Gardening : With Care, African Violets Will Last for Years

A windowsill dotted with tiny pots of African violets is as much at home in a kitchen as is the fragrance of bread being baked. And many of us buy our violets just where we buy the ingredients for bread--at the supermarket.

But you may be getting the floral equivalent of day-old goods if you pick up a violet during your weekly shopping excursion.

“The violets you see in the grocery store have been grown in greenhouses,” says Hilda Douglas, president of the Pomona Valley African Violet Society. “They usually don’t rebloom because they’ve been forced.”

So what do you do if you want a shelf full of pretty violets?

Thriving Specimens

Try visiting African violet shows. The folks who sell violets at these exhibitions grow their own--and they grow them in their homes. You’ll bring home thriving specimens that are happy to live in the real world.

This is a good weekend to do some violet shopping: Not one but two local African violet societies are sponsoring shows.

You’ll see hundreds of beautiful violets, in almost every shade of blue, purple, pink and white. The societies also sponsor talks and demonstrations on the care of violets.

Once you’ve brought your plants home, put them where they’ll get 10 to 12 hours of indirect light--sunshine through a sheer curtain, for example--every day. An eastern or southern exposure is ideal. Keep the soil moist but not sodden, and feed your violets constantly.

Douglas suggests a powdered fertilizer, such as Peter’s, with an even balance (many enthusiasts use 20/20/20; the numbers should add up to about 60) of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. She puts a quarter-teaspoonful into gallon jugs of water and thus feeds the plants every time they’re watered.

If you really want successful plants, Douglas says, be brutal when they first join your family. Growers typically boost the phosphorus their plants are given for about two weeks before a show to ensure full bloom.

“Flush your new plants with plain water,” Douglas says. “The water should run right through the pot and out into the sink. Let the plant rest for about a week and then start your regular care.”

You should also gently pull all blossoms off the plant you’ve just purchased before you put it with any other plants--bugs usually nestle in the blooms.

“It’s easy to start your own violets,” Douglas says. “They propagate by leaf, so cut off a leaf on a slant from about the middle of the plant, let it dry for about an hour, then put it in a mixture of perlite and vermiculite, with a handful of charcoal thrown in.

“Keep it moist, and, in about four weeks, give your leaf a tug. If it won’t give, you know you have beautiful roots in there,” Douglas says. “In two more weeks, you’ll have a baby plant.”

Watch for “suckers,” the miniature plants, complete with tiny root systems, that grow off the sides of mature plants. These can be trimmed from their parent and planted in your perlite-vermiculite mix.

Trim and Peel

A well-tended violet will last more than a decade, especially if you keep the old bottom leaves pulled off. “You’ll start to get this ‘neck,’ ” Douglas says. “When this happens, take the plant out of the pot and cut off some of the bottom roots.”

Then gently scrape the neck and repot the plant with the bottom leaves at soil level, leaving some space around the neck. Put a bit of the perlite-vermiculite mixture down around the neck. “You’ll basically have a new plant after several years,” Douglas says.

African violets definitely are not suited for the great outdoors. “The critters and bugs outside--thrips, mites and mealy bugs--are favorite pests,” Douglas says. “You just don’t want violets anywhere near other plants or outdoors.”

Today from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Pomona Valley society’s show and sale will be held at the Church of the Brethren in La Verne; today from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m., the San Fernando Valley African Violet Society’s show is on tap at the Panorama Mall in Panorama City.

Both shows are free.