african violets

i have a fascination with African violets. It started years ago when i worked at a florist during college. That florist( Kent's flowers in Fremont NE) bred african violets and had the most amazing variety i've ever seen. Last summer, right after i moved to South Dakota we visited the Central States Fair in Rapid City. At the fair we bought 4 baby african violets-they were not much more than about 2 leaves in a dixie cup each. Some folks will tell you that african voilets are touchy plants, that any little thing will kill them. If thats the case then these 4 are pretty amazing. I set them above my sink on a metal rack for several months....and dumped them into the hot saopy water on many occasions! In about December, i got tired of the dixie cups and moved these up to regular 4 in pots even though they were only up to about 3 leaves each. In late Feb, when they had maybe 4 leaves, i bought a little bitty grow light and using the timer from our Christmas lights I set up better lighting for them. Now look what i have! Of the 4, one is blooming, one will be in a week or less, I noticed a tiny bud stalk on the 3rd and I only have one puny one. If you look at the top right of the picture you can see the puny one.

The bad part of dumping them so often is they did not always end up back in the correct little labeled cup. So now i have 4 violets and no names. I know they all had either Apache or Indian in their names. Which bothers me a little but i'm hoping that the pictures can be taken to the fair this summer and the lady i bought them from will recognize them. If not, then i will just have no-name violets. And that will be just fine too!