When a hobby becomes an addiction
July 13th, 2009
I might have a slight African violet addiction. I mean, there are worse things to be addicted too . . . but my house is very quickly filling up with these things and I can’t seem to stop. It amazes the hell out of me that if you cut one leaf off it will sprout roots and eventually a whole new plant. In fact, every violet in this photo except for the two in the upper left hand corner have been sprouted from the violet in the upper right hand corner just using a shot glass, water and a window sill.
My method:
Cut a leaf off from the base of a healthy african violet and immediately put it in a very small glass (I use shot glasses) with water at room temperature. Put it somewhere it will get indirect light. In a week or two, you’ll start to see the most adorable teensy little roots sprout right where you cut it:
Usually the leaves start to die a little before this happens so don’t get discouraged. Once, I was in the process of tossing out a cutting that looked obviously dead (to me) when I noticed its roots. When the roots are an inch long, you can plant it in a pot.
Now I must warn you, seeing those first few baby leaves poke up out of the soil is an amazing experience and it will leave you hooked.
Well, there’s only one thing left to do now: burn the house down! Burn them alllll BWAHAHAHA!!!! ….. uhm >_> *cough* well, it about time I hit the dusty trail..
@ber You! You’re always burning things and then hitting the old dusty trail. When will this end?????
Well at least you’re having fun right? ^_^
Oh, wow – i had no idea it was so easy to root African Violets! I need to get my daughter a plant or two to do this with. Thanks for the tips!
@devyl Yeah, I literally have African violets coming out of my ass. Well, ok, not literally, but I have a figurative ton of them around the house. I don’t know what to do with them all, but I can’t stop sprouting more because it’s so cool to watch them grow. I think one other thing might be important– make sure the donor plant is acclimated to the new surroundings before trying a cutting. I took a cutting from a friend’s african violet and it died in my house. Could be a fluke, but maybe the shock on a new atmosphere was too much for it.