Alice, I 'dust' them in the sink, soft spray of water. And not often. I have one African violet, a gift. It doesn't ever get cleaned at all. Same with the chirita, no cleaning, no dusting or washing.

Larger plants (coffee tree and a cast iron plant/aspidistra), I put them in the shower and use the hand held spray there, let them drip dry and put them back in their spaces. I don't keep track, but I'm sure no more often than maybe twice a year, I need DH to lift them back out when the soil in the pots is saturated.

I don't have artificial plants. If I did, I would find some way to clean them if they needed it that didn't require doing each leaf individually :)

My houseplants get by with a minimum of care. I'm too busy with outside things most of the year to get too fussy growing indoors too.

remember the years of using enclosed fish tanks for all the plants? you just had to mist and dust the tank, lol...

You can use a child's soft toothbrush to dust African violets.

not that I'd know about cat hair on African violets or anything like that.

It depends on the plants. Size matters. I have some sansaveria that are more than four feet tall. They spend the summer months outside in a corner on the deck. They get wiped when I bring them in for the winter. Otherwise - nothing.

One of my ferns goes in the deep sink and I spray her (her name is Fern) about once every two months in the off season. She spends her summers (May to October) outside.

Realize that plants in the wild don't get dusted except with rain water. An African Violet will get spots from tap water, but most other plants might just think that a spray of water is like living like their ancestors did.

Take them out in the yard and spray with the hose, gently. Occasionally in the kitchen sink with a spray bottle. Leaf by leaf is too time consuming.

You're supposed to dust your plants? Oh. oops

Yes, don't put water on an African violet's leaves. sylvia, I can picture your violets all too well... from experience.

My mom loves, loves, live plants. And is too old to really keep them clean. I just wipe them with a soft cloth, and only when I notice. Which is probably every other month or longer.

i water my plants about every 4 to 5 days. Once in a while, I'll line them up in the bathtub, put on the hand-held shower and give everybody a nice cool shower.

I am absolutely terrible at keeping house plants, but my mother and grandmother swore by wiping your plants down with cloth dipped in milk.
I have no clue if it helped more than water, but they were both very talented gardeners.

Yeah, I heard about wiping plants down with milk. Makes the leaves shiny. WAAAAYY too much trouble for me.

Once in the winter, I'll pile them in the shower under a soft, warm spray. In the summer when we get a nice slow steady warm rain, I'll set them outside.

Everybody gets this treatment, except African violets of course.

You know I have always heard not to clean the African violets with water. Mine were really in need of cleaning. I started Googling about how to clean them and over and over again I was finding how to wash them. And saying that the don't get the leaves wet was not correct.
I decided to give it a try following the direction to dunk the entire tops, held upside down, into a Basin of room temperature water and swish it around gently, then lift holding it upside down to drip, then gently blot it dry on a dry fluffy towel, then put it back in it's spot and the rest of the water would run off and evaporate. But to get the crown blotted dry to prevent crown rot.

Well it works beautifully! I have since done all of them and they are going through a growing spurt. The leaves look so good and healthy now. Google is our friend! By the way there are even YouTube videos showing bath time for African violets.

Growing out there in the wild they certainly do get rained on.

Here is a link that might be useful: Give them a bath

By the way I had found this great idea here on the gw African violet forum on how to make mini wick pots out of Ball canning jars, so cute and it works.
I am going to use this method to make new babies.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mini wick pots

Yep, I'll rinse mine in the sink or the shower, depending on plant size. Some of them I will cover the soil with a plastic bag to keep from washing out too much dirt.

raven - thanks for the link. Those mini pots are adorable!

I don't mess with AVs anymore, but when I did, they benefited greatly from warmish showers in the sink. In between showers, I dusted plants with a cosmetic brush.

I don't mess with AVs anymore, but when I did, they benefited greatly from warmish showers in the sink. In between showers, I dusted plants with a cosmetic brush.

Great ideas, and a wonderful conversation. I don't have AVs or artificial plants, but I enjoyed reading about the information.