship here either! But that doesn't mean we cannot make plans for October!!!!!!!!! Hence I am still laughing!!!! lol lol Rosie

PS I hate heat and humidity,,,we don't have air but cooler air comes up thru the basement stairs and we run fans! Works pretty well, it's an old farmhouse (1879).

I love old farm houses! Nothing in the desert (save maybe military outposts, mining towns, etc.) is old, so I miss that (originally from Chicago area)! Is yours haunted? How cool if it is! :)

Congrats to you. Rosie. I too am a plant hoarder. Start all types of plants for the garden in the basement under lights. Move them into my greenhouse and give lots away but thenn spend most of my summer watering the extras only to have to dispose of them in the fall. Was heading the same way with my new AV collection - saving and propagating every removed leaf and ending up with gobs of babies. Decided to see if a local assisted living facility would like some for their residents. Got a favorable reply to that. Took a flat of them to work and they all disappeared. Now I'm down to one of each and it's a refreshing feeling. Think I might like the idea. And I have space for my order from bloomlovers when it gets here. Don't ask how many I ordered!

hahahahahahaha let me see if I got this right,,,,,first you were a hoarder,,,,then you "learned your lesson" and made yourself lots of room. Finally down to one of each, and NOW you have ordered more????? Just which lesson did you learn????? ROFLMBO!!!!!!!!!!!! hee hee hee Too funny hartogken10!!! Same thing I did!!! hahahahahahaha Rosie

Rosie, most of us will want to save EVERY plantlet. A life is still a life. And it is even better when it blossoms!! I think I am the same way.

Yolanda

Yolanda - can you imagine - you have a black tray 10x20" with 36 solo cups. Each has a couple of leaves in it and 10-20 babies. Do the math. And if you have several of these black trays?

My friend got a couple of Australian finches - they are easy to take care, they are not noisy, they have a very delicate song ...I think it is about 40 now...just in several months... they lay eggs non-stop....then the young ones will start laying eggs.. at some point she decided to get another cage, looked at the Craigslist - and the lady said - oh - I will bring it to you, I will be in your area. A very elderly lady showed up at my friend's place - and gave her a cage for free...with 2 parakeets...I was asking her - why didn't you say NO - and she said ... the elderly lady was desperate...

You still want to save every single plantlet?

I., the spoilsport

I had a visitor a couple of days ago, and he admired all the blooms. I showed him all the duplicates and told him I'll be throwing them out because there's only so much room

He was saddened and took one home....... ONE !
Of course, the rest were discarded. And that's the problem. If I can't find someone who wants a bunch of them there's no alternative.

I think I am going into cardiac arrest. ohhhh. Leon,,,Irina,,,you are killing me!!!! Rosie

It's amazing how quickly one gets "hard" to this throwing away of plants... I potted up every baby that resulted in planting a leaf. I soon had 18 babies of one plant. Now, every time one looks a little weak, out it goes. I still have 11 - that have nowhere to go. I'll be dropping off plants at the nearest assisted living place. That is, after I send to those here who want one or two. :)

DJ - I would love to have some of your extras. Just let me know how much postage is.

Hi Katy -

I'm very happy to send plants to anyone that wants them. The thing is, I live near Phoenix, AZ, where the temp is still above 100. In all of August, and most of July, the temperature here stayed around 120! We keep it above 80 indoors, and as a result, the plants have slowed down. Most have continued to bloom, but leaf growth is noticeably slowwww.

So I have to wait until at least mid-to-late October for any plants to have a shot at making them out alive. :) I just today potted up 7 babies - Watermelon Snow and Frosty Cherry - that have outgrown their first pots (small condiment cups), so things are moving along.

I will stay in touch on this board and will post, asking who wants plants, about a week or so before I can safely send them. By then, I expect at least some will be ready to bloom, or very close to it. :)

Gulp,,,,don't forget my Watermelon Baby DJ! (hope no one else reads this) Rosie

DJ, I have given some extra plants to the church rummage sale. If I had many, as saw a sign that said " Rummage Sale on ??", I would hand them over to them Who cares if they are a different religion!! I do not have to worry about the AVs changing religions.

Yolanda

LOL Yolanda. It's true - none of my AVs are prejudiced.

Rosie - Now how on earth could I ever forget such a nice person? :)

Awwww DJ, I was hopin' you would remember. <:) Rosie

Thanks DJ - that sounds wonderful!!! It will be nice to have some named AVs, Most of my mine are really old, with no names.

I know this is an old thread but it makes me grin. Rosie, are you still able to keep numbers down?

I was around here when you were just getting back into av plants, (remember shihtzu4su?) and I do believe we did a trade or two and you sent me some kcups! I went thru the same thing you did... I was expecting my third child in 2015, and - get this - even LOOKING at a violet gave me an attack of morning sickness! At that point I had six shelves full of African violets and babies, and I couldn't handle taking care of them. So I started pitching.. And giving away, and narrowed it down to three shelves and one narrow window sill for minis. That winter I started pitching even some of my mature plants because they looked so awful, and I was paranoid about non-existent bugs. I was down to maybe 10 standards and 10 minis!

After my child was born, I still wasn't interested in violets much anymore, tho the poor things did finally get repotted and watered!

This spring I finally started caring for them again. Put them on wicks, groomed them regular, and actually fertilized them! They are rewarding me with bowers of flowers!

I have a total of around 60 av plants now... (That's 40 plants and 20 diff varieties with leaves down) Most are minis, because they seem to suit me better. :)

I understand the throwing out stuff now too... Whew. Was hard on me then but I do it callously now! :D

Anyhow thanks for the chuckles. the way this thread switched directions half way thru had me laughing.

Hahahahaha Su I remembered you from your original first posts! When you and I traded, you sent the violets in a neat little box that I re-purposed to hold my pencils, nippers, "sucker pluckers", pokes, picks and whatever else it could hold! With your name on it,,,,how COULD I forget you! Every time I open the box you are with me and my violets!!!!!!

But I could feel the despair in your posts. Then I was so happy to see you posting and enjoying violets again! Welcome back to the madness!! YAY!!

Do I still hoard? YES!!!!!! Do I still pitch? ummm,,,I will get back with you on that. Am I ok with it all???? YOU BET!!!!!!!!!!! Hahaha there is no hope for me, but I can think of much worse things than all of my hobbies I could be into!

And no matter what,,,,,I will leave this world HAPPY!!!!!!!!!

And that reminds me!!!! And that reminds me, speaking of happy, I just re-read all of these posts. HEY DJ!!! I forgot all about my Watermelon Snow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh no,,,how could I forget! But I still have room!!!! Wadda ya think? Still got a leaf for me?????????? Yep! I learned a lesson. giggle giggle!

I AM INCORRIGIBLE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rosie

PS. It is spring, it is warm, it is sunny, I am happy!

Lol! Rosie That's funny cause I think about you every time I use these little kcups! :D

Ha ha,,,,thanks Su! So glad to hear that you use them! I think they are the neatest thing. To start a leaf, I put my soil in the kcup, place the kcup in a SNACK size baggie on the short side and zip it up! Works well! Rosie

That would work well! I put about 10 on an ice cream lid and slide the whole lid in a clear bread bag, and tie it with a twisty. I make my own bread so this works perfect doe me, as I always have bread bags around. :D

Great idea! Also if you have the bottom bucket part of the ice cream container, just cut it down to about 2 inches and that will give you another holder for kcups! YAY! Wow, you make your own bread. I used to years ago, but not now. But it was good! More tasty than store bought! Rosie

Hey, that is a good idea! I like it. :D

Oh yes... I've been making bread since I was 12... and loving it! I've been experimenting with sourdough lately... and we actually like it just as good as my regular honey wheat bread! :D