A Violet Obession

Over the past couple of years, I've developed an obsession for African Violets.  Lately, it has been taking up more and more of my time.

I can't stop propagating them. 

These biodegradable Bio-cups are made from plant material and I've been converting them into mini-"glass" houses for the leaf cuttings.

I collect the cups from the freshly squeezed juice I occasionally buy in town and considering asking Zac at Pink Papaya to save the throwaway ones for me. I'm still not convinced that they are suitable.  The violets grown in the cups seem to be much more compact and with much smaller leaves. 

They are great for transporting the plants but a lot of the young plants are now too large for the containers.

The colour of the above blooms is deeply intense purple but I have a lot of trouble photographing them because the colour always photographs blue.  I've edited it a little to get it back to its truer colour.

This one has large,frilly edged petals.

The above pretty lilac-flowered African Violet was my first every acquisition which I managed to grow for more than twelve months.

I've had it for ages but it failed to re-flower once it's first lot of blooms died.

My neighbour helped me revive it and it has been doing well since.

I realise now that the plant needed more light, more feeding - more attention basically.

I started propagating this one, but there's only so many of the one plant you can give away so I thought I'd try my luck with different colours.

I'm still very much an amateur African Violet grower. 

I like experimenting with containers.  I have an abundance of bonsai planters which I pick up cheaply from garage sales.

The colour of the above plant is a mystery because I haven't developed a system to tag all the leaves I've propagated. That is something I need to work on.

This one is in bud and it looks like it's a lilac.

I thought it would be easy to identify the new plants from the leaves...but it seems that when young, they all look very similar.

The obsession (probably like most), is accidental; by no means intentional and it looks like I have a second obsession in the making after collecting some zonal geranium cuttings from my mother's garden.  

The idea is to preserve them for her as she waits for the state government's acquisition of her land.

The geranium cuttings were taken in June this year.

So far they are all doing very well but the white is the only one flowering at present.

Isn't it perfect?

My intention is to make up a collection comprising at least one plant from each colour to give to each of my siblings.

Besides the white I have taken cuttings from deep red, pink and two shades of salmon. 

Unlike my African Violets, these cuttings have been carefully labelled with the colour, date of planting and the name and place of my mother's garden.

Do you have a plant obsession?

I'd like to hear about it!