African Violets – From Leaf to Plant

Saintpaulias are responsive plants to propagate. In deed their popularity is partially due to the ease of extending a collection or of increasing the number of plants of some appealing variety. Through the neighborly exchange of leaves or the reciprocal mailing of them to unmet but not unknown distant “violet friends” almost every desired variety may be acquired and the windows of a house soon filled with oncoming youngsters.

Saintpaulias lend themselves readily to increase through division, or through leaf propagation, in which both soil and water methods prove practical. If you have a mature specimen with a thick crown you can with care separate it into a number of smaller individual plants. Just remove the pot and very gently pull the sections of the plant apart. Several single divisions will readily appear, but some may cling together in small clumps of two or three. You can pot these as they are or take the chance, not always successful, of cutting them apart with a sharp knife and then potting them separately.

Three-inch pots or the smallest sized pan will not be too large for most of the divisions. With plenty of surface room they will soon develop their large handsome leaves to the fullest and maintain an open crown from which an almost constant procession of flowering stems will push forth. Use the same soil as before – equal thirds of sand, loam, and leaf mold or humus – or use leaf mold alone, if that is easier for you. Personally I go the already bagged African violet mix from the local garden center.

Many people use Vermiculite, a mica product which comes by the bag. The coarser particles they find best for the potting mixture, the finer part for rooting, and the finest for planting seeds. If Vermiculite is pressed through a quarter-inch mesh screen it readily separates into material of different degrees of coarseness. The majority who have used this medium consider it a preventative of crown rot, and find that it aids the germination of seeds and the development of the plant.

Very fine plants can also be grown from mature leaves cut with stems or petioles from parent plants. These rooted in water or in a sandy soil mixture develop into flowering-sized plants in about eight lo nine months, rarely in six, but the length of time depends on cultural conditions and also on the nature of the variety being propagated. Sometimes within a year such plains are large enough for division. So all you really need to satisfy even an unlimited enthusiasm for African violets is a few leaves from plants of the varieties you admire and, of course, considerable patience.

Propagation Note: Some African violets are protected by plant patent and you may not propagate them without permission.

Related Articles Of Interest:

• African Violet Videos
• Care and Growing African Violet Plants – Easy to Grow Color
• African Violets – Care Potting Propagation
• African Violet Pot Selection