We all know I keep a large number of plants. Some genera never do well for me; others do well pretty much across the board, and then there are those that can be hit or miss. African violets, or Saintpaulia spp., are in the last category for me. (I know some of that is due to my unwillingness to adapt my own tending processes - I’m not super into wick watering, for instance, and I often top-water which can easily result in crown rot.) The first AV I remember keeping well enough to be notable is a NOID I picked up from a plant society sale in Baton Rouge, LA, around 2010. It’s a variegated dusty-pink-and-green standard AV, with pink flowers. It’s my most tried-and-true and therefore my favorite. (January 2023 edit: I believe it might be ‘Precious Pink’.)

After this NOID variegated standard was clearly sticking around, I bought a couple other standard green-leafed types from grocery stores. Either quickly or slowly, those all passed away. Time ticked onward.

I picked up a cute miniature AV with blue-violet flowers from Family Tree Nursery in Kansas City, and it seemed to be doing OK. I tried out a couple Primulina species, a very close relative in the Gesneriad family - one died quickly but the other thrived for a time, but then ended up deteriorating as well. I bought a gorgeous lime-flowering dark-green-ruffled-leaf standard and another AV I can’t remember well from the KC Gesneriad Society that both quickly went downhill. The mini kept doing all right, so I was up to two AVs that seemed to be able to handle the care and setup I provided. Time continued to pass.

I attended another KC Gesneriad Society sale. I was a bit wary given all the other deaths, but figured I’d try a few more out. I bought one AV with a beautiful set of flowers already growing that flowered but then croaked pretty soon thereafter, a cupped-leaf and a “girl-leaf” mini AV, and a trailing Russian hybrid called ‘Zimniy Tsvetok‘ (I distinctly remember a society member trying to persuade me it wasn’t worth getting, but I liked the look of it so I went ahead anyway) as well as a few Episcia species (another relative in the Gesneriad family). I also picked up another miniature, this time with a sort of white/yellow/pink variegation, from Family Tree Nursery. Around this time I also branched out into Sinningia species (yet another Gesneriad), and had middling levels of success and failure there too.

The “girl-leaf” mini AV began to fall apart, but some harvested leaves managed to grow pups. Those plants have matured into their own issues, and I’d categorize this plant as just barely managing to stay afloat in my AV collection. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s eventually - or even rather soon - another goner. However, the most stable girl-leaf mini has just begun to bloom, which is a positive turn! It has put off a couple of light pink flowers.

The cupped-leaf mini has also continually struggled, though I’d say it seems to have stabilized a bit more than the girl-leaf mini has even though I don’t think I’ve seen it flower yet (or if I have, it was sufficiently long ago for my memory to fail me). I didn’t take a photo of it for this post as I was documenting the rest, due to a combination of its currently underwhelming stature and lack of flowers. All the Episcias have done just fine, though I have learned I dislike how often they have to be restarted in order to look nice. However, they do make good gifts since I am forced to propagate them so frequently!

The variegated mini has been doing better, and I have one plant of it that is actually looking pretty adult though I’ve yet to see it flower either. The first and mother to all of my blue-violet-flowering minis had a very weird crown situation set in, but it had been so prolific and stable in pupping beforehand that I have several replacement plants solidly in the ranks. I think it’s nearing the tried-and-true category, though I’ll still need a couple more years to be sure.

However, the real surprise for me is the RS ‘Zimniy Tsvetok’ trailing violet. It took a while to settle in when I brought it home, and it was touch-and-go for a time. Then it started to flourish, and it did very well for over a year, but eventually its leaves began to bleach and I thought it might not be salvageable. I pulled it out from its fluorescent light stand, repotted it, and put it in a shaded southern window (an oxymoron, I know) in an attempt at rehab. Its color slowly restored and it started growing again. It is now my biggest AV and - at least currently - my most consistent flowerer. The one propagation I’ve tried of it hasn’t done well at all, which does worry me in an “heirs and spares” sense, but the main clump (it’s a trailer, so it’s the only one in my collection that is meant to have multiple heads) is beautiful.

So at present, I keep six varieties of AV. Three are doing well: the tried-and-true NOID variegated AV from Baton Rouge, the blue-violet-flowering mini from Family Tree Nursery, and the RS ‘Zimniy Tsvetok’ trailing violet from the KC Gesneriad Society sale. Three are in various stages of surviving: the girl-leaf mini and the cupped-leaf mini (not pictured) from the KC Gesneriad Society sale, and the variegated mini from Family Tree Nursery. We’ll see how it continues to go!