If this is one of your first AV's, please take note of the following ... AV blooms do not last forever, usually only a few days to a few weeks, depending on the variety. After this, they brown and dry up. At this point, you should remove the bloom stalks. So ... for future notice, let's go through the steps of successful African Violet care ... 1.) Have a suitable spot selected for the plant(s). This spot needs to be well lighted (either from a window or household fluorescent lighting), and the temperature in the area should be steady. In other words, don't place the violet(s) in spots which will experience temperatures which are too hot ... or too cold. The good thing about African Violets is that they like the same temperature range which is comfortable for people (70-85 F). The (natural or fluorescent) light that your plant receives should be enough to cast a shadow if a white piece of paper is held behind them. This level of light will be necessary to ensure that your plant will bloom. 2.) Determine whether or not you can water your plant with household water. Some city/metropolitan water systems add chemicals (Chloramines) to their supplied water which, unfortunately, will harm/kill your African Violets. I would start by purchasing a gallon jug of spring water from the grocery and use that to water your Violet(s) until you determine whether or not Chloramines are in your water supply. You can also use rain water, if it's available. 3.) Shop for your African Violet (if necessary). We've all seen the bright and colorful displays of African Violets at the grocery and/or big box hardware stores. These plants are ideal to cut one's teeth on in learning to successfully grow African Violets ... with one caveat. These plants will almost always come with insect pests (thrips and/or others) which will ultimately begin to rob you of the beauty of your African Violet blossoms, unless you take the necessary steps to stop them. The alternative to buying African Violets at retail outlets ... is to buy them through mail order. There are a number of reputable mail-order African Violet vendors which will supply you with healthy African Violet plants which, in most cases, will not be carrying insect pests (thrips and/or others). Some of these vendors are Lyndon Lyon Greenhouses (website), PJ's Violets (ebay) or Jack's Violets (ebay). But, in general, pick plants that look healthy (not droopy) and which have a nice spiral type leaf pattern, where you can clearly see the center (crown) of the plant. Avoid plants that look jumbled ... or full of leaves, because that indicates that there is more than one plant in the pot, ... and you will have to separate the plants to have your best success. 4.) Once you have your plants, the most important to do is to NOT OVER-WATER them. The easiest way to kill your violets is to over-water them. Violets only need to be watered when the soil is very nearly dry. And when watering them, you need to allow the excess water to drain out of the pot's drainage holes ... to be discarded. A violet which is allowed to remain in a pot which is saturated with water will quickly die of root rot. 5.) Make sure that the AV pot is not too big ... and that it has drainage holes. An AV should be in a pot no bigger than 1/3 of the plant's width. So the leaves should stick over the sides of the pot, so that the plant looks like it has wings. I've included a photo for comparison. The easiest pots to use are like the plastic one shown in the photo, though, in time, you can graduate to using other types of planters. (Or you can set the plastic pot inside of a more decorative planter). These tips should set you well on your way to successful AV growing. And please, come back to Gardenweb with any other questions.

Upload to a free hosting site, then paste the photo code directly into this message box. For photobucket, it's the third line of code (HTML). Afa, select durable ingredients that average in size between 1/8 and 1/4 inch. If you can find sand in that size (which is usually called small gravel), then yes it makes a good grit. Don't use: fine sand, beach sand, play sand. It is almost always too fine for use in a container. Vermiculite turns to clay-like mush over time, and so it is not a good ingredient for containers. It lacks structure and durability. Perlite, small gravel, and small pieces of screened conifer bark would make a solid mix. No soil. No peat moss. No sand. No compost. Josh

in my (woo hooo) two years of growing AVs, i've pretty much given up on "pretty planters" - they aren't practical, and once the fertilizer salts start crusting up, it's rather unsightly. so, looking at your plant, i'd suggest to start over. you can set that last leaf, but it will be a year or more until it gets big enough to fill that pot again. now, some AV Rules - you probably know most of them already, and don't worry, all of us have scorched, drowned and frozen plants too ;-) 1. water. drowning is BAD, dry is bad, drenching after dry is VERY BAD. you want to aim for moist, more or less consistantly. if they are wet, let them dry out - you can put them on newspaper or take them out of the pot. if they dry out, water a little, then later a bit more, not all at once. 2. sunlight, BAD. you want bright, but not direct sun light. hold your hand over the plant and check you see a fuzzy shadow. 3. you can (probably) revive a plant that has no crown but decent roots, or one that has no roots but decent foliage. - if you are missing both, you're in trouble. 4. "feeding" (or watering) a plant back to health does not work. typical procedure with stressed plants is to check roots & foliage. remove rotten bits, put the plant in moist (not wet) and very light potting mix (typically lots of perlite and some type of potting soil, peat, or av mix). removing ailing leaves is a balancing act - even poor foliage provides more photosynthesis than none. then bag the plant and place it in bright shade.

6 years in one pot - sounds like not repotted all this time... that's an unkillable one- defiitely worth saving. I have both these books. They probably have a similar information, but the one I recommended just deliveres better. Joyce Stork's book is more of the questions in answers - Pauline Bartholomew is more like a manual. It is more of an engineering approach - you do this, 2 weeks later you do that, 3 weeks later you do that ...- and in 12 weeks - you have a show plant to die for. Joyce Stork's book is based on the questions people asked AVSA and it is written in more detailed way - you have this problem - why it happened, what did you do wrong, what should be done better... I think each book appeals to the different readers and good to have both of them. I just prefer to go through the 5,4,3,2,1 - launch scheme first - it sure delivers - and then discuss possibilities. I think it is very important to have an initial success. Regarding how to grow AV covered. It really needs 50-60% humidity, not 100%, so think about covering your container with a angel cake lid or salad bowl lid with a good size hole cut in it. An AV needs water to evaporate - so it can absorb more water with fertilizer. If there is no evaporation - it sits hungry and pale. I.