“Jurassic Park” comes to mind for many of us when we think of ferns – abundant, spiky greenery thrashing about as huge dinosaurs crash through the forest in pursuit of human intruders.At 300,000 million years old, they were, i
22.06.2023 - 19:51 / gardenerspath.com / Kristine Lofgren
How to Grow and Care For African Violets Streptocarpus subg. Streptocarpella sect. SaintpauliaLike many grandmas out there, my great-grandma grew African violets.
She was head of the African Violet Society chapter in the city where I grew up and she assured young me, as she lovingly watered and cared for her elegant and clearly happy plants, that raising African violets was a piece of cake.
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And for many years, I thought Great-Grandma Edith was full of it.
I could barely keep the leaves from turning soggy and falling off, let alone coaxing the plants to bloom!
But by my teens, I had figured out how to make them not only thrive but how to propagate them as well, even creating new plants with unique characteristics. You could say I caught the Saintpaulia bug.
Edith would be proud.
I’m delighted to see that these plants, which fell out of favor and were replaced in popularity by things like succulents and fiddle-leaf figs, are finding their way back into the limelight.
Once you know how to grow them, they really are pretty simple to care for. And they’re one of the few houseplants that will consistently give you a floral display throughout the year.
We’re going to help you make your African violets the talk of the town, and here’s what we’ll go over to that end:
We’re going to need to define a few terms before we dive in. As with any extensively cultivated plant, there are a lot of descriptions and terms that are used to explain what we’re dealing with.
What Are African Violets?Known as gesneriads, or plants from the botanical family Gesneriaceae, African violets were recently reclassified by taxonomists.
Previously
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