Houseplants, especially finicky ones like African violets are not a good match for me. They tend to die quickly of either neglect or overwatering.
The other problem for my houseplants is my ancient house with its dark rooms and damp drafts. It gets cold in the winter and hot in the summer.
Accumulation of Houseplants
Even though houseplants did so poorly for me, I kept trying. For a time, this was due to teaching as I wanted ferns for my classes. Two survived for years in my classroom. The native Christmas fern was returned to the hills when I left teaching. The other still tries to survive here.
A philodendron vine managed to survive a spring frost. I had just put the plants out for the summer and I covered the garden and forgot them.
My other houseplant is impressive. It is a Norfolk Island Pine now close to seven feet tall. Its pot is on wheels, but I can no longer manage to put it out for the summer.
Enter the African Violets
For a couple of years, I wrote columns for a local ad paper. I was just learning to write professionally. For subject matter, I interviewed local people and wrote about their hobbies and businesses.
One woman raised African violets. Her house was full of them, blue and pink. They were lovely.
These plants are easy to start from leaves. This woman would start several and sell them at her church bazaar.
When I left, two little plants went with me. I was positive they were doomed.
Surprise
At home I set these doomed plants on a shelf in a north facing window. They loved it. They grew big and bloomed. I started some new ones.
Now my north window sports lovely blue and pink flowers. They have moved into the kitchen west facing window as well and are putting on quite a show this summer.
African violets aren’t seen so much now. Succulents are the big houseplant item now. Perhaps the finicky reputation violets have is part of the reason. It’s a shame as, if you look for them, African violets come in many colors and do very well, if you have a window sill they like.
