HOUSEPLANTS : Keeping Your African Violets in the Pink

African violet is a houseplant you can count on to bloom day after day, month after month, throughout the year. But you do have to pay attention to the plant’s needs, especially with respect to light, water and humidity.

Not much light is needed to keep the plant happily in bloom. In fact, too much light scorches the leaves. This time of year, a shaded south window or an unshaded east or west window is ideal, but between March and September, keep the plant at an east or west, or even a north, window. Look at the leaves to tell if the plant is happy with its lighting.

Too much light, and the leaves curl downward; too little, and they stretch as if reaching for the light.

The soil for African violets needs to be uniformly moist, not sodden, but also never dry. A potting mix well-fortified with peat moss, leaf mold or other humus will hold water well.

When you do water, plunge the pot up to its rim in a saucepan of water for a few minutes or carefully drench the soil from above while avoiding the leaves. Water on the leaves sometimes causes spotting. If you do get water on the leaves, keep the plant out of bright light until the water has evaporated. Always use water that is warm.

African violets also like moisture in the air. Providing this can be a problem in homes with forced-air heating systems. Put a layer of pebbles in shallow saucers and stand the pots on them. Keep the saucers filled with water, which will continuously evaporate from the surface of the pebbles.

The only thing to stop a well-grown African violet from flowering is age. Then it’s time for a new plant or rejuvenation of the old plant. You can buy seeds or collect them from the fruit capsules that form on plants whose flowers have been pollinated. Sprinkle the fine seeds on the surface of a flowerpot filled with potting soil--and be patient.

Alternatively, make your large old plant into a few new plants by separating, then planting, each branch of the crown (the short stems to which the leaves are attached). Cover the new plants with a plastic tent or an inverted jar to keep the humidity high until new roots grow.

The most common way to make new African violet plants is with leaf cuttings. In late winter, cut off a few leaves with their stalks attached and stick the stalks in potting soil out of direct light. In time, new plants will pop up through the soil next to the cuttings. In a few months, these new plants will be adorned with flowers.

To deduce the requirements for a healthy African violet plant, we could have followed the plant back to its native haunts.

The plant was first discovered in 1892, nestled in rocks among other lush vegetation near towering waterfalls in the jungles of east Africa.

Mist and other plants shielded the African violets from direct sunlight. It was the governor of German East Africa who first found the plants, and after sending some of them to Germany for taxonomic identification, he was honored by having the genus named after him.

Luckily, the German botanist who gave the African violet its genus name decided against using the governor’s whole name, Adalbert Emil Redcliffe Le Tanneur von Saint Paul-Illaire, and opted instead for Saintpaulia.

With its year-round flowering habit, African violets have spurred amateur and professional breeders to try to develop new forms and colors. Popular varieties include fringed snow prince, with white flowers; mysterium, seventh heaven and double pink cheer, with double pink flowers, and violet trail, a trailing type.

When African violet enthusiasts noticed that there was a group of African violets whose leaves were scallop-shaped and had a light area at their bases, the “girl” series of African violets was born. There also are miniature African violets, which never outgrow a 2 1/2-inch pot.

Members of African violet societies commonly attend meetings with their pockets stuffed with carefully wrapped African violet leaves that they graciously exchange with each other--a testimonial to the abundance of new and old varieties, and their ease of propagation.

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For information on the African Violet Society, write to: African Violet Society, P.O. Box 3609, Beaumont, Tex. 77704.