When you start to see it lean towards the window.

Thank you so much Yolanda, and tommyr_gw

Rotate it 1/4 turn every day and it should be ok. You don't want to wait until it acutally "leans". Much harder to correct. Rosie

got a pix? we love pix. we live for pix. grats!

My first attempt at growing AV's. I really have no idea what I am doing though.

I have never posted a picture here, but I will certainly give it a shot.

Very pretty, Karen! Meg

Awwww,,,,,,,verrrrry nice! You must know more than you realize! Good luck! Rosie

Looks good so far! I'd take off some of those older leaves, the ones that are drooping and underneath the larger ones. They would be good practice to shorten the stems and pot them up to try for leaf babies. Then if your plant tanks and dies on you, you can have a small army of babies coming along after it to keep learning from. Or to share with friends!

Thank you so much for your comment. I really appreciate it. I have some buds that are underneath leafs, are they in the way??? or just let nature do its thing?

Assuming they are /flower/ buds, I'd leave them. As they extend upwards you may very -gently- tug them around to stand over the leaves and close to the crown for best display, rather than letting them bloom under leaves.

If however the 'buds' under your leaves turn out to be more little leaves, those will be suckers and they need to be removed or they will eventually destroy the symmetry of your plant. They may also keep the plant from blooming by drawing off energy. They are often triggered due to culture changes, especially to suddenly brighter light.

I often leave the suckers long enough for a couple of them to get large enough to remove fairly intact, then pot them up and dome or bag them. They will quickly form roots and produce duplicate plants. Very small suckers can be rubbed off or cut out with a fingernail or exacto knife. If in doubt which they are, suckers or flower buds, simply leave them and let them grow a little until you know which they are.

It should be noted that suckers are desirable on trailers, or if you wish to reproduce chimeric plants as they can't be reproduced by putting down leaves alone. Your plant does not appear to be either of those cases and should be a single rosette. So far I only see flower buds in your photos and all looks as it should. ;)

Patty, I really want to thank you for all of your information. This is all new to me and I am so grateful to you fir sharing your knowledge. If I remove a lower leave, do I just allow the stem to be in a little water?? When do I remove it?? I also grow orchids, and love them.

Ooh, yes we can chat about orchids too in the appropriate forums. ;) I am happy to help if I am able. You may remove one or more of the smaller leaves that are beneath the outermost larger leaves. I use scissors myself and cut it up close to the plant's main stem for the sake of being tidy. Remember to sterilize your tools before and after cuts so not to transmit viruses and pests (I use 70% alcohol).

Then trim the stem short to about 1 or 1.5 inches from the leaf so that the stem closest to the plant isn't planted as it may produce flower buds instead of new plants. Most people prefer to cut the stem at a 45 degree angle so that new babies are more inclined to come up in front of the mother leaf rather than behind, but that doesn't really matter. I like to soak my leaves for about 5 minutes in a 10% bleach solution, then rinse thoroughly with distilled water to ensure I do not transmit pests like mites, thrips, mealy bugs, mold, bacteria, mildew, etc to the new babies.

You may start leaves in a little water but be aware that the kind of roots made in water are not the same kind as produced in soil, so there will be an additional transition later when you plant. I much prefer to start leaves in my standard mix with 50% perlite. You may wick, bag, or dome leaves but it is important that they are not /too/ wet in soil (encourages rot) but merely kept damp and need bright light.

For best results they should receive light for a minimum of about 8 hours a day and you'll have much better results with artificial lights than window. Many AV (and strep) varieties are difficult to get babies from limited window light but if it's all you have to work with, give it a try. No rooting hormones should be used as gesneriads are rich in producing their own.

If you want to see lots of photos and articles on starting AV leaves, Google is your friend. There are tons of resources on this topic easy to find. Most leaves under ideal conditions will produce babies within 4 to 8 weeks. Some faster, many slower and it can depend on the variety, depth of stem, light, temperature, etc.

I have a Pinterest folder here on propagation but, it's a little haphazard. Individual photos have information in the captions. https://www.pinterest.com/ornerypony/propagating-streps-and-african-violets/