The African Violet Bible: How to Grow Saintpaulias That Bloom 365 Days a Year

By Christopher Makomere

Do you wish there was a way to save your African violet from inevitable death? Or wonder if there are any tips to encourage them into flowering? Do you know for sure what is happening to them?

I know the feeling when you’ve just acquired your first African violet plant from a well-known garden center with a lovely purple bloom. Or maybe they were sent to you as gifts or you inherited them from a loved one.

You really enjoy watching them grow and flower. It’s a great sentimental feeling.

Until one day, you notice that your African violet looks miserable!

The new leaves under the flower's crown seem to dry or they’ve started losing their color and turning brown. The once lovely classic purple blooms are looking droopy and withering fast – and it looks really bad.

Is there any way to save the plants at this point?

You wonder:

You know you have to do something about it. So, you result to visiting gardening forums for much-needed advice and encouragement. Sure, you get some suggestions. Some help you save some plants but for the rest, death is inevitable.

And it becomes a dreaded vicious cycle before you decide these darn little plants are so temperamental and quit altogether.

It’s not your fault.

How could you know what is happening?

You’ve done everything right; you’ve followed all the advice you could get but still no hope for your Saintpaulias. Besides, how could you succeed if the advice you’ve been receiving has been extremely vague? For instance, you’re told to avoid too little or too much light. If you’re a flower gardening beginner, what does this really mean?

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Don’t get held back again with your gardening passion. And more so, your love for the most popular indoor plant in the world – the African violet.

All you have to do right now is get:

The African violet Bible: How to Grow Saintpaulias that Bloom 365 Days a Year (Indoor Flower Gardening Book)

Finally! An African violet book that is in-depth enough to help you keep your indoor plants in top shape.
Are you a beginner looking for the basics of growing amazing indoor saintpaulias? Or you’re an advanced African violet enthusiast and want to take your game to the next level? Have you been growing these houseplants since you were a child, but they always inevitably died as you didn't keep up the proper care regime?

Then you need to get a copy of The African violet Bible.

This book is not only packed with practical information, but plenty of photos and illustrations to help you understand important concepts.

While getting this book is one of the smartest moves you’ll make today, it won’t solve all your gardening problems neither will it transform you into an overnight green thumb. How much you succeed will depend on how much you’re willing to do.

Still with me?

Here’s a brief overview of what’s covered in the book:
- All the growing basics (this alone is enough to transform your craft)

- How to force blooming by using a framework I developed called the Ball Rolling Technique (No more ‘too little or too much light stuff’ – you’ll know exactly how much light is required to trigger Florigen (a hormone responsible for flowering).

- Watering African violets is a controversial subject – the facts and watering techniques have been covered.

- How to save your indoor plants from inevitable death by mastering the ‘Pest and Disease Triangle,’ and much more.

By purchasing this book, you're on your way to achieving phenomenal results in houseplants gardening.

Now, Scroll back up and click the BUY button to get a copy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christopher Makomere
• Release date: Nov 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9781686107948

Christopher Makomere

Christopher Makomere is a keen entrepreneur with major interests in horticulture. He’s also a marketer and founder of hortzone.com, a popular blog in Kenya dedicated to helping farming start-ups and large Agribusiness corporations to explode their revenues.He studied at Egerton University, School of Agriculture under the department of crops, horticulture, and soils. He has worked with several organizations to transform the livelihoods of small-scale farmers through USAID-KHCP.

Book preview

Table of Contents

Copyright 2019 ©Hort Zone

Introduction

Chapter 1: African Violet Growing Basics

Chapter 2: Registered African Violet Cultivars

Chapter 3: How to grow new babies from existing plants.

Chapter 4: Transplanting and Establishment

Chapter 5: Fertilizer Application and Plant Nutrition

Chapter 6: Why you should report your AV’s

Chapter 7: African violet Care

Chapter 8: Why Your African violet Doesn’t Bloom and What to Do About It

Chapter 9: Watering an African violet

Bonus Chapter: Shopping Tips for African Violets

Chapter 10: African violets common problems

Chapter 11: Pest and Disease Management

Final thoughts

About the author

Endnotes and References

Disclaimer

Copyright 2019 ©Hort Zone 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author/ publisher.

Except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Hortzone.com

Introduction

You visit a friend or a garden center and notice beautifully growing Saintpaulias.

You’re thrilled and decide to buy some for yourself. Or maybe they were sent to you as gifts or you inherited them from a close relative. Or you deliberately propagated them and now have a bunch of African violet plants.

You enjoy watching them grow and flower. It’s a great feeling.

Until one day, you notice that your African violet looks miserable!

The new leaves under the flower's crown seem to dry or they’ve started losing their color and turning brown. The once lovely purple blooms are looking droopy and withering fast – and it looks bad.

Is there any way to save the plants at this point?

You wonder:

You know that you have to do something about it. So, you result to googling and visiting gardening forums for the much-needed advice and encouragement. Sure, you get some suggestions. Some help you save some plants but for the rest, death is inevitable.

For those that survive, you wonder whether there are any tips to encourage them into flowering.

And it becomes a dreaded vicious cycle before you decide to quit altogether.

It’s not your fault.

How could you know what is happening?   

You’ve done everything right; you’ve followed all the advice you could get but still, these darn little plants are so temperamental.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Don’t get held back again with our gardening passion. And more so, your love for the most popular indoor plant in the world – the African violet.

Finally! An African violet book that is in-depth enough to help you keep your indoor plants in top shape.

Are you a beginner and looking for the basics of growing amazing indoor saintpaulias? Or you’re an advanced African violet enthusiast looking for ways to take your game to the next level?

Then you’re lucky to own this indoor flower gardening book.

This book is not only packed with practical information, but plenty of photos and illustrations to help you understand important concepts.

I understand that a picture is worth 1,000 words. You’ll find a couple of them in this book.

I know how frustrating it is to watch your indoor plant die on you. And I know just how much helpless you feel when you can't do anything about it. You can't do anything about it because you don't know what the heck is killing it.

It is even worse if that plant is one of the most popular houseplants in the world - the African violet. It's more devastating if it happens to be your favorite amongst many.

You do everything humanly possible and yet you don't see the results you can be proud of. At best, your indoor African violet grows vegetative but never blooms.

Or maybe you're just starting out with gardening and don't know where to begin.

This book has it all covered for you:

You're a newbie gardener and just want some African violet growing basics - I have discussed them in a way only you can understand.

You want to know how best to care for your African violet - I've got you covered.

You want to know how to propagate your own beautiful African violet babies? - you're in luck because there’s a full chapter on that.

You want to save your dying houseplant? - I’ve included the concept of a disease triangle to help you find the solution.

You want to learn about different varieties to choose? They are all included.

You want to know what are the common problems of African violets - they are in this book and you get the solutions too.

In short, this is the most comprehensive book on growing the African violets, caring for them, and sprucing things up (using the Ball-Rolling Technique) so that they bloom throughout the year - the book is the African violet Bible!

You'll find some information that surely, you’ll be hard-pressed from bottom to top to find anywhere else.

While I wrote this book purposely for the beginner in mind, experienced African violet enthusiasts will also find a treasure of information. 

The book offers invaluable techniques for gardeners at different experience levels. But surely, it requires hard work and discipline to follow through the advice in this book.

In addition, this book is not for those people who are looking for a magic wand to transform them from black thumbs to green thumbs overnight. Though there are plenty of easy wins across this book, some effort is required on your part.

To get the most out of this book, read through without any interruption to understand the ideas are flowing. Then reread it while highlighting the most interesting points to refer back and then read several times thereafter to master everything else. But first, a brief history and some noteworthy characteristics.

A brief history about the African violets 

In 1892, Baron Walter von St Paul-Illaire - a German colonial officer discovered a beautiful plant growing in the humid mountains of Nguru of Tanga (Modern day Tanzania).

He sent them to his father back in Germany.

The elder Baron Ulrich was so taken with their delicate beauty that he took them to his friend Hermann Wendland, director of the Royal Botanic Garden. The famed botanist determined the plant was in the Gesneriaceae family and gave it the botanical name Saintpaulia ionantha after the Baron who discovered them (Saintpaulia) and the Greek word ionantha, which means resembling a violet.

Now, it doesn't mean that the native dwellers were unaware of the plant’s existence. But rather they just didn't see anything special with the plant until Walter came across it. Since then the plant's popularity started to gain traction when some seeds were sent back to Germany for bulking.

There have been several different ancient stories around this beautiful plant dating from the time of Jesus Christ.

Where, it's believed that the African violet was initially white but when Jesus Christ was crucified, Mary - Jesus mother cried so much that the plant turned to purple reflecting her deepest sorrow.

In Rome and Greece, these plants are attributed to chaste virtue and are often given as tokens of enduring love. To date, African violets have become the official flowers of four countries as well as the official flower of Greece.

In America, the African violet is the most popular houseplant

Whether these mythologies are true or otherwise, there's no doubt that the significance of the African violet in our current society is undisputed. For instance, did you know that the African violet is a symbol of motherhood? 

Well, I thought you should know if you didn’t.

That explains why they are often given out as gifts during Mother's Day and Easter as well.

Furthermore, this plant is more than that; it resembles enduring love and hence is one of the best gifts for Valentine’s day. Now, next time you run out of gift ideas for your loved ones or short of roses, why not send an African violet gift instead.

Generally, blooming plants can be given throughout the year and used for interior decorations anywhere people live,