Friday, June 19, 2009

Pretty little violets all in a row

A year and a half ago, I purchased a lovely African violet at a yard sale. I enjoyed it so much that I got curious about starting new plants, so I called the seller and got educated, and then got excited.

I broke off three healthy leaves as far down their stems as I could and stuck them in compost (of course potting soil would work, but if you have a giant compost pile and not a stitch of potting soil, the choice is obvious to me!) I watered them about once a week and waited a long time.

Suddenly a baby leaf popped up! And then another and another! Such excitement. I could barely contain myself. Soon I had a bunch of baby violets that needed to be divided. Oh, what fun! I was off to the compost pile again, and then to the plastic recycle bin to pull out various tiny containers for the tiny plants. I found some baby food boxes and some single-serve applesauce cups. I also found a cute little ceramic thingie that I had picked up at Goodwill--the cute little kind of dish that I am always suckered into buying.

Look! How cute! Baby African violets basking in the sunshine. And wow! I cleaned my window for the year.
Since its leaves were looking yucky and yellowish, I also added fresh compost to the original violet, still in its original yogurt container because 1) deep down I am lazy, 2) even further down I am thrifty and 3) I am practical but enjoy redecorating--I can nestle the yogurt cup into other containers and have an instant change of scenery without dedicating a pretty bowl to growing a plant.

4 comments:

Deb said...

Count me impressed. I have a much loved African violet that needs re-potting this summer. Maybe I'll try propagating a few new ones of my own. They'd look awesome in a terrarium :)

amy said...

those are adorable! i also love your good mennonite sense of thriftiness. now i'm inspired to bring some green into my kitchen!

also - can you believe our babies are almost an entire year old??

Anonymous said...

Hope you are all okay! Been a long time between posts...Joanne

Cottonista said...

Joanne, I know! Thanks for your concern. We are OK! Life hit us again with an Indiana vacation, which was fun, but also a very sad event, the death of a family friend. I'll post soon, I promise!