I know its been over 5 yrs. since the original posting but I got such a kick reading them. For the count- I am at 62 with 52 babies that need transplanting in the next month along with 76 leaves rooting as we speak. I started it last June just to have some color in the house! My husband is great he keeps buying me plants he sees I do not have. This Fri. he is taking me to the Violet Gallery (outside of Gettysburg, Pa.) I hope to leave with 36 more leaves. (named plants) I right now only have about 20 named ones. When I started the leaves it was to get 25 plants to give at next years christmas party. However I did not think I would have such a good propagation rate. I lost only 25 out of 193. Would love to trade leaves (of named ones) for other named ones. I guess I am addicted. There could be alot more worse things- ie. drugs, alcohol, etc. So addiction to AV's is a good thing. Right?

Update! Four of the babies have been removed from the momma leaf*, who is back in her materinity ward to see if she wants to give up any more. (because I totally need more unidentified plant babies) Three had good roots, one was like a little sucker on another. I don't hold out a whole lot of hope for it but it's in a wee cup, under a dome to see if it will grow roots. Sadly because it's soooooo tiny and rootless, I fully expect it to die. Anyway, I'll try to get pictures later on. ~ I have to (shamefully) admit that two of the babies were removed about a week ago and were probably a little bit too small but I was so impatient with my first attempt! So far they don't appear to be doing much except not dying, and not dying is a good thing.

The only thing I know about lady bugs is that one year I had an indoor infestation. Now I love them, so I didn't hurt them. I did think, hey this could be good for the violets, they didn't want to stay in the same room as the plants though I would catch them and bring them to the plants. Well, I ended up catching and releasing them outdoors on nice days. I was okay with them, but they obviously were not going to live in the house either and my family didn't like their company as much as me. I think if violets are not getting enough light the leaves will grow leggy, reaching for light. I grow a couple violets in a window in a room where I have a fireplace insert we use for additional heat all winter. These violets dry out very quickly but I usually don't water them until I see them start to wilt a bit. They are violets I got at the grocery store and are still growing in the peat they came in and that peat holds too much water if I water too often, it will be fatal. So I just let them wilt a bit and then I know for sure they need water. Actually the peat is good for them as anything else would dry out everyday and I couldn't keep up with that. Wick watering might be an option, but I haven't gotten around to that yet. I think if your growing conditions are about the same from week to week, you could just wait until they wilt a bit before you water and count the days it takes them to get to that point, then after you know it's every 5 days (or 7 days or more or less), you can start watering just a day or so before that. Feeding, I just use deluted fertilizer most times I water and then every so often I just use plain water. If you repotted your plants...they may take a while to bloom again as they need to be pot bound/root bound to bloom Some plants I downsized their pots so they would bloom sooner and more often. Change one thing at a time and soon you will have great plants. We all go thru trial and error. And what works with one person, won't work for another. One lady in our violet group grows hers in dirt. She buys it in bags at home depot. Doesn't add anything to it. Well, when you think about it, at one time all there was to grow plants in was dirt. Good luck.

No, my understanding is that it should bloom regardless of type. And several years is long enough to mature. There are certain kinds of AVs that will not bloom true from a leaf cutting, but they all bloom. That being said, I have had AVs (1-3 plants at a time) for the last 25 years and they never bloomed. Never, that is, until I suddenly found myself in a house that has the right light. For a year my AVs bloomed their little heads off. Right up until they developed an aphid problem (which I won't go into here). Of course, I had never invested in lights of any kind. My guess is that it is a light problem. AVs can be huge, healthy plants and never produce a bloom if they don't get the right kind of light. There are lots of resources for info on lighting. If you want to use natural lighting you'll have to experiment a bit. AVs want bright, indirect light, but can take a little direct sun if it's not too hot or too long. Mine bloom beautifully in a blocked southern exposure. My Mom's bloom in an unblocked eastern exposure, about a metre back from the window. For info on artificial lighting, check out the FAQ section of this forum, or try Rachel's, or both. Best of luck, Feegle ~You enter into a certain amount of madness when you marry a person with pets. - Nora Ephron Here is a link that might be useful: Rachel's Reflections