myplant, you do realize that for the most part these are dormant in the north? They will lose all their leaves and only have stems left for most of the winter. The root is like a bunch of carrots, storing nutrients to make new leaves in the spring. Place it in a spot where you can watch it and allow it to go almost completely dry for the winter. Water it only after the dirt is dry for a week or more. Long about late Feb, you should see green sprouts starting on the stems. At this time, prune it hard, place it in good sun, and water it. After this, never allow it to go dry until next fall. The plant needs a rest so that it can come back in better shape next growing season. Might be advice for you too. Take care.

hello! now i'm no where near as much as an expert as these guys, but i do have african violets that are growing absolutely brilliantly, and now its getting warmer, they are even growing new bulbs (as in flowers :P) i dont know much about reviving them from their "illness", but i can tell you what it is that i do to make sure that they stay healthy. so, once your plants are revived, and you have followed the advice that dragonfly, barbra and cindee have given you, follow these tips to keeping your plant healthy and happy :) firstly, these violets like heat, as they're from africa, so make sure you put them somewhere hot and sunny (once they have revived). mine are on the windowsill that faces west where the sun sets. this way they are as close as possible to their natural enviroment. it doesnt rain much in south africa, where these violets are from, and the hairy leaves hate getting wet, and they will catch a disease and get yellow spots if you wet them. so when you're watering them, avoid getting them wet. if you accidentally do get them wet, just wipe it with a tissue- then they should be fine. they don't like much water- you are right about that. so heres how much to water them: during the winter- once a month. early spring/ autumn- once a firtnight. during growing season (late spring/summer) once a week. i cheated because i brought african violet fertilizer and used it with every watering, even during the winter. the plant does not flower during the winter, but late spring it does, as i have discovered, so dont worry if its december and your plant isnt flowering - its natural. also, make sure that you cut off with sharp scissors any dying blooms and any leaves that look dodgy - you don't want them to spread a disease. it is also helpfull to rotate your pots about 90 degrees every week, so that all of your plant gets equal sunlight. good luck, and i hope that you enjoy your violets with many years to come christie xxxxxxxx

In the 70s, I was one of those young "Naturalists" "Environmentalists" who worked on the initiatives to try to get the government, business, and the public aware that we cannot continue to trash the earth. That it would lead to Global Warming. Because it was a rainy, cooler time period, some people laughed it off. The prediction was for the far future - the polar caps wold melt, the glaciers disappear and the earth's temperatures would rise without the ice to reflect off the radiatio of the sun. The salinity of the oceans would be diluted by the melted ice, which in turn would start to cause horrific storms, massive flooding in certain regions with severe droughts in other areas. The ocean's currents would shut down due to the dilution of the salt. The Gulf Stream affects all the Northern Hemisphere. It is what warms Great Britain and Europe and the northern Hemisphere. It is the rising and falling of the high salinity-to-fresh water-temps which creates these currents. Not enough salt would cause this to fail. No movement would bring on a more rapid occurence of an Ice Age than normal. This naturally happens in cycles, anyway, but it was begining to happen at an alarming rate, much, much faster than normal. Scientists had been studying this at that time since the 1950s, but during the 60s and 70s, they saw that it was really speeding up. CO2 and Methane gasses were also increasing in the upper atmosphere due to the industrialization of mankind. (this is just a brief, but you can see where I am taking it). Thus, warnings were given that unless man found solutions, it was going to increase more and more rapidly with each decade. There was no window at that time for knowing when it could happen, only that it most definitely would. At the same time, plants, animals and organisms were disappearing at an alarming rate. New algaes were forming in the oceans and seas that were destroying ecosystems. I remember the great Lakes dying, choked with pollutants and solvents and all manner of garbage and sewage. Disgusting. There was only six inches of water on top of the yuck in may areas. Fish were dying. Groups like ours were instrumental in reversing most of this, but not all. Tons and tons of garbage and raw sewage and chemicals from factories and refineries still continue to pour into the rivers in America. The rivers flow into the Mississippi river and all that flows to New Orleans and out into the Gulf. We took water samples in the lower Miss. Valley and at New Orleans which showed high toxicity - toxic water. This was correlated with the stats showing there was (is?) alarmingly high rates of cancers, heart diseases, miscarriages and birth defects in the lower Mississippi Valley. Since the 70s, the rate of increase in polar ice melting, thawing tundra, melting glaciers, and the thawing of the Perma Frost regions in Canada alone, has increased at an alarming rate - even much faster than we predicted in the 70s! I don't see this as an "en vogue" thing, but if public awareness gets people to try to end our self-destruction, I am glad for the help! Knowledge and Awareness - those are good things. So, "Global Warming" is only one aspect of the whole problem. We just can't keep poisoning and raping our planet for corporate greed and common indifference! We are like the proverbial frog in the pot of water. The boil is on and we sit idly bye unawares of the dangers, insisting that the rising temperature in the pot is just a cycle and it too shall pass. Sadly, the frog dies in the boiling pot. By the time he figured it out, it was too late. The "tipping point" may have come and gone for us now. Not enough has been done to stop it. In fact, we have been deceived and artificially soothed into believing there is any effort to reverse the affects. It's all window dressing. Now we'll just have to wait and see and live it...or die from it. Hope this helps explain, albeit in brevity, what the situation is and has been since the 70s. It isn't a fad to be part of the in-crowd, it's an attempt to bring awareness and changes for sustaining all life on Earth. Off my soap box now.

Not a bored person and not kidding about springtails - I am not sure why that is a logical conclusion. I don't know if they are spring tail for sure but I tried to look it up and they seems to match the description - they are tiny and white. I left them because I read this:"Tinier-than-average varieties are encountered inpotted indoor plants, but they restrict their activity to the soil & don't spread elsewhere in the house, & are NOT HARMFUL TO YOUR HOUSEPLANTS!" I joined to ask for help. Thank you to those with real suggestions.