About African Violets
More About African Violets:
African violets are more properly called Saintpaulia. They are not violets at all, but they do come from Africa, principally from Tanzania.
They have been in cultivation only since 1892 when seeds were sent back to Germany by Baron Walter von Saint Paul, a consular official who is credited with their introduction.
Hybridising began in earnest in the USA in the 1920s, but although they were indeed sold in Australia as early as the 1890s, they were not freely available for another 50 years. Since then they have become very popular flowering houseplants, known for their beautiful flowers, their ability to flower all year long, and sometimes maligned for their supposed difficulties in cultivation.
From the early 1960s a number of hobby groups devoted to their culture appeared in Australia, and our Central Coast African Violet Club is one of these, having been founded in 1981.
Although the species African violets found in Africa all have flowers that are small, single and in a range of blues from darkest purple/blue to white, that is not the case with modern African violet hybrids.
The flowers now come in most colours that can be imagined, even yellow is now present although at one time it was thought not to be achievable. Well, you won’t find orange or tangerine colours – yet, but we have all purples, blues, pinks, reds, even green, and everything in between. There are bi-colours and multi-colours, there are pinwheel-striped flowers, edged flowers, and flowers spotted and streaked with contrast colour. You can have a rainbow of colour on your window sill.
And that is not all. Now we have double flowers and semi-double flowers. We have variegated foliage of several different types. And there are various styles of plant.
The typical rosette type African violets come in three different sizes.
Standard African violets
These are the largest sized African violets and may sometimes exceed 500 mm in diameter. In home growing they are typically smaller, however, about 300 mm.
Semi-miniature African violets
These are normally 200 mm or less in diameter. They often are very heavy flowerers.
Miniature African violets
This dainty smallest size African violet will grow to 150 mm or less in diameter.
Trailing African violets
Where the rosette type African violets are kept to just one growing point with all the leaves and flowers radiating out like the spokes of a wheel, there are also some with many crowns.
They can be encouraged to grow an almost complete ball of foliage with many flowers. In many respects they are among the most rewarding to grow, and respond very well to growing on a window sill. They also come in the three sizes – standard trailers, semi-miniature trailers and miniature trailers.
Our Photo Galleries page has some photographs of these different types.
A Group of Species African Violets
