Murphy - it depends - if your water has 150 mg of minerals per liter - you are OK, if 1g - it will possibly kill plants and your kidneys won't be happy too. You do not actually need distilled water. Rainwater, water from an airconditioner - is great - free too - and just a regular drinking water from store - these large blue plastic bucket size bottles work just right. When people have a huge collection - it gets too much to haul water - they install a reverse osmosis filter - for the plants, fish and drinking. I keep a trash barrel and a hose attached to the AC in summer and use it on my plants. Have a sump pump and a garden hose in it - and just add fertilizer - and off we go. Irina

I got the GE gro lights at Walmart when I first started out, but I switched to the one cool, one warm, and I'm seeing better results. As someone pointed out to me, the Gro ones from Walmart are also for an aquarium. I use two 20 watt bulbs in a 24" fixture. I bought a flowering standard off of eBay, and when it arrived, it looked more reaching, like your bottom picture. I didn't put it under my lights but in a filtered east window, and it has since relaxed it's leaves and is very happy. Sometimes we want AVs as pretty decorations in different parts of the house, but for them to be happy, they really do need proper light, enough of it.

Some past tips have been to let the plants dry out (larvae live in the damp soil), putting a layer of sand on top of the soil to discourage the egg laying, sprinkling cinnamon...none of them worked for me when I brought home gnats in a new prayer plant and they invaded every plant in my home. What did work was buying a package of mosquite dunks, floating a piece of the dunk in a container of water overnight, then using it to water my plants. The BT in the mosquito dunk kills the gnat larvae and stops the cycle...it may take more than one treatment if the infestation is heavy. The same BT (bacillus thuringiensis subspecies israelensis) is in Gnatrol, & Knock Out Gnats, probably others...I just found the dunks better priced locally (and passed the rest of the package on to a friend with a water feature in their garden)

Hi Violets N Bunnies! From what I understand, heavily variegated African violets do not bloom as often as the non-variegated varieties because they produce less chlorophyll. The white parts of the leaves cannot photosynthesize, so only the green parts of the leaves can photosynthesize and produce energy for the plant to grow and bloom. Your plants still look young, so I would give them time. I think I read somewhere that AVs are more variegated in cooler weather, so maybe in the summertime they'll produce less variegated leaves and have more energy to bloom. I think your plants are stunning even without the blooms! I love the pink variegation on Dean's Faded Rose. I hope this helps! damask_rose_5 : )