Saturday 24 February 2007

Violets are blue

This post has got nothing to do with baking or cooking. Now, unless you like gardening and flowers, you can skip this posting ;)

I was pleasantly surprised when I watered my plants this morning. A flower bud has sprout out from my pot of african violet!!! I was so happy! This plant has stopped blooming ever since the first set of flowers were gone. The plant has been on my window sill for many months...and I must confess, I really didn't give it much attention or care. I just water it once or twice a week, without even giving it any fertiliser. It is really difficult to grow violets in this kind of weather in Singapore. I used to own several pots of violets while I was still working. I keep my plants in the office as they grow better in air-con environment.

I'm not sure whether it was a pure coincident...as I posted some photos of my "past" plants in flickr.com just a couple of days ago...including a photo of this pot.

Can you see the flower bud?

A closer look at the flower bud:

This was taken when I first bought this plant home, it was in full bloom then:

I hope I could find my green fingers back real soon!

2 comments:

airenchan said...

Hi, Nice flowering violet. If you can get to this stage then you can have more of them. Take a cutting of the leaf and either soak it in water until it has roots and if you can wait a little longer, till you have tiny leaves growing on the edge of the stem. It is the time you transfer it to a pot. Don't bury the tiny plant. Or stick the cut leaf into a pot of soil and cut a plastic drink bottle that can fit into the rim of your flower pot, don't worry about the water vapour. Soon you will see tiny plant or plants of violet growing out of the soil. Wait till it is big then divide them into individual pots. This is a faster method, proven by the violet growers group.
I'm a violet craze, having 20+ pots of violet of different colours. Husband complaint "when you walk near a violet section, make sure both your brakes (hand & foot brakes) are on. Meaning don't buy anymore. I now start my own new plant using the method that I told you.

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi airenchan, I used to have several pots of violets when I was still working. I kept them in the office as the condition was much better ;) I tried growing from leaf cutting too...but the tiny plant eventually died :( I was as crazy over them as you ;p
I couldn't get a suitable place to grow them in my house, so I have now gone into growing tomatoes, chillies and some herbs :)