My Violet Life

If you’ve ever been grooming a violet and noticed a weird little cluster of leaves growing off to the side instead of in that neat circular crown, congratulations, you’ve found a sucker. And honestly? Finding one is one of my favorite surprises in this hobby, because a sucker is really just your plant offering you a free copy of itself.

I recently went through a whole batch of new violets from our club show and sale, and between the lot of them I found more suckers than I expected, including one that was nearly as big as the mother plant itself. So let’s talk about what suckers actually are, how to spot them, and what to do once you find one.

What is a Sucker?

A sucker is essentially a second plant growing off the main stem of your violet, competing for space within the same pot. African violets are supposed to grow in a single, well-defined rosette, with all the leaves radiating out from one central crown. A sucker throws that pattern off. Instead of one tidy center, you end up with two crowns tangled together, or a cluster of leaves growing sideways, upside down, or in a completely different direction than the rest of the plant.

The one exception to this are trailing African violets whose natural growth pattern includes multiple crowns that allows the violet to trail in a bushy or elongated fashion instead of the familiar rosette shape. But that’s a story for another day.

Sometimes suckers stay small and easy to miss. Other times, if they’ve been growing undetected for a while, they get big enough to basically become their own plant while still attached to the mother.

How to Spot One

The biggest giveaway is direction. Healthy leaves grow outward from a central crown in a neat rosette. A sucker’s leaves grow off to the side, at an angle, or even upside down relative to the rest of the plant. If you look at the stems instead of just the leaves, you’ll often be able to trace two separate growth centers once you know what you’re looking for.

Another thing to watch is that sometimes flower buds look a little like suckers in their beginning stage as many flower buds also have tiny leaves surrounding the developing bud. The giveaway here is to see if those leaves have a bud at the center. That means it’s a flower bud, not a sucker.

It takes a little practice to tell which leaves belong to the main plant and which belong to the sucker, and honestly, sometimes it really is guesswork until you start gently separating things and see how they move.

Should You Remove It?

You don’t have to. If you’re not ready to attempt separating one, it’s completely fine to leave a sucker in place, though it will eventually compete with the main plant for space, light, and nutrients, and your violet will lose that classic single-crown shape.

If you do want to remove it, you have two options depending on the size: smaller suckers can often just be gently pulled or teased away from the main stem. Larger ones usually need a clean cut with a sterilized knife or scalpel, made as close to the main stem as possible. Either way, expect to break a leaf or two in the process. That’s completely normal and not something to stress over.

If the sucker has any roots of its own, try to keep as many as possible attached when you separate it, since that gives it a head start. If it doesn’t have roots yet, don’t worry, you have a couple of good options for growing some.

Two Ways to Root a Sucker

Directly in soil. Pot the sucker up just like you would any new plantlet, using a small container rather than a large one. This is important: too much damp soil around a rootless sucker is a fast track to rot.

In water first. Root the sucker in distilled water before potting it up in soil. A small container with a lid works well here, poke a hole just big enough to hold the sucker without letting leaves dip into the water, which can cause rot. Expect to wait a few weeks to a month before real roots start forming. This method takes longer, but it lets you see exactly when roots are developing rather than guessing, and it tends to be a little more forgiving against rot.

PRO TIP: Once your sucker actually has roots, whether from soil or water rooting, add a systemic insect control to the soil. It won’t do much good before roots exist to absorb it, but once roots are growing, it helps protect your new plant from pests right from the start.

Why Bother With Suckers at All?

Because they’re basically free propagation without much effort on your part. Out of one recent cleanup session, I pulled multiple suckers off a single plant and ended up with several bonus violets I didn’t have to buy, trade, or wait months to propagate from a leaf. If you enjoy growing your collection without spending more money, keeping an eye out for suckers is one of the easiest ways to do it.

Just remember: not every sucker survives being separated, and that’s okay too. Some come away with barely any crown left to work with. Consider it part of the process rather than a failure.

Curious to see this whole process in action, including the moment I found five suckers on a single plant? Head over to my YouTube channel and watch African Violet Care: Removing Bonus Plants From Your Violets. And if you’ve found a surprise sucker on one of your own violets, tell me about it in the comments, I love hearing about other people’s bonus plants!

Confession: my plant room did not look cute last week.

Between work, visitors, and general life chaos, I fell behind on more than just watering my AVs. Leaves needed grooming, pots needed rotating, and the entire room just needed cleaning in general. And when chores start falling by the wayside, that’s the perfect time for pests to start sneaking into your plant room. So this week, along with the rest of my plant room reset, I did something simple that made me feel a whole lot better about the state of things: I put up fresh sticky traps for my African violets.

Let’s talk about why sticky traps for African violets are one of the easiest, lowest-effort tools in my whole plant care routine — and why I don’t think I’ll ever go back to skipping them.

Why I Started Using Sticky Traps In My Plant Room

Here’s the thing about pests on AVs: by the time you can SEE a problem with your naked eye, it’s usually already a problem. Fungus gnats, whiteflies, thrips, and aphids — they’re sneaky, and violets have a way of hiding trouble under all those fuzzy leaves and underneath the soil.

Sticky traps for African violets solve that by doing the noticing for you. They don’t discriminate, they don’t judge, they just quietly catch whatever’s flying around your plant shelves so you can see it. It’s basically a pest report card, and I need all the early warnings I can get.

What Sticky Traps Actually Do (Monitoring, not Miracle Cure)

While sticky traps are great, please don’t think a pack of them is going to solve an infestation on its own. It won’t. What it will do is tell you that you MAY have an infestation, often before it’s obvious, which honestly might be the more valuable job.

Think of them as a monitoring tool first, and a minor population control tool second. If you’re seeing a trap fill up fast with fungus gnats, that’s your cue to check your watering habits (overwatering is basically a gnat invitation), refresh your Bonide application, or look closer at your soil. If it’s whiteflies or thrips, you might need to look at a new plant you brought in recently. The trap doesn’t fix the root cause — but it absolutely points you toward it.

What I Use

I picked up a pack of 96 yellow sticky traps for African violets on Amazon. The pack of 96 is more than enough to handle all of my racks and enough for several months of changes as well. They’re the stick-in-the-soil style  — you just peel the protective film and poke the stake right down into the soil next to the plant. I’ve got way too many plants to do this, so I just slip the pointed end on the underside of my plant racks.

They’re non-toxic, no sprays, no odor, nothing I have to worry about drifting onto my violets or into the air I’m breathing while I putter around in there.

How I Use Them Without Overdoing It

If you have a lot of plants, you don’t have to put a trap in every single pot. That would be overkill, not to mention it would distract from the lovely blooms and quite possibly catch on some of the fuzzy AV leaves. Instead, space them out every few plants across a shelf. That will give you a good general read on what’s happening in that area without turning your whole collection into a sticky obstacle course. Or if you have a wire rack like I do, you can hang two or three traps  from the underside of the rack.

I also try to actually look at them regularly, not just stick them in and forget about it. A trap only helps if you’re checking it — otherwise it’s just decor at that point.

Signs to Watch for on Your Traps

Once your traps are up, here’s roughly what you’re looking for:

• Tiny black flying specks — likely fungus gnats, often tied to overly wet soil
• Small white or pale insects — whiteflies, which love new plants and warm rooms
• Winged aphids — less common indoors, but worth noting if you spot them
• Nothing at all — genuinely a good sign! Keep doing what you’re doing

If you start seeing a pattern instead of just the occasional stray bug, that’s when it’s worth digging a little deeper into your care routine.

Installing and changing sticky traps for your plant room are one of those unglamorous little habits that make a real difference because they let you catch problems before they catch you off guard. If your plant room’s overdue for a reset like mine was, grabbing a pack of these is an easy place to start.

Have you used sticky traps in your own plant room? I’d love to hear what’s worked (or not worked) for you — drop a comment below! And if you want to see exactly how I set mine up, hop over to my YouTube channel for the full video.

If you’ve just brought home your first African violet — or if you’ve killed a couple and you’re trying to figure out what went wrong — this guide is for you.

I’m Nicolette, and I want to be upfront with you: I was not a plant person. Not even a little bit. The orchid in my kitchen survived despite me, not because of me. My whole African violet obsession started on Mother’s Day 2021 when I spotted a display at Lowe’s on the way to buy a Mother’s Day plant for my mom. I remembered that my own grandmother grew African violets. On a whim, I grabbed two plants for myself, brought them home and named them Rosa and Lee after my grandmother. After the blooms that had attracted me at the store faded and withered away, I waited anxiously in hopes that the plants would bloom again. And…nothing…for months…because I had no idea what I was doing.

A few years, after many, many more plants, even more rescued leaves, and a dedicated plant room later, I’ve learned a lot — mostly through trial and and a lot of error. This guide is everything I wish someone had handed me on day one.

📌 Free download: Grab my African Violet Care Cheat Sheet — a three-page quick reference that covers everything in this guide.

African violets (Saintpaulia) are small flowering houseplants native to Tanzania and Kenya. They’re one of the most popular houseplants in the world — and for good reason. When they’re happy, they bloom almost continuously..

What most beginners don’t realize (I definitely didn’t) is that “African violet” isn’t just one type of plant. The kind that you’re likely to be familiar with when you see them at your local garden center or big box store. Little plant with fuzzy dark green leaves and purple, pink or white flowers. 

Here’s the truth that blew my mind in those early days. There are thousands of named cultivars — hybridized varieties with names like Jersey Snowflakes, Rob’s Vanilla Trail, and Buckeye Nostalgia. They come in minis and micro minis that fit in the palm of your hand, standard sizes, and large trailers that spill out of hanging baskets. Leaves that are dark green to light green or variegated in shades of green, yellow, pink and white. Leaves that have frilled edges, serrated edges, or smooth edged. Leaves that are fuzzy…or not.  Flowers range from tiny single petals to frilly doubles, in colors from deep violet to pure white to candy-stripe bicolors. Flowers that come with beautiful markings like light pinpoint dots and puffy spots, marbled streaks of color or pinwheel stripes. Once you know that world exists, it’s very hard to own just one.

Before you go down that particular rabbit hole, let’s make sure your plant actually survives. Here’s what they need.

The 5 Essentials for a Thriving African Violet

1. Light: Bright, But Never Direct Sun

African violets need plenty of light to bloom. They should never be in direct sunlight because direct sun will burn or sun bleach those beautiful leaves. The sweet spot is bright, indirect light or light filtered through something like a sheer curtain.

In practice, this usually means:

• A north- or east-facing windowsill is ideal
  
• South or west windows can work if the plant is a few feet back from the glass or shielded by a sheer curtain
  
• If your plant is growing but not blooming, it’s almost certainly not getting enough light
  
• Grow lights are a game changer if your space is dark — a simple LED grow light on a timer (8 – 12 hours on, 14 – 12 hours off) will keep them blooming year-round
  
• Note: Make sure the leaves of your plant aren’t touching the glass of your window. A sudden heat wave or cold snap will damage the leaf touching the glass

Quick test: If you can comfortably read a book at that spot without turning on a lamp, it’s probably enough light for your violet. If it feels dim, your plant thinks so too.

2. Watering: Less Is More (and Method Matters)

Overwatering is the #1 reason African violets die. I know this because it’s how I lost my first couple plants, Bob and Walter (yes, I named them). The soil should never stay soggy — roots sitting in wet soil will rot, and by the time you notice something is wrong, it’s often pretty advanced.

Why is so easy to overwater your violet? Because an overwatered violet looks very similar to an underwatered violet, limp and droopy. But it’s easier for a violet to recover from a lack of water rather than the other way around. So how can you tell if your violet needs water? A simple rule of thumb: water when the top half-inch of soil feels dry to the touch. Not bone dry, not damp — just losing moisture.

How you water matters just as much as when:

• For beginners, bottom watering is best: set the pot in a shallow dish of room-temperature water for about 20–30 minutes, let it soak up from the drainage holes, then remove and let it drain. This keeps water off the leaves and encourages deep root growth.
  
• Top watering works too, but be careful to keep water off the foliage. Water on fuzzy leaves in bright light or cold temperatures can cause spotting.
  
• Always use room-temperature water. Cold water shocks the roots and can cause white spots or rings on the leaves.
  
• If your tap water is heavily treated with chlorine or if your municipal water supply is in question, consider using filtered, distilled, or room-temperature tap water that’s been left to sit overnight. (I eventually got a water distiller — more on water choices in this post.)

3. Soil: Light, Airy, and Well-Draining

Standard potting mix is too heavy for African violets. Their roots aren’t as sturdy as most houseplants and they need a light, airy medium that drains well but holds just enough moisture. If your soil stays wet for more than a day or two after watering, it’s too dense.

You have two good options:

• Buy an African violet-specific potting mix. Look for brands like Espoma or Black Gold (one of my favorites) — these are formulated to drain properly. Serious hobbyists and professional may use Pro Mix MX. Some growers I’ve heard from has had mixed results with Miracle-Gro AV formula as fertilizer is already mixed in the soil. This makes it harder to calculate how much fertilizer your plant is already getting and it’s easy to overfertilize if you are also adding additional fertilizer.
  
• Mix your own: a common DIY mix is 1 to 1 and a half part perlite to 2 parts peat-based potting mix, which improves drainage and aeration.

If you stick your finger into the soil and it feels wet and compacted for days after watering, it’s time to repot into a better mix. Good soil is one of the easiest wins you can give your plant.

4. Pot Size: Smaller Than You Think

One of the most common beginner mistakes is putting an African violet in a pot that’s too large. African violets like to be slightly snug in their pot — a good general rule is that the pot diameter should be about 1/3 the diameter of the plant’s leaf spread.

Too much soil around the roots holds excess moisture (hello, root rot) and the plant often focuses on root growth instead of putting energy into flowers.

When it comes to pot type:

• Plastic pots retain moisture longer than clay — fine if you tend to underwater
  
• Terracotta/clay pots dry out faster — better if you tend to overwater
  
• Self-watering wicking pots like the Dandy pot are popular with African violet growers and can make watering more consistent once you get the hang of them. Just make sure that your soil mix is even lighter than usual to avoid waterlogging your roots, at least 55% perlite to 45% peat moss.

5. Fertilizer: Feed Regularly, But Lightly

African violets are regular bloomers, and that takes energy. A balanced fertilizer designed for African violets (look for a formula like 14-12-14 or similar) applied at ¼ the recommended strength with every watering will keep them fed without burning the roots.

Two things to avoid:

• Over-fertilizing: too much fertilizer builds up salts in the soil and can damage roots. Flush the soil with plain water occasionally to clear buildup
  
• Fertilizing a stressed plant: if your plant is droopy, dry, or recovering from something, wait until it’s stable before adding fertilizer. A stressed plant can’t use it and it can make things worse.

Also, after a fresh repot you can lay off the fertilizer for a couple of weeks while your violets absorb the nutrients from newly fresh soil.

Quick Reference: African Violet Care at a Glance

Common Problems (and What They’re Telling You)

If something looks off with your plant, here’s a quick diagnosis guide:

Bottom line: What violets really prefer is consistency. Consistent light, water, fertilizer and growing environment. Nail down these items and you’re well on your way to a very rewarding and wildly addicting hobby.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How often should I water my African violet?

There’s no fixed schedule — it depends on your pot size, soil, and environment. More humid environments usually require less watering than dry ones. Check the top half-inch of soil: water when it feels dry, wait when it doesn’t. Most plants end up needing water roughly once a week, but checking is always better than guessing.

2. Why is my African violet not blooming?

The most common reason is not enough light. Move it closer to a bright window (but not in direct sun or touching the glass) or add a grow light. Inconsistent fertilizing and being seriously root-bound are other common causes. For a full breakdown, see: Why Your African Violet Isn’t Blooming. [ADD LINK WHEN PUBLISHED]

3. Can I use tap water for African violets?

It depends on your tap water quality. Many growers use it without issue. If your municipal water is heavily chlorinated or has a strong chemical smell, you might notice it affecting your plants over time. Options include letting tap water sit overnight to let chlorine dissipate, using a filter, or switching to distilled or RO water. I went deep on this in my water guide.

4. Do African violets need special soil?

Yes — standard potting mix is usually too dense and holds too much moisture. AV-specific mixes or a blend of peat and perlite will serve your plants much better.

5. How do I know when to repot?

3 signs it’s time to repot: 

1. roots coming out of the drainage holes
2. the plant is clearly larger than its pot
3. the soil has compacted so much that water runs straight through without being absorbed 

Most standard size African violets benefit from a fresh pot and fresh soil every 9 to 12 months. Smaller sized violets like semi-miniature and miniatures would need more frequent potting depending on the pot size, anywhere from every 4 to 6 months. I do a step by step guide on how to repot your African violet on my YouTube channel.

Ready to Keep Going?

African violets are genuinely one of the most rewarding plants to grow once you understand what they need. They’re not fussy — they’re just specific. Get the light and watering right, use good soil, and you’ll have a blooming plant that’ll make you embarrassingly proud.

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!