How to care for an African violet

The African violet is one of the very few houseplants that can be in bloom ten months a year. In exchange it asks for precision: it's demanding about water and light, though not about space.

Rule number one: don't get the leaves wet

The leaves are fuzzy and hold on to droplets. A drop of water on a leaf, with light shining on it, leaves a permanent brown spot, and in a humid room it can lead to rot.

There are two ways to water it:

• From below: set the pot in a saucer of water for 20 or 30 minutes and then pour off whatever is left. This is the recommended method.
• With a narrow-spout watering can, aimed straight at the soil along the edge of the pot.

Always use room-temperature water: cold water also spots the leaves.

Light

Plenty of it, indirect and steady. An east-facing window is ideal. Without enough light it makes big leaves and no flowers. In direct sun it burns.

A useful fact: it responds very well to artificial light. An LED tube thirty centimeters (12 in) away for twelve hours a day keeps it blooming nonstop. It's the desk plant par excellence.

Pot and potting mix

Small: it likes to be snug and blooms more that way. A violet in a big pot makes leaves and nothing else. Use an African violet mix, which is airier, or a blend with perlite and peat.

To keep it blooming

1. Fertilizer for flowering plants, diluted to half strength, every two weeks in spring and summer.
2. Remove spent flowers as soon as they fade: the plant stops wasting energy on them.
3. Rotate the pot a quarter turn every week so it grows symmetrically.
4. Remove the offshoots that grow out the side if you want the main plant to bloom instead of splitting its energy.

Propagating it

It's very easy and very satisfying: cut a healthy leaf with two centimeters (under an inch) of stem, push it into a small cup of damp potting mix, and cover it with a clear bag to make a greenhouse. In six to eight weeks new plantlets appear at the base.

A note on the name

It isn't related to the European violet. It comes from Tanzania, has no scent, and the two belong to different botanical families. The other one is covered in the meaning of violets.