Once upon a time I was an African violet addict, said so in m profile description. I got the taste from watching others posting African violet photos. At that time I had none and one pot of lower was at 3 - 4 euro. Lucky me, I have learnt how to "survive" and make the most of every situation, which translated into common gardening language, or African violet growing vocabulary means I've learnt how to propagate them.
So instead of buying a pot of flowers, I went to the nursery or the supermarket and collected some leaves that were already broken and grown my own flowers for free. Getting flowers from potting a single leaf takes time, about one year I believe, but the journey of watching the little leaf grow into a family is a lot of fun.
At some point I had five or six colors, a lot of pots and lack of space forced me to find a solution and a home to those flowers as after some time the new ones needed to be repotted. So I started selling them and to my surprise, the demand was high and I made some money. Then there was no demand at all 😂
Long story short, due to my carelessness, I was left with a lot of light purple violets like the one you see above, one pink and one red-ish that you're going to see below.
This is what I call pink princess, even though I don't like pink at all.
This is red-ish, or I don't know what shade of red or purple or ... I'll let you decide.
My African violet collection looks like this at the moment. The plan is to find good homes to these purple ones and by that reduce the existing number of post.
However, yesterday while in the supermarket, I spotted two pots of African violets, one purple like mine, the other was burgundy. The burgundy was very tempting, so I went closer and looked around for fallen leaves as where there are flowers, there are fallen leaves as well, due to mishandling.
I found one broken leaf, what you see on the left. The other is my work, I'm guilty of that as I lifted that from the pot. The two laves are not the same, that is visible. Look at the stems, one is purple, the other is like latte.
Yesterday I put them both in waster but my favorite way of growing routes is in the pot, not in water, so today there was time to pot them.
This is all you have to do, put them both in soil, up to their neck, add some water but not much as it's only one leaf, that can't take up much water and water it when the soil gets dry. In a few months new leaves will grow out and if I'm lucky, I can get some flowers in 2024. It's a long time I know but you don't have to watch the water boil, jut leave it be and mother nature will do the rest.
Those leaves would have been thrown away anyway, so why not give them a second chance, a new life. This is basically recycling 😏
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That's really beautiful flowers with great story backing. I really enjoyed reading your post. My pleasure!
I'm really glad to hear that. Thank you!
I really love what you’re doing with these flowers.
Giving them a new life and also making money from them.
I admire your patience.
I don’t think I would be patient enough to wait a whole year or more to see these flowers grow.😢
It's the best thing to do. Minimal investment and maximum profit, right?
As about patience, you just have to water them and admire them growing.
I might forget to water them and they’ll die.😭
This sort of thing is not for everyone.
I love the way you built up your collection and now are planning on thinning out so you can diversify again. I'm keen to see how these new ones grow. I know it seems like they grow slowly, but having a plant for free? It's totally worth it. I must remember to look for leaves when next I visit the nursery or hardware store :)
I wish I could give them away to Hivers all over the world but that is not possible yet.
It's the best way, trust me 😃
I hope you can find some leaves, there are always some broken 😏😂
I actually found three plants today at a nursery but they were bundled up in a box that had been set aside for a client and I was being watched so I sidestepped finding a leaf today, but maybe the next time I'll manage. I wasn't going to take one out of someone's shopping cart 🤣
The two plants I divided recently are doing well, they're getting loads of new little leaves coming out and they seem to have relaxed into their new space which makes me so happy. They are such forgiving plants.
Lol, I can see you snooping around those plants, looking for the perfect opportunity, then realize there's no such thing as perfect opportunity as the plants are already boxed for someone else 😂 I'm always looking where the cameras are 🤣
I'm glad to hear your plants are doing well, it's so nice to see them growing.
What you are doing makes a lot of sense, I hope people don't try to pluck the petals off the flowers in the stores and plant them after seeing this hahaha. By the way, I think the flowers you asked for are definitely purple/pink. It doesn't look like red at all.
Not everyone is this smart 😂🤣 Seriously, how many do you thing would know to use these leaves, or have the patience to grow plants like this? They usually buy them already flowering and that's it.
I have no idea, it's just that people like to try everything they see on the internet 😂.
My god! That was wonderful! And definitely you put so much effort ☺️ . Your post inspiring me . ❤️
I'm trying to do my best and recycle what I can.
I learn this method too, but unfortunately, I fail. maybe my failure was because I poured too much water. Like you said not too much water. I will remember this. I'm just planting chili seeds now, and I hope this work. I'm planting a new variant of chili seeds at my place, it's called Nano Oreon and it's very spicy. I wish you luck and you will get the flowers next year @erikah. Blessing
I'm sorry to hear that. Too much water can be a problem as these flowers don't like to stay wet all the time. When you plant seeds, even less water is needed as seeds don't consume too much water, the majority is evaporating.
Good luck with your chili.
Yes, I will remember that. My seed 2 weeks old and now lookly cute. Hehe. Thanks for your advice.
Greetings friend, the gardener or working with plants, is an art, which requires a lot of patience, affection and time, in addition each plant or leaf requires different care and a different process, at home try to do something similar, placing a stem and some leaves that had broken from a flower in a pot, and after a couple of weeks, it sprouted, but I had to be very careful. I hope that in a while you will be able to have more of these flowers, since they are very pretty and striking, that purple color makes them attract a lot of attention, I will see if I can get it here. Nice to read you and thanks for sharing it with us.
I agree with you on that and I hope you can get some in your country. Looks at the nursery or the big supermarkets. Good luck.
Thanks Erika now I know how to transplant them with the leaf, really comparing the plant is expensive but this tip is great, I will share it with my youngest daughter who has a beautiful and flowery garden....
Good business selling the pots and maybe a little more economical than in the nursery ...it's a very good target.
You're welcome. I hope you can find some and get a few nice flowers for yourself or your daughter. Good luck!
Thanks, Erika 🌺
this is a very pretty flower,The way of planting is also cool, using the leaves.
I couldn't agree more, well said.
👌
😍 Lovely violets plants!!!!... Nice article!... Thanks for sharing!
!PIZZA
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Beautiful flowers, they are very beautiful like your own name
I'm glad you like them.
Oh, my name is also a flower. Look it up, Erika flower.
Yes, but I can't see what your face looks like
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Thank you.
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Thanks.
You're most welcome. 😊