Congratulations, you have a project plant!! With some time, some supplies, and patience, you should be able to rejuvenate your plant. First of all, there are some things you will need to purchase if you don't already have, so here is your shopping list: 3 ounce solo cups small bag of peat moss OR small bag of commercially prepared african violet potting mix small bag of perlite small bag of coarse vermiculite any brand of African violet fertilizer with less than 10% urea content nice to have-an exacto type knife Okay, lets make a proper potting mix for your new violets. Using the peat moss, or the AV mix, measure equal amounts of peat/AV mix, perlite, and vermiculite and mix together. Add enough water so the mix is damp but not sopping wet. A handful squeezed together should hold its shape but crumble apart if poked. Set this mixture aside. (This is the famous 1-1-1 mix you will see referenced here so many times!) There are many separate 'crowns' on your plant. These are basically suckers that have pretty much matured. If you think of the leaf pattern of the plant as a rosette, you can tell separate rosettes by this pattern; a leaf facing the wrong way probably belongs to another crown. You will need to divide these crowns and pot them separately. The easiest way to do this is to take the plant out of it's current pot. Do this a day or two after you have watered it, so that it isn't bone dry or soaking wet. Put a dinner plate near your work area with warm water in it. This will be where you place the separated plants so the roots don't dry out. If you can, squeeze the pot sides all around, and push up gently from the bottom, working the plant out of the pot. Once you have the plant out of the pot, gently remove as much of the soil from the root ball as you can. I use two sizes of forks when I do this, a regular size and then a small pickle fork. Sometimes you can just gently work it off with your fingers. You will probably break off some leaves as you work - don't fret, think of them as opportunities. Once you have most of the soil removed, start looking for the separate plant crowns, and then cut them apart. Gently work them apart; the fuzzy leaves like to 'hold on' to one another. Some of them may have their own roots, and that's good. As you separate them, just lay them in the warm water if they have roots; if they don't have roots you can just set them aside. A word on 'suckers', they generally appear as sideshoots in the axil of the leaf, that is the 'angle' where the leaf is attached to the stem of the plant. There will be suckers that are too small to try to save and pot up. You can use a blunt pencil to remove these smaller ones, just push it to one side with the pencil. As you work, you probably can see there is a 'main' plant, which is the original plant before the buddies moved into the neighborhood. After you have all the crowns separated, and all the suckers removed, you are almost ready to pot up everything. Remove any leaves that are deformed, dying, undersized, etc. Now let's pot! The general rule of thumb for the correct pot size is this: the pot should be one third of the leaf spread. Measure the spread of the leaves from leaf tip to leaf tip. Divide that number by 3. The answer is the size in inches of the pot. For example, if you have a violet that measured 12 inches across, you would put it into a pot that measured 4 inches across. I don't think you are going to have anything very large left here, so we will use the 3 ounce solo cups, which are about 2 inches across. Better to 'underpot' than 'overpot'. The cups need drainage holes; I use an electric drill, and drill through the bottom of a stack of cups. Some people just cut off a slice at the bottom edge. Starting with the main plant, scrape the stem like you would a carrot, to remove any leaf stubs, and the dry 'callous' covering. This is where new roots will form. Remove as much of the root ball and stem as you need to be able to put the plant in the cup. I actually put the cup next to the root ball/stem to measure how much I need to cut off to have it fit in the cup. You may end up with just a stem and no roots, that's okay. Just put the mix in the cup, use a pencil to make a hole in the mix the same size as the stem, and place the stem in the hole. Avoid packing the mix down, but you can gently firm it a little bit. Do this with your other crowns also. Give each pot a very small sip of water and add more soil if needed. The stem of the plant should be completely buried in the mix. If you feel you want to have a gazillion of these plants, and for 'insurance' pot up some of the leaves that are in good condition. Slice the leaf stem 1 to 1 1/2 inch long at a diagonal left to right if the leaf head is on your left. Poke a hole in the soil mix, and place in the mix until the leaf barely touches the soil. The newly potted plants and leaves are now ready for a home with bright light and humidity. You can provide humidity a number of different ways...a seed flat with a clear dome, a cake tray with a clear cover, a rotisserie chicken container, a deli container, any thing that has a clear cover and is taller than the plants. A plastic bag works okay too as long as it is held off the plant and sealed. Place the plants in the container, cover, and set in bright light. DO NOT PUT THEM IN THE SUN unless you want to cook them. After 5-7 days, check to make sure the soil hasn't dried out, if so, water lightly. You want to keep the soil just barely damp, not wet. The new roots should form in 2-3 weeks, after which you can 'wean' them by gradually reducing the humidity a little every few days. Please take pictures in progress, we love pictures. Good luck! Others have probably already answered this in the 90 minutes since I started this! Barbara

Welcome to the forum! If you plan to wick water, it is really important to have a potting medium that is very light, meaning there is a lot of air spaces in the mix. This is what the perlite and vermiculite do for you. Commercial African violet mixes such as MiracleGro, Black Orchid, etc. are almost all peat moss. This will hold waaaay too much water when wicking, and you will have root rot in a NY minute. By using Dora's 1-1-1 mix for wicking, you will have more success. If you have an AV club in your area, I encourage you to attend the meetings. You'll meet a great group of people that love to share their knowledge with you, and they are very generous in sharing plants or leaves also. You can find clubs listed on the AVSA website. There is also a lot of growing info. If no clubs, read everything you can get your hands on about AV's. 'Growing to Show' by Pauline Bartholomew is jam-packed with info that is as relevant to the hobby grower as the show grower. And, of course, your friendly forum members will help you too! Barbara Here is a link that might be useful: AVSA website

Dear armygrdnr, This is just the "annoying novice" on duty here, as many will be able to testify. I myself am still learning and currently driving the experts insane with questions. That being said, here are my 2 cents, as little as they are worth. I started this AV thing this year in March and have been through what you are going now. Some problems you are probably experiencing as a beginer: 1. First, your plant is probably starting to show the transplant shock. Now, when you say a few weeks...what does "few" mean? Two or 7? 2. The pot is almost surely too large. 3. You need to learn exactly what the experts mean when they say "keep the soil moist but not soggy/wet". You need to touch soil that is "moist yet not wet" so you can experience how it actually feels like. You can do this at your local nursery. A few months ago I THOUGHT I understood what that meant, but later it turned out I didn't. This is crucial - otherwise you will not be able to avoid a root rot episode, just like I wasn't. Water from the bottom a few times and wait until the top soil feels "clearly no longer dry"...just so you will be able to recognize what "moist" means and how your soil needs to feel when when you water from the top. When you do so, you absolutely need to stop when you see the first drops of water coming out at the other end. Ar first, I continued to soak the plant even after seeing the first drops coming out...thinking that I needed to make sure ALL soil was evenly covered. AV pots are usually so small that a little water will quickly spread over the entire surface of the potting mix and will sink in evenly anyway. I have added my modest 2 cents because sometimes the experts are so good that they take for granted skills that became second nature to them long time ago; in other words they no longer realize how BAD us beginner can actually be. :-)) People here though will be able to give you much more in depth advice. Some of them are downright fantastic and their stands can make you green with envy. It won't get its way though (the envy, I mean) because these folks are so sweet and helpful you won't be able to get your jealousy going. :-)

Looks very good! Give then a little bit of water - like a teaspoon per pot - and get them covered. I presume the plastic pots have holes - so the extra water will run off. Keep the container in a light spot but away from the direct sun for a couple of weeks, you probably do not need to water during this time - and they should show the sign of growth soon. I.