My Violet Life

There have been plenty of packages dropped on my doorstep in the past couple of months. But today’s package did not contain live plants (or leaves) for a change.

About a month ago, I made the decision to purchase a water distiller. When I was learning about how to care for African violets, I found that it’s best to avoid using water that contained chlorine, chlorimides, or ammonia…which many municipal water treatment facilities tend to add. As DH and I have never been fans of our own city’s water supply, we tended to use bottled water instead of tap water. I had already been using distilled water for other things in the house, so in time I also started using it for my AVs.

As my AV collection began to grow by leaps and bounds, I found that I was purchasing a gallon jug or two of water a week just to keep up! So distilling my own water seemed to make some sense to me…with the added bonus of fewer plastic jugs to recycle!

The way distilling works is that water inside the machine is heated up until it turns into steam. Then the steam rises to the top of the unit and is cooled down, which turns the steam back into a liquid, which is filtered through a charcoal packet.

All of the impurities, minerals, bacteria and most of the chemicals present in the water either evaporate or are left behind at the bottom of the distiller. The process of distilling a gallon of water took about 4 hours.

This isn’t to say that distilled water is always the best type of water to use for African violets. I found it useful for water propagation (all the leaves I started with our city tap water died within a week or so), and for making the fertilized water I use for my plants. Plus I’ve found myself needing to clean my plant room humidifier less when using distilled water instead of tap water.

But that’s not to say that you have to use distilled water. If you ever want to start a whole- ass debate among AV enthusiasts, ask a group of them about the best type of water to use for African violets. I unknowingly started a pretty lively debate when I put the question to my AV Facebook group.

When it comes to watering their beloved AVs, it seems like everyone has an answer that works for them and most of the responses I got fell into one of these groups:

• Tap water– A good many folks said that they use plain old tap water. In these cases, the water that came out of the tap was already pretty good quality or it came from a source of good quality water, such as a private well. In some of these cases, chemicals like chlorine or chlorimides were added to the water, so they did suggest using chlorine remover (the same kind used for aquariums) to dissolve traces of chlorine in the water. If like me, you find that your tap water is questionable, this might not be a great option for you.

• Distilled water– A few people said that they also used distilled water, which is a type of purified water. As described above, this is water that’s heated until it becomes steam and then cooled back down into a liquid. This method removes most impurities and bacteria that might be harmful to your AVs. In addition to watering your AVs, distilled water is also great for use in machines like humidifiers or other mechanical devices. On the other hand, the process of distilling water also removes minerals like calcium and magnesium, which are beneficial for plants. Lacking these minerals for too long could hinder growth. To compensate for this you can add a calcium and magnesium supplement to the water before using on your AVs. Our local violet guru, in the Tidewater African Violet Society, Pat, recommended using a supplement like CalMag to your water or adding bone meal to the soil mix to ensure that violets watered with purified water gets these important minerals.

• Reverse osmosis (RO) water– One gentleman suggested that I use a RODI (Reverse Osmosis DeIonized) unit instead of a water distiller. Reverse osmosis is another type of purified water where water molecules are forced through a series of semi-permeable membranes that filter out impurities and bacteria. The advantage of RO water is that you can install a unit for your home water system instead of spending a couple of hours a day distilling water. Alternately, you can also buy large bottles of RO water instead. Installing a RODI unit can cost anywhere from a couple hundred to a couple of thousand dollars depending on how you’re planning on using it. It’s also recommended that you add a calcium and magnesium supplement to RO water or add bone meal to your soil mix.

• Rainwater– Another gentleman swore by using rainwater and it’s pretty easy to understand why. It’s free. You can collect rainwater by setting out containers or by using a rain barrel. You don’t have to worry about removing the chemicals your municipal water supply may have added and it also has the beneficial minerals that plants love. Plants are, after all, built to use rainwater. But, as with everything, there are a couple of disadvantages too. Rainwater can pick up contaminants in the air or through runoff on buildings. So if you live near a factory or if your air quality is a bit iffy, or even if it’s spring and there’s loads of pollen in the air, those issues can also show up in your rainwater. Plus, if you live in an area that doesn’t get rain on a regular basis, or if your area hits a dry spell, you may need to stockpile rainwater to get you through the dry periods

One thing that most people agreed on was if you’re not sure about the quality of your water, the best thing you can do is test it. The ideal pH range for African violets is about 6.5 to 7.5. Distilled and RO water is at neutral 7. The pH and quality of your tap water and rainwater may vary, so doing periodic tests using some simple kits you can find in an aquarium supply shop or on Amazon will help alert you to potential problems.

Lastly, they also reminded me that I need to watch the temperature of the water I’m using. Violets hate cold water….lukewarm or room temperature is best. And when top watering, be sure to gently wipe away any drops that land on the leaves.

I’m pretty sure that using a water distiller is not going to be my final solution, especially after seeing what kind of impurities it’s removing. Our violet guru Pat said that she had installed a RODI unit for her flowers and I’m thinking that I’ll probably transition over to that eventually. It would be nice to simply turn on the tap and get nice purified water!

What is your preferred source for watering your AVs? Leave a comment and share!

It’s that time of year! The temperatures are warming up and the online violet sellers and local garden centers are once again offering violets for sale! After several long, cold winter months of scrolling through websites, drooling over everyone else’s violet photos, and building up my wishlist, my spring African violet shopping spree has begun.

The spree began in early March with a random trip to my local garden center to pick up seedling soil where I was greeted with this sight:

So of course I went home with more than just seedling soil:

And of course, I went back two days later:

In addition to my haul from my local violet paradise, some of my favorite online violet sellers like Linda’s Secret Garden and Petals and Leaves were updating their inventories as well. So new boxes of violets have been a frequent sight on my doorstep in the past few weeks. I’ve recently discovered a few other vendors like Appalachian Violets, Woodland Blooms, and Gary’s Violets and they’ve quickly been added to my growing list of favorites.

I’ve shot unboxing videos of all of my new spring violet shipments and will be posting them to my YouTube channel soon. In the meantime, I’ve just posted a video about how I choose and inspect new violets from big box stores and local garden centers. I also go through how I prep my new beauties once I get them home. Everyone has their own process, so if you’re curious about mine you can check out the video here:

Happy growing!

I received my first online order of violets from Petals and Leaves on October 15th of 2021. Of course, I was excited, but since I was alone in the house at the time I had no one to share my immediate excitement with.

So I did the next best thing. I grabbed my phone and recorded myself opening up the box and discovering what was inside; my first named violets, Jersey Snowflakes and Rob’s Vanilla Trail. I did a couple of quick edits and shared the video with my African violet Facebook group:

Since then I’ve made it a habit of recording an unboxing video for each of my online shipments. If you’re just starting to order African violets online, seeing how different growers pack their orders may give you a good idea of what good and safe packing looks like.

I finally created a Youtube channel so I could post all of my unboxing videos without spamming all of the poor folks in the Facebook AV group. 😂

All of the unboxing videos from my fall shipments have been updated. You can check them out below:

Lyndon Lyon Unboxing

Petals and Leaves Unboxing

Linda’s Secret Garden Unboxing

Selective Gardner Unboxing

If you enjoy these videos, remember that Spring ordering has begun. So rest assured I’ll have a lot more coming soon!

Happy growing!

My name is Nicolette Tallmadge…and I’m addicted to African violets.

Before now, I’ve never been much of a plant person….aside from an orchid in our kitchen that managed to cling to life, and even bloomed despite the fact that I often forgot to water it.

That all changed on May 9, 2021. Mother’s Day. That day I went to Lowe’s in search of a peace lily. My mother had been taking care of my uncle’s peace lily ever since he passed away in 2019. Unfortunately, it had recently shriveled up from what I now know was root rot. So I had decided to get her a brand new one for Mother’s Day.

I located one, and on the way to the checkout, I spotted a small display of African violets. While I had never really kept plants before, as a child I was familiar with the ones that my grandmother had kept. African violets had been one of her favorites. On a whim, I decided to get two for myself in honor of her. Though I felt sorry for the poor plants that suddenly found themselves in my care.

I named the two violets Rosa and Lee, after my grandmother, and kept them in a not-so-sunny part of the kitchen (next to our poor neglected orchid). After a few weeks, the mass of pink and purple flowers dried up and dropped off. A couple of weeks more, the leaves began to grow faded and limp. Wisely, I moved the plants to a sunnier part of the kitchen and began to pay more attention to the watering. To my satisfaction, the leaves perked up and got stronger.

After a bit of research, I found that violets liked consistent feeding with fertilizer. I went to the local garden center and found some liquid African violet fertilizer. I began feeding my plants regularly and to my further surprise and delight, masses of flower buds formed within a few weeks. Several weeks more, a thick crop of beautiful pink and purples flowers bloomed on both violets. By then, I was hooked.

I got two more violets, this time from Home Depot, and named them Walter and Bob…after my uncles. Unfortunately, my early success with Rosa and Lee was not repeated with this pair. I ran into some trouble. For some reason, not long after the flowers faded, Bob, and then Walter began to lose leaves at a rapid rate.

I visited websites, watched Youtube videos, and finally joined an African violet Facebook group to figure out how to save Walter and Bob. Again…it was the feared root rot, the thing that killed my mom’s peace lily. After a long struggle, I managed to save Walter, but Bob was mostly a lost cause. During my research, I learned a bit about propagating violets from leaves, and in a last-ditch attempt to save something, I pulled four leaves from Bob and attempted to propagate them. Two of the leaves shriveled away within a week or two. The remaining two survived and to my absolute delight started growing baby plantlets! I fell even further down the violet-lined rabbit hole.

All of this research opened up an entire world of African violets. Like most people whose only exposure to violets are the ones you usually see in your grandma’s house or in a big box store like Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Wal-Mart, I thought that most African violets looked pretty much the same. Dark green, fuzzy, oval leaves with large pink, purple or white flowers residing in 4-inch pots. Pretty enough…but not that exciting.

I didn’t realize that African violets also came in a range of sizes and in a multitude of colors, and flower and leaf shapes. I didn’t know that there were some violets that could trail, and could grow, flowing from a hanging basket instead of those neat leafy circles I grew up with. I didn’t know that there were legions of violet enthusiasts who create their own hybrid violets to produce an unimaginable variety of beautiful plants with names like Jersey Snowflakes, Smoky Mountain, and Buckeye Nostalgia.

From specialty growers and online sellers, I soon found myself adding two, three, four, and more violets to my growing collection in the space of a few months. And I was still eager for more. My quest for saving the last remnants of Bob hooked me into the practice of growing new violets from leaves and I soon found myself not only propagating from my own collection but getting leaves from varieties I couldn’t get as a full-grown plant and trying to grow them into my newest additions. Over the last several months, I began turning a recently vacated room into a plant room to hold my rapidly growing collection of violets and leaves.

I now have 38 full-grown African violets in my possession, over 100 African violet leaves at various stages of propagation, and an ever-growing wishlist of new African violet varieties. And been less than a year since I bought my first two. To say that I’m hooked is an understatement.

This obsession is why I’ve started this blog and a Youtube channel. Because you can only talk about violets for so long with family and friends before their eyes start glazing over. And because you can only post so often in a Facebook group before some of the members start sending messages saying “Please, you’re too obsessed! Less posting please!”.

(This hadn’t happened yet…but I can imagine it happening if I didn’t restrain myself 😉)

Here, I’ll be sharing my crazy African violet journey; new plants, discoveries, resources, tips from AV people smarter than me, stuff that I screw up…and hopefully, some triumphs too. If you like photos more than reading, check out my Instagram…and if you like videos, check out my Youtube channel. I’ve already shared a couple of new violet unboxing videos from last year. But I’m hoping to add more videos in the next few weeks. And if you want to share your own AV obsession, please feel free to drop me some comments.

Happy growing!