When I was an art student living in a tiny room, I had a beautiful white African Violet plant on my east facing window sill. It never stopped blooming. The early morning sunlight dancing on the little plant would always put a smile on my face.
African violet is one of the most loved indoor plants. Most indoor plants are foliage plants, but African Violet blooms all the time and comes in so many colors. They are easy to grow and propagate. You can root a new plant easily from a single leaf cutting!
I tried 2 ways to do this, and got 100% success! Let’s look at both ways and the pros and cons of each, so you can start your beautiful African Violet collection for every room and to share as gifts!
How to propagate African violets from leaves in water
The first method is similar to how we root tomatoes, as described in this post from last year-
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Find a healthy leaf, use a clean and sharp knife to slice it off at the base. Take care not to harm other parts of the plant.
Fill a bottle with room temperature water. the opening of the bottle should be a little smaller than the leaf so the stem of each leaf can be in water, while the rest of the leaf is above water.
Put the leaf cuttings out of direct sun, in a bright and warm spot. After 2-4 weeks, you will see roots forming. Now carefully plant each leaf in moist potting soil, and let the little plants grow!
How to grow African Violets from leaves in water
The second propagation method is simply to plant the leaves directly in moist potting soil. You can bury each leaf about 1/3 of the way, if the stems are too short to be stable.
No rooting hormones needed. No need to water them either because of a humidity tent – a clear plastic bag propped over the pot. Roots will start growing in 2-4 weeks.
I planted all these leaf cuttings thinking I would get one or two to root, but they ALL rooted!
After 4 weeks, remove the humidity tent, and water as the soil starts to become dry.
A couple of weeks later, buds grew from the base of the rooted stems to become clusters of new leaves, and flowers eventually! I separated these leaf cuttings into additional pots so each plant has more room to grow.
Comparisons of the 2 methods and growing tips:
- The soil method is easier since it’s only one step.
- The water method gives us more assurance because we can see the roots growing.
- African Violet loves bright shade or some early morning sun.
- They are easy to care for. Just don’t them dry out or sit in water for too long.
Please feel free to share any great tips you have in the comments! =)
Can’t get enough indoor plants? Check out these bullet proof plants that also clean indoor air!
And this easy to build tropical living wall from pallet wood!
Happy growing!
