Hi all! Cindy I was watching WAVE 3 Listens Friday March 5th. A lady called in and ask how she could get her African violets to bloom again. Everything you told her was great but you left something out. The best way I've found to get them to bloom again is to add more red light to their diet. A regular incandescent light bulb does the trick most of the time. They need the bright window light but they don't get enough red light thru the window to bloom. 6 am to 6 pm under a 75 or 100 watt light (by the bright window) And you'll be picking off the spend blooms so the little buds all around will grow. Instead of waiting for any signs of blooms at all. Also it seems I've read that that bright window can be a northerly facing window and work well. If there's a way you could contact that lady that called I think her name was Lovonna or something like that. Tell her this and if her plants are healthy she should have flowers galore Almost garrenteed. Thanks! Ken,

[quote:f31997768d="ken strong"]Hi all! Cindy I was watching WAVE 3 Listens Friday March 5th. A lady called in and ask how she could get her African violets to bloom again. Everything you told her was great but you left something out. The best way I've found to get them to bloom again is to add more red light to their diet. A regular incandescent light bulb does the trick most of the time. They need the bright window light but they don't get enough red light thru the window to bloom. 6 am to 6 pm under a 75 or 100 watt light (by the bright window) And you'll be picking off the spend blooms so the little buds all around will grow. Instead of waiting for any signs of blooms at all. Also it seems I've read that that bright window can be a northerly facing window and work well. If there's a way you could contact that lady that called I think her name was Lovonna or something like that. Tell her this and if her plants are healthy she should have flowers galore Almost garrenteed. Thanks! Ken,[/quote:f31997768d]

Ken,
Thanks you so much for your great suggestions! I would be out of a job if I didn't have people like you to help me all the time! Keep blooming!

I have an African Violet sitting on my desk at work. I water it once a week & cut the faded & dead blooms off then too. I don't use anything else on it. It just keeps growing & getting bigger.

Roberta

Cindy, Thank you for giving me the chance to share! It's like sharing cuttings from your garden with the whole city.Thank you!

rlcjjc, You must be getting the red light from somewhere. Some florescent bulbs will give off more red light than others but the incandescent gives the most. African violets just will not bloom with out the right amount of red light. African violets can also be propagated like rabbits.One large plant can be 40 or more in a very short time.
Thanks! Ken,

[quote:f8494c362f="ken strong"]Cindy, Thank you for giving me the chance to share! It's like sharing cuttings from your garden with the whole city.Thank you!

rlcjjc, You must be getting the red light from somewhere. Some florescent bulbs will give off more red light than others but the incandescent gives the most. African violets just will not bloom with out the right amount of red light. African violets can also be propagated like rabbits.One large plant can be 40 or more in a very short time.
Thanks! Ken,[/quote:f8494c362f]

you are so right on the propagation. I worked for a librarian while in college who had supplied the whole campus with violets. She kept them in clay pots in a eastern exposure window for the most part although they were scattered through most of the library as well. She was very insistant that I not water with water straight from the tap (it had to sit over night) and that I not water them from the top but rather fill their saucer. For years after I graduated, I had violets that had been started from her originals.