Lin,
Last year when I bought the violets on eBay, I thought I should let them adapt to the new conditions for a few weeks. The violets came from various vendors with different soil mixtures but I watered them all the same. Bad mistake, I learned to repot them immediately. I am not one of those people who can stick their fingers in the soil and feel dampness so I had to vary the African Violet Society's soil formula which was 1/3 Pearlite, 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 sphagnum peat moss. My formula is all of those listed plus some organic African Violet soil in a 1/4 each ratio. The African Violet soil lets me see how damp things are. I also use the weight to help me know if a plant is wet or dry. I have a hydrometer too.
My husband bought me a soil mix at the hardware store that has bark in it. I was wondering why so you have answered that question for me. I use larger pieces of the bark to keep the leaves from touching the soil.
That is a nice picture of the spider plant. I need to look around here more and check the file photos.
Arlene, your experience with thinking something was wrong with your spider plant really made me laugh.
