Growing African Violets From a Single Leaf

Dear Reader,

I am partial to violets in my garden. There is something innocent, sweet, and old-fashioned about them; but I never had an indoor African Violet. I was under the impression that they were challenging to grow. They’re tropical plants from Tanzania and Kenya, endangered in the wild due to deforestation. I thought they needed more humidity than my forced hot air heating system could provide. One day I mentioned this to my mom, who has a natural green thumb, doctoring many sick plants back to health. We love talking about gardening and texting each other photos of beautiful blooms or an interesting new flower we found.  The next time I saw my mom she gave me two African Violets in a sweet, little basket tied with a gold bow. Those flowers are very meaningful to me as a symbol of my mother’s love. 

So I learned to care for African Violets and it's a lot easier than I had thought. I decided to propagate the ones my mom gave me.  As it turns out, this is pretty simple. You can purchase rooting hormone, potting soil and fertilizer made specifically for African violets. But I always like to go with the cheapest, easiest option. African violets will root in water, but it takes about a month. Simply find a healthy leaf on the parent plant and cut it off using a diagonal cut and put the stem into water.  Once the leaf baby has about an inch of roots you can plant it in a pot with drainage holes and potting mix. It is a little funny to see a single leaf sticking out of the soil. You can plant several leaves in one pot and separate them out several weeks later when you start to see tiny leaves poking up through the potting mix.

It’ll take about 6-8 months for the new plant to bloom. Try not to get water on the leaves as the leaf will “burn” and lose its emerald color. If a leaf does get wet, just pat it dry right away and it will be fine. You can bottom water them, or do like me and just be careful. I use a small watering can with a thin nozzle.

Photo: Terry Tunkel

Photo: Terry Tunkel

Proper light, water and fertilizer are the key to getting them to flower. Use room temperature water to keep the pot lightly wet and fertilize every couple of weeks. They like indirect light from a western or southern facing window.

African violets can last decades with simple care and repotting once a year. Time and patience is what is needed to raise these dainty flowers. In the language of flowers the violet has many meanings; but my favorite is that violets symbolize the faithfulness of mothers, and in Christianity, are associated with Mary. Thanks, Mom!