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:
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:
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| freshly repotted saintpaulia in march 2014. |
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