You can grow African violets

The rights to distribute newly discovered African violet plant (Saintpaulia ionantha) were first sold to the German company, Ernst Benary, in 1893. A year later, this Seed company provided seeds to the Harris Seed Company in Philadelphia.

The real popularity of African violets in this county began after 1927 when the Armacost and Royston Nursery in Los Angeles released a number of hybrids including ‘Blue Boy’ and ‘Sailor Boy.’ Through the first chain-store venture in plant selling, Woolworth & Co. distributed these new hybrids throughout the U.S., making African violet famous nationwide.

Photo Crocheted African violet - courtesy of planetjune

Now, let's take a look at how to make your African violets grow large and bloom profusely. There are a few rules to follow:

• grow them in highly organic potting mix
• keep the potting mix uniformly moist
• during the active growth period plants must be fertilized regularly with a balanced African Violet Plant Food
• since they are tropical plants, African violets should not be exposed to the temperatures below 55 degrees F
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  the most important requirement is light: an African violet should not be exposed to the full sun. In winter, they would most likely do best on the east window of your home and in summer, north window should do.
  
  

For watering, some growers use various wick watering systems. I just water my African violets when the soil really dries out. When all the conditions above are manged correctly, your plants are very likely to produce 3 flushes of blooms in a year.

Photo African Violet - courtesy of sallysue007

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Growing African Violets Under the Full-Spectrum Fluorescent Light Bulb Light

African violet (Saintpaulia ionantha) was discovered by Baron Walter Von Saint Paul in 1892. He found that precious little plant about an hour from Tanga on the nowadays border of Tanzania and Kenya.

Photo African Violet courtesy of Betsy J...

The baron soon took in that the plant was different. So he decided to send some specimens to his father in Germany. He revealed son's find with a botanist at Royal Botanic Garden in Hanover.

Botanist's name was Herman Wendland, and he realized that the plant was new to science. He named the genus after the Saint Paul family "Saintpolia" and coined the species name "ionantha" which in Latin means "violet like."

Since, African Violets quickly made their way to become the most popular blooming houseplant in the world. They are easy to grow by following a few simple rules.

Photo above: African violets (Saintpaulia ionantha) grown from leafs

These are the African violets I grew from four leaves (for the first time ever) with no special care except watering when the soil looked dried out (as on the photo). I'm assuming that full spectrum light would enable anyone to grow plants indoors year-round even though your home has no place with ideal natural light conditions.

The full spectrum light bulbs are no longer very expensive (one of the best prices you find at the website below - click on the link and find out for yourself!), they save energy and have several more benefits which I'll be writing about in my next post.

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