Hi, it needs far less water... far less often. But it sounds now as if it might be a good idea to get it out of the pot, check for slimy black roots and cut them back to healthy ones if you find any, then repot in much faster draining soil (lots of perlite, or coarse sand - small gravelly stuff like aquarium gravel) and get it into more sun. And good luck.

Springtails (if that's what you have) are generally of no harm to the plant. They feed on dead plant material, usually at the soil surface and will much prefer to munch on the peat in the soil mix than living plant tissue. Treating to kill them is likely to be harder on your plant than simply leaving things as they are. I wouldn't worry about them too much. I see them at times with my plants, and I've seen them in other people's plants. They seem to come with the territory. Mark

Promix is mostly peat and with time - it being wet - the acidity goes up. That's probably the cause. If the soil is acid they cannot absorb Nitrogen... here you go... I would get them out, remove old leaves and pot them in individual appropriate size pots with a fresh soil. You can either leave the gravel on the bottom and wick the pots - so they will be sucking the solution from gravel - or what I prefer - vermiculite. It holds water well and looks neat. You can load enough vermiculite into your fishtank so you can submerge your pots in. I do not think you will need the gravel - just be suure that pots have wicks - and you add fertilizer solution to the vermiculite when it gets dry. irina

Hi, Judging by your name, you probably like flowers in the apricot-organge-yellow category. Sounds like you selected a nice assortment to get started. Thanks for the question and Aegis, thanks for the terrific link. I scrolled through the messages and saw the secondary link with a lengthy list of yellows. I will print that out for reference. A senior (in experience) member of my local AV has been growing out various yellows and double whites. I have also tried a few. What we have found so far is that Lyon's seems to have the fastest growing plants, so the wait time seems to be shorter to see results. I just acquired Mellow Yellow by Lyon's today. It gives an overall impression of light yellow. The triple bloom is fluffy like a miniature tea rose. Mellow Yellow has clear ivory petals with light lemon yellow center stripes, deep yellow stamens, and light green leaves with undersides a brighter green. In my experience, two other Lyon's, Warm Sunshine and Sunkissed Rose, tend to be more white with tinges of pink or lavender under my growing conditions of natural bright light. Under my friend's conditions of carefully controlled fluorescent light, the colors tend to be more ivory shading to yellow. As for the Ma's (Ching Dynasty and others,) the growing out period is longer, with not as many blooms the first time, so not enough experience to comment. Marigold, as far as the color Orange goes, I have heard that 'Ness Orange Pekoe is probably close to orange. I have not grown it, so this is not from personal experience. It is an AV that people like a lot. (Another that is coral or brownish is called Rob's Sarsaparilla, I believe. Some people like it, some don't. There is another Sarsaparilla by another hybridizer that is a different color, so if you look for it, look for Rob's.) Optmara recently came out with a pale yellow they believe is stable enough in the color over several bloom cycles to register. The color was a spontaneous sport of a completely different color combination, not something they deliberately tried to develop. It can be viewed on their website under one or more of the violet identification categories and can be ordered. It is available only in leaves that are expensive because it is new, rare, and has limited availability. We've had discussions on the Forum in the past about yellow. It is not a natural color for violets, which in nature are blue-pruple-violet. Pink was a breakthrough. The reds are more pinkish red than true red. Lately we are seeing some greens. White is less stable because is it he absence of pigment, so the parent genetics of lavender and blues often break through. You might enjoy subscribing to the AV magazine, or possibly joining a club when the time is right. They often have back issues of the magazine, so you can read about violets and genetics in articles by Jeff Smith or Joyce and Kent Stork or Dr Rob. Joanne