â¢Posted by froeschli Meh, at risk for theft is anything that strikes someone's fancy, be it sparkly, colorful or valuable... I'd have to agree. In large part, know your neighborhood. If theft is not an uncommon thing, then why risk it? If it is rare to unheard of, that is another story. â¢Posted by froeschli yes, an african violet will grow outdoors, more likely in your climate than mine, but it will not "live up to its full potential"... I have to disagree with Karin, here. While that might be the case, with most plants it is just the opposite -- assuming your outdoor environmental conditions are conducive to their growth. The pink coloration you witnessed was due to the increased light levels in all likelihood. Temperature may have also been a factor. In any event, it posed no danger to the health of your AV. Having said that, I believe I would still recommend growing this one indoors for the nonce. As Karin noted, doing so would enable you to maintain greater control over environmental factors ... most notably pests. (While is just a "hunch", I suspect that the large black slugs -- Veronicella leydigi -- would wipe your plant out in no time should they find it.) Should the plant sucker at some point or should you propagate it via leaf cutting, then I most certainly would try the new plant(s) thus obtained outside once they had become established. (A friend of mine in Florida kept one I sent her out on her lanai and it did wonderfully.) At that point, I would still not recommend planting said extras in the ground unless you had lots of them. Having them in pots off the ground should make them less accessible to the local slug population. Btw, out of curiosity, which island are you on? I used to live on Oahu when I was in high school.

Thank you so much for your fast replies, it is truly appreciated. Yes it has been repotted a few times throughout the past 3 years. I was actually planning on repotting it this weekend. I'm now curious to see if rootbound is the "problem", as it has been the dormant period, but maybe it's waking up now :-) I just thought it was odd that new leaves would start developing at the top and then half way grown they just curl up and die, and then new leaves started again and same thing happened, half way through they curled up and died... I also noticed today that some of the grown leaves have tiny tiny dry holes on them.

A lot depends on how much perlite you have mixed in with the c&s soil. It should be at least 50/50 and look like this - That gives the roots plenty of wiggle room and aeration. Water will flow more easily and there is less soil to retain water. Not using that much perlite is not the end of the world. But a big problem with commercial bagged C&S soil is that it often has too much peat in it. Peat can hold too much water and it can become hydrophobic and actually repel the water. So you might think you are watering the plant deeply and it is flowing through as you want it to do. In reality, it is flowing around the soil mix and not getting to the plant. I think that may be what is happening to your plant. Since so many problems start with the roots, I would unpot the plant and see what is going on down there. And this would be a good time to remove all soil from the roots (this should always be done with a new plant) and give it new mix. Take pictures and try (again) to post the plant and roots for us. If your roots and soil mix look good, we'll try plan B. ;-)

No sand at all, Noah. 50% pumice and 50% sieved potting soil would be great (along with a larger pot, if you want all three kept together). Don't water for a few days after repotting. As with all Euphorbias, be careful that you don't get the sap on your skin and particularly into any mucous membranes.