saintpaulia // african violet

order: lamiales
family: gesneriaceae
genus: saintpaulia
species: x
cultivar: unknown

Despite despairing of keeping a theft-free garden, I allowed myself to plant new bulbs in the ground and bring home a cheaply plant: plants that won't age but keep on multiplying. I'm imagining it will not strike me as hard if a saintpaulia is taken away. Anyway, instead of being so negative and live under the shadows of the past unhappy events, I still want to carry on having the fun being able to learn about new species and to discover different features of different plants. "Learn by growing" is the slogan. (Hmm... it sounds good. I think I'm going to employ this as the new slogan of my blog.)

So let's get to the point of this post... Saintpaulia is the scientific name and African violet is the most common name of this lovely plant. I was ignorant of this plant until coming across it recently where it's said to be an overly popular houseplant. However, according to a friend who knows them, saintpaulias have lost their popularity to cyclamens in the last few decades and are considered old-fashioned today. Why saying "cyclamens in place of saintpaulias"? Because of their resemblance? I mean, there are bunch of other plants with leaves forming rosette underneath and lots of flower stalks coming up from the midpoint. Primrose is an example. Kalanchoe is another (at least those young plants you get from the garden centre and keep as annual).

Let's be clear: I love cyclamens; there's no doubt about that. However I find it a shame to want to replace saintpaulias with any other plant. They've got really lovely flowers and interesting pelty leaves. My dwarf saintpaulia bears a profusion of double flowers with petals in different shades of pink. Looking at them is as if admiring a peony bush in flower in early summer. The fact that my saintpaulia is a mini plant (it's less than 10cm across) makes me want to constantly pick it up from the window sill and inspect its tiny organs. Up close, you can see the watery structure of the flower that gives the glittering effect. Its dark green, spoon-shaped leaves can be taken to create new plants asexually.

Like all my indoor plants, a minimum temperature of 16°C is guaranteed throughout the coldest part of the year. Otherwise, I don't think it's necessary to worry too much about watering and feeding. Just the usual "not too wet but not completely dry" and "as bright as it can be avoiding heat accumulation". I find it quite a good tip to water it "from below". What I do is, I put a small (really small) pool of water on a plate and place the potted plant over it and watch it soak up the water. I use pure water with a tiny bit of balanced liquid fertiliser at each watering. I think it's that much I can tell for now. More on this plant later.

>>Update:

freshly repotted saintpaulia in march 2014.

olive tree

order: lamiales
family: oleaceae
genus: olea
species: europaea

first published on 03.06.2012:

I acquired this olive tree well before spring started, while the cold spell was still ongoing outside. I wasn't sure if it had already been through dormancy. Since I couldn't find a suitable spot for this, I decided it's time for him to wake up (if he hadn't already). I placed it on the south window sill next to other plants. On sunny hours the thermometer read 25°C. When cloudy the heating unit would run to keep the room temperature above 15°C.

A few days upon its arrival the small tree began to shed leaves. Three leaves a day. There were roughly 60 leaves on the tree, I counted. A simple calculation showed that the tree would go completely bald in 20 days. Turned out that the lack of water was the main cause. I began to give it plenty of water and immediately defoliation ceased and few days later new growth appeared. Why had I given it so little water in the first place? According to most of the care tips I found on the internet, you want to keep the soil mostly dry and expose the plant to full sun. Their reasoning is that olive trees in their natural habitat in arid Mediterranean areas don't get much of water yet they thrive under hot sun. Seems like those trees aren't really as drought-tolerant as they claim. Apparently they have root systems that are deep enough to reach water table for continuous water supply. A small potted olive tree like mine still needs to be watered on regular basis.

I transplanted my olive tree into an aquatic plant basket, giving it fresh soil. An aquatic plant basket has the benefit that the soil dries up even quicker than in a clay pot. This keeps the root well aerated with oxygen supply and it will result in a more compact root ball and hence increases its ability to absorb water and nutrients. Of course eventually the tree will go into a nice pot. Say next spring. Until then I have time to look around for a suitable one.

>> Update:

This year (2013), my olive tree overwintered in the stairwell close to the entrance, where it received some degree of chill. This has an effect on the plant's physiology, in that it produced such a profusion of white flowers. Because of that, I skipped the spring pruning that I planned.

Earlier, as I moved the plant outdoors, I repotted my olive tree into a shallow oval pot. The pot I chose is dark brown and unglazed. Its brim extends outwards, making it looking wider than it really is. Four tiny legs elevate the pot slightly above the ground.

Olive tree in flower, June 2013. View 1.

Olive tree in flower, June 2013. View 2.