Saintpaulia | Potted Plant Society

The Green Thumb 2.0

You can get anything on eBay. I’ve been using the site for years and have recently expanded my eBay experience. Last summer I ordered some iris rhizomes from a grower in Indiana and they were better than anything I could have bought locally. Yesterday I received something else from eBay – african violet leaves.

I’ve been growing african violets for a long time but all of the plants that I have are generic plants that I’ve acquired from garden stores. While I have a nice assortment of plants, I wanted to start growing some named violet varieties. You can order small plants from a number of internet sites but eBay offers a large selection of african violet leaves at a much better price. While it takes a little time, propagating a violet leaf is very easy, so I decided to place an order.

When I opened the box I was surprised…

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The Green Thumb 2.0

The vegetable garden is planted, the flower beds are growing and the rain is falling. It’s good day to spend some time with the african violets.

I noticed that one of the eBay violets has a small plantlet emerging from the potting mix. I planted them in early March so it’s a two or more month process to go from a leaf to a plant. Now how long it’ll take this tiny plant to bloom is something only time will tell – I’m thinking late fall or early winter.

I’ve been reading about violet care on two sites: Optimara www.optimara.com and the Violet Barn www.violetbarn.com. Both provide great information on growing african violets. I’ve been growing violets for years but after checking these sites, I realized that while I thought I was repotting my plants, the fact is that I’ve never repotted a plant in my life; I’ve alway up-potted. When…

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