Yolanda, I had to chuckle as I read your post. I guess it is time I made myself clear with regard to what I call a "crownectomy".

I only perform a crownectomy when I have a plant that has two or more well formed crowns. African Violets often form more than one but really do best when the plant is limited to one crown.

The newer/lesser crowns are more often than not, clearly discernible by the small ring of leaves growing out around it. When I remove the smaller crown to include the leaves growing out of that crown, I jokingly refer to it as a crownectomy.

Then, as I mentioned in another post, depending on the value of the plant, both monetarily and emotionally, I either scrap the smaller crown/plant or I take steps to propagate it.

In your post, you don't say if your two AV's are in separate pots or if those are the two plants you are talking about separating.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Your plant may certainly need some sort of surgical maintenance but it may or may not involve the removal of a crown.

With no more than what you've indicated, I can't really say much more.

If you take the top of the plant off - you can root it and it will be vigorous and floriferous for another couple of years. What to do with the rest of the palm tree? If you manage to cut the top off - and leave several healthy leaves on a stump - you can let it be and it it will produce several suckers you can also root. That's how Chimeras are propagated. If you are not interested in making more of the same variety - chuck the stump. But the suckers will grow faster and stronger than the babies from a leaf.

Jeff, Irina and all, I know that a picture is worth a thousand words; however, it involes taking a picture with a camera or phone, neither of which I own. It involves asking my daughter to do that and she is almost 27 and thinks her father and I are computer nerds. Enough said. I will try to get a picture.

The plants are two separate plants in two different pots. One is ACAs Inquisitive George and the other is a NOID as far as I know. Both are flowering now, and I know there is life in them. I have on occasion taken the top of the plant off as described by Irina. Before, I just dumped the stump. When I get brave I will preform the crownectomies and leave the stump to grow suckers. I will wait until later in the fall or winter when there is less sum to do this. I can always give the plants away to the church rummage/ Someone always buys them, even if I give them girls' characters' fictional names, such as "Scout" in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Yolanda