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". :-)

it's a healthy looking plant - you panicked! don't get discouraged. it's just an AV ;). get yourself another and play with it. pulling off a leaf does not hurt the plant, unless it only has 5 leaves :). removing a decaying leaf is a GOOD thing.. i just uppotted a medium one and pulled off 6 bottom older more yellowish leaves to make it look more symmetric, which was half of the last row (was looking lop-sided). it's only when the plant is too young or weak that you need to mind how many leaves to remove. well, within reason...of course. a thought on watering: when you let a plant dry out too much (to 1/4 pot as you said) - that's too dry. you then need to rewater by bottom watering: letting it sit in the bowl of water for 15 min. if it absorbs all water, you need to add some more and wait another 15 min. if it sucks up all of that, give it some more! letting it dry to 1/4 pot often is not good for av - it's too much stress. if it has a lot of leaves, it might start dropping them if it does not get enough water to maintain them. temp: 79F is too high for av's. 70-75F is the optimal range. higher then 75F - they will need more watering. the larger the plant, the more water it will take. consider trying wick-watering in the future, especially for larger plants. it's very easy . well, you can still go to your mother and instruct her on upkeep! i am not down-playing the dangers of chemicals. but it might just be that you did not water/feed it properly.

Thank you so much. The plants definitely got smaller after the lower leaves fell so I WILL go to a smaller pot because, like you said, even the previous one was slightly big, but they seemed to do OK. I just never understood how the roots would deal with that. I mean, my plant got smaller because the lower leaves fell, but the roots certainly didn't change, right? However, it appears the consensus is that the pot should be 1/3 of the diameter of the plant (so it's about how big the leaves are, not about the roots). As for blooming again, I read that some AV-s do take a break from blooming, particularly in the summer. I also read that a good plant blooms for 9 months and rests for 3. Maybe these two of mine went through their rest period over the summer. Who knows? I'll go back to doing everything by the book and we'll see what happens. Thank you again!

As Rosie has said, the first step to enjoying successful violets is effective watering. In addition to what Rosie has said, I would suggest feeling the top of the soil in your violets' pots, ... and only watering when the soil is drier. Overwatering is the easiest way to kill an African Violet, ... but now that you know, you are forewarned. Also, check to see if your water provider uses Chloramine in their water processing. If so, you will need to use a different source of water, as Chloramine can kill African Violets. Spring water from a grocery or grocery dispensery is a good alternate source of water. Giving your plants sufficient light will help to ensure that they continue to bloom. African Violets do not bloom continuously, but, with proper lighting, they can bloom their best, hopefully giving you bloom from one (or more) of your plants most of the time. Your violets will need natural light (from a window no more that a foot or so away) ... and/or fluorescent artificial light for 8-12 hours/day. I think that the new LED lighting will work as well, ... but not the old incandescents. After awhile, your violets will need fertilizer ... look for an African Violet fertilizer ... and mix 1/2 the recommended amount into your water for your plants. After a year or so, ... your violets will likely need repotting, though they, likely, should stay in the same size pot (4" diameter). If your violets reach 15" across, you can pot up to a 5" diameter pot. If they reach, 18", go for a 6" pot. IOW, keep the pot diameter to 1/3 the plant's width. When you repot, use a mixture of 1/2 commercial African Violet potting soil, and 1/2 Pearlite. You should be able to get both at the local box hardware store (Lowe's or Home Depot). You have time to enjoy your new plants ... while you learn to care for them. Check out the following link for more information about caring for your new plants. http://www.optimara.com/africanvioletcare1.html It really isn't so tough, once you learn the basics of watering, and lighting. Learning those two alone will get you healthy blooming plants for a few months ...