Question:  About a year ago at a show, I bought a beautiful chimera, 'The Alps'.  It has bloomed profusely since then, but now seems to be reverting to solid blue flowers.  What can I do now?

Answer:  As a commercial grower, this is the type of question we get frequently from growers.  Often times a chimera, fantasy, or multicolor blossomed variety will turn a sold (or different) color, even though it was blooming "true" when purchased.  Unfortunately, this is the nature of many such unusually-colored varieties.  The same genetic nature of these varieties that makes them so unusual also makes them more unstable.  In fact, many of the pinwheel-blossomed varieties (chimeras) that are now available, first appeared as sports, or genetic mutations, of a multicolor or fantasy-blossomed variety.  Sometimes a chimera will revert to its original form--some of our plants of 'The Alps', for example, have also reverted to a solid color (in our case, to white flowers).

The advice is preventative.  Blooms are more likely to turn a solid (or different) color when the plant is stressed in some way.  Most often this will mean too warm a growing environment and is a common problem during the summer for those growers without air conditioning.  Less likely forms of stress include over-fertilization, too much light, improper water or soil pH, or a toxic reaction to an insecticide or other chemicals.  If you've grown the variety before, and it has a history of being unstable, or you can't provide a less stressful environment, a little "insurance" might be wise.  Put down a few leaves (or crown, if a chimera) of those varieties that are most likely to "sport", keeping in mind that not all the plantlets produced by those leaves may be true in color.  This way, you're likely to have young plants ready of the variety when the inevitable finally happens.

Question:  The leaves of my violets are curling downward and center growth appears very crowded.  There is no evidence of mite, and I suspect it may be the cold temperature in my growing area.

Answer:  Yes, the problem is likely the cold growing environment.  When grown in very cool conditions, many violets will exhibit symptoms similar to cyclamen mites.  Center growth will be very tight or bunched, leaves will be more "hairy", and growth will be stunted.  So before discarding any plants or using toxic chemicals, ask yourself if cold temperatures may be the cause.

How cold is too cold?  As with many things, this depends partly upon the variety being grown.  For example, many of the species Saintpaulia will tolerate temperatures much lower than will the modern hybrids.  We find that most varieties will tolerate temperatures as low as 60f degrees.  They will grow much slower, but otherwise look healthy.  Any colder than this, and most varieties simply stop growing and exhibit many of the symptoms described here. 

Question:  When I bring home new plants, can I repot them immediately into my own pots and soil?

Answer:  There are differing opinions on this.  Some commercial sellers tell their customers not to do this in order to let the plants become accustomed to their new environment before changing pots or soil.  We agree, but find that when we keep plants in different soil mixes, this eventually does more harm than good.  Since soil mixes dry out at differing rates, these plants always seem to need watering at times different from the others.  Unless their special needs can be accommodated, they always seem to end up being too wet or too dry--we just seem to forget that they need special attention.

Before continuing, remember that it's always wise to isolate newly acquired plants as much as possible from the rest of your collection, while any problems that it might be bringing with it have time to show themselves.  That said, probably the best advice is to give the newly acquired plant a short period of time to recover from unpacking (if it has been shipped), and to get used to its new environment.  This shouldn't take very long, perhaps a week.  After this, there should be nor reason that it couldn't be repotted into a pot of the appropriate size and desired type with fresh soil, using the same mix as for your other violets.  Once this is done, it can begin receiving the same care on the same schedule as your other violets.

Question:  Some of the leaves that I have rooted aren't producing  babies. The rooted leaf seems to be healthy.  In fact, it seems to be growing.

Answer:  When selecting leaves to propagate, it's best to use those that are fully mature, but not old.  The usual advice is to use a leaf from a middle row, but this is misleading--this depends upon how many rows of leaves the plant has.  Try to use leaves in the third or fourth row from the center.  What you are looking for is a leaf that is mature, but still succulent and fresh, and not tough or woody.  Very old leaves, or those with tough, woody petioles, often can be very stubborn in producing plantlets. 

As for the leaf growing, this will often happen once the leaf has rooted.  When growing in a covered container, as we do, these leaves will often lift the cover off.  The keep this from happening, you can cut off the top portion of the leaf blade once the leaf has rooted.  This will keep the leaf from growing much larger.  We do this with all our leaves.  In fact, we remove the entire perimeter of the leaf blade before we root them, leaving a wedge (with petiole) about the size of a dime.  You can do this with even the largest of leaves.  Besides saving space, this forces the rooted leaf to produce roots and babies, not a larger leaf.

Question:  What do the numbers on a fertilizer mean?  For example, a 12-36-14 formula?

Answer:  The three numbers appearing on a fertilizer's label represent the percentage contained of the three major elements" nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.  In addition, most fertilizers contain various secondary and trace elements, which may or may not be listed on the package.  We'll limit ourselves to the original question, since a more detailed answer would require a very lengthy explanation.

As simply as possible--nitrogen promotes healthy foliage development, phosphorus promotes root, bud, and blossom development, and potassium promotes general plant health.  For example, fertilizers referred to a "blossom boosters" have relatively high phosphorus content.  An example would be one having a 1-6-5 formula.  On the other hand, fertilizers like fish emulsion (5-1-1) are considered to be very good for promoting lush, green, foliage.  A fertilizer such as "Root-n-Bloom" (5-50-17), encourages rapid root and blossom development.

Each different fertilizer serves its own purpose.  Many exhibitors will change fertilizer formulas depending upon what kind of growth they would like to encourage.  A high nitrogen fertilizer, for example, might be used while a showplant is disbudded, to encourage greater foliage growth.  Once disbudding is stopped, switching to a high phosphorus fertilizer would encourage production of flower buds and blossoms for show.  Unfortunately, what formulas to use, and when, is often learned only by experience growing under your specific cultural conditions.  If it works, stick with it.

As a rule, however, African violets prefer a relatively "balanced" formula, one having moderate levels of all three major elements.  Using extreme formulas such as 1-6-5 or 5-1-1 exclusively, can produce plants with yellowed foliage or lack of bloom, respectively.  Also, remember that your soil mix also provides some nutrients (though "soilless" mixes provide very little), as does the water used.

Question:  I have a variety with "girl" foliage and would like to enter it in our local show.  I've been told that this foliage can be difficult to grow.  Can you explain?

Answer:  "Girl" foliage is described as "deeply scalloped, with white to yellow markings at the base of each leaf".  It has nothing to do with the sex of the plant (a violet can be either parent), and instead, refers to its ancestry, 'Blue Girl' being the first variety having this type of foliage.  The "deep scalloping" and usually curly nature of the foliage is what makes it difficult to deal with.  Leaf blades are rarely smooth and flat, so that good symmetry is harder to achieve.

They can make good showplants, though, if the grower is diligent in keeping unnecessary rows of outer leaves removed.  Doing this allows the inner rows of leaves some room to lay flat, and accomodates their curly nature.  If outer leaves are not regularly pruned away, the plant takes on a "bunched" appearance.  Not only does this spoil symmetry, but it inhibits the production of flower buds.

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