I don't know why I don't have any African Violets, they are perfect indoor plants, especially for not so sunny areas of the house that could use a little plat to 'brighten' things up.

Good tip!

I water mine more often. I touch the foliage and can tell by the feel if they need water.

I've tried several times to keep them alive, but I've never had any success and finally gave up. My mom always had windowsills full of AVs when I was growing up, unfortunately, I guess I didn't inherit her green thumb! They are so pretty, and I always stop and look at them at the nurseries, but, I just have no luck with them at all.

Deb

Deb - What do you do with yours? I keep mine on the window sill in my kitchen. It's a frosted-glass window, which is terrible because I can't see out, but it does offer the diffused light that AVs seem to love. I water mine from the bottom.. I have each one sitting in a drip pan & just fill that up straight from the sink about once a month or so. I have a couple of monstrous ones w/multiple necks and here's pictures of my "Galactic Storm". For some reason, it's not showing the pink spots like it normally does. I have this AV at work.

I don't know what I've done. I've tried them on top of my computer table, the room has a south facing window, but the table is next to the window and never gets direct light on the top shelf where I've had plants. I have nice wide windowsills, and have tried north facing windows in my kitchen. My only guess is maybe I've overwatered. I haven't tried them for several years now, because I feel bad when I kill them. I tried streps, too, with the same results.
Can they do OK with fluorescent lighting? Maybe I'll try one at work.

I grow them under lights and in an east facing window. Both areas are fine but I think they like the fluorescent lights a little better.

There's a very nice AV store here that blocks out all the light from their windows & uses just florescent lighting. You can get the growlights at Walmart. They don't like to be watered that much .. when their leaves get really really droopy & kinda curled is when I water them. If the leaves are flat, I leave 'em alone. I've also learned they don't like to be in big pots.. they like to be underpotted.

Here is my lighting unit....

Paul - That's how I was going to do my area! Yours are gorgeous! You clone them?

I haven't raised any from leaves for a long time. AV's are inexpensive enough that if I see I a nice one that I want I buy it and throw something away that isn't currently pleasing me. I love them during the winter but neglect them during spring-summer-fall when I can be outside.

I have found that the self-watering pots are perfect for me since I travel and only have to make sure the bottom pot has water in it. I don't have any at the moment but when I have them, I usually have them on a knee wall in our bathroom which gets indirect light.

For some reason, I lost every single one of my AVs! They all just dropped dead in the middle of the summer all at the same time!! *cries* So now I need to actually ramp up how I'm going to do my grow area and actually get it DONE 'cuz there will be the AV show here next spring & I'll get some new ones then.

@Skiekitty I have found that after a few years my AVs start looking droopy, however, it is not for lack of water, but because they need to be repotted. I found this out the hard way! When I took them out of the pots, I found that the roots had woven themselves into a mat around the edge of the pot and because they were in self-watering pots, the moisture couldn't get to the plant.

Jean - I wish that was the case. This was when I was getting my window that they sat in replaced. The cats kept knocking the pots down, so I repotted them in these little bitty AV pots. They all promptly dropped dead (of course, didn't help that the cats kept knocking them down daily...).

I love my african violets and am looking forward to maybe sharing and swapping some leaves with you all and we used to swap and trade all the time . there is a show in columbus in april and Im going and I go every year . Oh well take care and all and please let me know if any of you would like to swap and trade leaves thanks .

phonegirl61