Violets

I love a pretty African violet sitting on my sink windowsill. My love for them stems from visiting my grandma, she always had lots of pretty violets, until she got older and forgot how to properly care for them. She would over feed them with miracle grow fertilizer which is a huge mistake you end up with a nice green plant but no flowers. You do need to use a special violet fertilizer. Some people even get the special soil; I never did and still have decent violets. I water mine every week with the violet fertilizer and they usually have a week to a month break before they start blooming again. I love visiting Esbanshade’s Greenhouse in Lititz to see their pretty violets. My recent one from them was a dark burgundy, which pairs perfectly with my purple with a white edged ruffle.

Although every time my purple one blooms the flowers are different, sometimes they are white or lavender or just plain purple. I have no idea why it changes but I do like the surprise every time it blooms. My mom has 2 windowsills filled with African Violets, she is the type of person that can’t throw out a leaf she has to stick it in soil and start another plant. Some people even create new colors by splitting a stem and propagating it together with a stem from a violet in a different color. I am not that ambitious, I want a full plant right away. (I know Ms. Impatient here). I had recently moved my violets to a full sun window because I had Christmas décor on my sink window sill where I normally have them, BIG MISTAKE! I totally fried them so I had to go to my Mom’s violets to get pretty pictures for this blog post.

So the lesson here is always have your violets in indirect sunlight. Or don’t move the plants when you redecorate, I am not sure which is more important here. I tend to go a bit overboard when I redecorate and totally redo everything, which is what happened today, I was trying to hold on to the Christmas decor till after we have our last Holiday celebration and I couldn’t do it. Things had to go back to normal. So before I go down that path I better finish this post and call it a night.

Also to add to this; the last time I visited my parents mom gave me a pink violet with a rosette style flower, I can’t wait till it blooms so I can share it with you. If you love color in middle of the winter the African violet is perfect for you!

Till next time,

Jo