the plant seems pretty happy, the roots are all very healthy, the older ones as well as the new ones. also it's still got it's leaves, which is unusual for me since most of my dends drop leaves at some point. the only thing is, i don't like sphagnum. i feel like it stays too wet too long, but i'm really careful about not overwatering. the moss is completely crispy before i water! but, it's still fine as far as not breaking down or anything. i think i will just leave it for now. dend roots really do like to be crowded. i've overpotted in the past and screwed up the blooming. since the plant seems happy now, i guess i shouldn't mess with it, b/c i'd really like to see it bloom again!

Robert - I think what you see is a result of your fertilizer overload, may be cold water some time and change of the environment- from the greenhouse to Walmart- to you. Otherwise your violet looks very healthy and it will grow out of these damaged leaves. You can break them off if they irritate you. Usually if it is wet rot - you better remove them ASAP. Dry rot - I think it is a result of the break in culture - and new leaves are coming nicely. It is not dangerous to get leaves wet - they actualy like to have a shower from time to time - just let them dry in a warm palce without direct light and remove the water from the center with a touch of cleenex. It is important to have your watering and washing done by a tepid water. Not too hot and not too cold. Since you didn't repot it - the soil is too heavy - that's how they grow them for sale. It is tolerable - just do not water it too much. This soil can get waterlogged in a hurry and drown the roots. Do not put any spikes any more - get some violet food - Miracle Grow, Shults, Peters - and fertilze it very sparingly - better about 1/2 of the recommended strengh. Good luck - and your plant really looks good. Irina

Thank you stonesriver and everyone else for the kind welcome. Yes, I think I may have been a bit bitten by the "gardening" germ. Granted, I am nowhere close to where most people on this forum probably are. I am mainly a "decorator" who feels that a house without any indoor plants is sad, dry and too much of a sign of our rushed times. So I decided I HAVE TO get some reasonably elegant indoors plants established. The only thing close to caring for a plant I've done before were some geraniums. They did OK, I managed not to kill them and they bloomed quite a bit over the winter even if they did get leggy. Oh, well. Now I took them outside and I decided that they will go in the basemenent for wintering when times comes. I will no longer keep them in the house because they are not really elegant, gracious plants. I like their bright colors outside in the summer but that's that for now. So I decided it was time for something finer and elegant to go with our classic/traditional living room as well as my busy schedule. I also knew this was going to be harder than a geranium which are quite hard to kill anyway. So off I went to Pikes and I grabbed some plants I had heard were not hard to care for and would do well on our Eastern bay window. A Peace Lily, four AV-s and two yellow begonias. (I did kill a begonia last year but later, after more reading, I realized I was making mistakes with it). A real gardener I will never be - not with a full-time academic career and two small children; but By God, these few plants must stay alive, do well, and even bloom nicely - this is all I hope for. I don't plan to do any complicated wick watering (at least it sounds complicated to me) or much propagation or anything - I just want to keep my living room looking as pretty as it is now, with lots of healthy blooms, if this is not too much to ask. Since I've heard so much about how important the soil is, I think I am going to change the soil the plants came in pretty soon; at least for the AV-s, I don't know whether I should do the same thing for the begonias, but probably should. Having a month between waterings sounds like a lot to me. These are small pots (4" I believe) and I think all moisture would evaporate altogether from such a small pot well before the 1 month mark; especially if I change the soil to something more airy. I did fertilize the AV-s when I watered them the first time - with some 5-7 drops of liquid fertilizer from MIracle-Gro, as indicated on the package. I am a super novice so I just did the novice thing. I guess changing the soil will also change the present routine. Some of the flowers on my AV-s are starting to fade now- they are starting to have little burnt patches on the petals, but I assume this is the natural cycle of the flower - as I bought them with quite a few blooms from the nursery and it might just be their time to go. I am just hoping they will continue to bloom for a while. Thank you again for the kind welcome, I wil certainly be around because I have been clearly "bitten". :-)

You can repot now or wait - we frequently have this discussion on this board and people sit on both sides of the choice with good reason :) - ultimately, it's up to the grower as to what to do. There are pros and cons to both options. I personally would opt to separate and repot soon. I've learned that going a few weeks or a month or two without a blooming plant is nothing compared to the years of beauty in having a healthy/blooming plant that is in optimal condition. Having several (in your case 3 or 4 suckers/plants) competing for the crown/energy of the plant means that not one of them is getting what it deserves. IMO, that stresses the plant and puts it at risk. By separating and repotting - sure, you'll have to postpone the blooms and pleasure from that but you'll be ensuring the health, wellbeing, and ultimately pleasure from more healthy blooms by moving ahead now to fix it. Oh, I've posted a link below to the place that I use to share pictures here. Some other people use photobucket but tiny pics is 2 steps and I've had good results with tinypics. Here's how it works (best of memory here) go to the TinyPics website click on browse and find the pic you want to upload, select that image/file click on upload now highlight the code in the 1st option (html for websites) right click select copy (or for a shortcut, press control+c) (the code is now saved to your computer's clipboard) right click inside the text box where you make your post for this message board where you want the image to appear click paste (or shortcut of control+v) The code for the picture will appear when you click on preview message, the actual image will appear in the post for you to see how it will look Once you do it a few times, it will become 2nd nature Looking fwd to your pics :) Dora Here is a link that might be useful: Tiny Pic Image Hosting