Purple..What's the temp there? I do everything the last minute, too..dh teases, 'you procastinate no matter how early you wake.' lol. I honestly believe GW has a lot to do with putting things off. I might not fool a jury, but dh might buy the story. Purple, Purple, Purple. Who's Purple. What's Purple. Why is it Purple's fault? Do you like AV's? When I saw this guy, I had to order. It's called, Jolly Jubilee. If you have time, Google or check Violet Barn. The only other AV I want is Happy Harold...Of course it was out of stock. In the first pic, your Columnea leaves look glossy. In the next photo, foliage looks fuzzy. My eyesight is getting worse, so it's hard to be certain. Which is it..glossy or fuzzy? Will you summer your Col outdoors then bring inside during winter? If you bring indoors, will your Col be placed in shade, bright light or direct sun? Purple, how long will you be in NO's? Do you have someone to water plants while you're gone?

Okay, I mixed a ton of perlite into the AV soil/vermiculite mix and repotted the violet. Good thing, too - it was sopping wet. I laid the roots of the plant out on some paper towels while I was mixing in the perlite so some of the water could be absorbed. HOWEVER, I notice today that all the water has been slurped out of the bottom pot. I assume all that perlite I added is what soaked the water up. The instructions say to refill with water after the first addition of water has been absorbed. My thinking is not to do this since the rootball was so wet. What do y'all think? The stress is wearing me out! :) Cynthia

Your problem is a mystery to me. I have never been a great columnea grower. They need more humidity than I have in dry California, I guess. They also hate to dry out. And, they hate heavy dense soil. But 1-1-1 doesn't sound bad to me. What might work though is to increase the perlite consituant to 2 parts, or increase the perlite and sphagnum peat to two parts, thus cutting the vermiculite to a half part. Or, if you can find, coarse peat, switch to that. It will give a more open epiphytic type mix. Some people use fine bark in their mix too. But, bark will decompose and make a very fine silt like compost with time, so they need to be transplanted to new mix after a year or two. To make the best plants, root a number of cuttings and pot them together, such as ten cuttings in a five inch pot. Pinch them and let them branch to make a really full compact plant. Jon

I think your columnea will do much better in a light soil. You can pot it and put it in a ziplock baggie out of direct sun. After it will start growing - keep taking tips off and sticking back in the same pot so you will develop a bushier plant. African Violets do root in water, but a lot of gesneriads will rot. Another easy to grow geseriad that some people call Goldfish - Nemathantus - is very happy to root in soil - but will refuse to do it in water. Offtopic: Funny about these common names - - in Lowe's hardware I saw a nice annual looking plant with tubular orange flowers which was named Cornucopia and was refered as a hummigbird attraction. Why it was labeled Cornucopia - is beyond my understanding. I was able to track it by the hummingbird thing - and it is Cuphea ignea, or "cigar plant". Good luck with your columnea, they are lovely, keep it on the eastern or western window, they like to be on a cool side to bloom - and try more than one variety. Some are practically everblooming. Irina