I'm not sure how long I've had this african violet but it sure showed its true colours outside, this summer.
It has been posted in the photos forum and some members asked me to post it here
AV spending summer oudoors
That is absolutely gorgeous! Do you summer alot of your av's outdoors?That one sure seems to like it .Thanks for sharing : )
Nancy
Here is Joan6aON's original post on the Houseplant forum of her lovely violets.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/766241/
Thanks for posting here on the gesneriad forum.
Thanks Snow..I totally missed that : )
Isn't that a beautiful bloom? I love fantasy!
They are wonderful..............how hot are your summers..........can't stand to not know..........mine would wilt within an hour even in the shade on the front porch..................I lived in Ruidoso, NM for 11 years in zone 6 and the summer temps stayed around 74 during the noon of the day and then dropped in the late afternoons to the 50's at night..........
Our summers get to 32° celcius which would be about 98° fahrenheit, although it can get to feel hotter with the humidity. The night temps can vary but are usually a bit cooler than through the day. I would be tempted to put one AV outside and see what happens as I think they can take a lot of heat.
I can't I promise..............our weather never ever got over 80 at the max during the summers..............I have babied and pampered these..............(that I do have).............. I might go to Wally world and buy one just to see what happens to it..................a trial run............
Gail, are you talking about getting a "test" one to plant in the ground outdoors??
I have some noid AV babies in my Florida room and it is very hot and humid in there but I have a small fan moving the air around. I am surprised any of those leaves with babies are still alive, but so far they seem to be doing ok ... and it's in the high 80's to low 90's in that room every day ... only windows that open are on one side and there is absolutely no air movement except for that little fan. I wonder if I bring those leaves & babies inside if they will die from the shock of air conditioning?
not to plant in the ground, Lin..................just to put on the shady part of the front porch.......it gets a breeze all the time even if it is real hot outside.................I can't stand to make a test plant out of one I have....................might pick up a noid somewhere and just see.................I may start with getting a thermometer out there (LOL)
I bet they would do fine Gail..It gets really hot here during the summer.I have a few on a stand on my east patio right next to the house east sun for a few hours in the morning then the rest of the day bright shade.They seem to love it.The reason I stuck them out there in the first place is because they weren't doing well inside so I figured they were probably going to die on me anyway so why not?LOL I stuck them out there and basically forgot about them.Other than to give them water there for awhile when we were so dry,then natures watering took over...They have grown alot and I had a anna belle that always looked blah,Tall as a tree,never bloomed,its out there and blooming like crazy and has even flattened out so it looks like a av should .No fooling! Mother nature really is good for them I think.Now that they are all looking good out there,I know I will need to bring them in for the winter but now..how do I do that... and make sure no cooties come in with them? I think they will all go on a stand in the basement over the winter far..far..away from my others!
Here is anna belle,the one I was telling you about.Shes been out there since may.I wish I would have taken a before pic so you could see how leggy and blah she was before..Don't mind the bird seed fetz.The stand is very close to a window feeder,,lol
Ok .... Cedar convinced me ... I'm moving Annabelle outside tomorrow!! I just can't get over how tall that one grows and it looks really weird!
hee hee ... I never thought about bringing in "cooties" with the plants but that's something I ought to think about! It could easily happen. Years ago I moved a ficus benjamina from the bedroom out to the back patio when it was raining. Two days later I brought it back into the bedroom. Got up for work one morning, walked around the bed to the bathroom, came back around the bed and hubby heard me screaming from the kitchen ... he thought I was having a nightmare! There was a very long black snake on the floor! I was jumping all over the bed screaming my lungs out! Long story short .... I've never taken anything out to get rained on again and brought it back in before thorough, and I do mean thorough inspection!
Here's one of my Annabelle's that I took today ... you can see how tall it is.
and a view from the side .... look at those long, long leaf stems!
OMG Lin.I am laughing so hard at your story my side hurts.I'm sure it wasn't funny at the time for you but I just can't help it.Picturing you doing the snake dance..lol..I will definitely do a thorough inspection before I bring them in..or maybe just to be on the safe side I will ask hubby too do it : )
Cedar: Your Annabelle looks sooo pretty. I sure hope I can get mine to end up looking like that, like an AV is supposed to!
Isabelle is getting tall too ... really weird! I am going to try moving them out front tomorrow - the east side of the house. My Hoya's and Lipstick plants thrive out there so maybe the AV's would like that location too!
Goodness lin,That is as leggy as the one I have inside on a stand.I swear it grows straight up in the air,It measures a whopping 9 inches tall now not including the pot.I wonder WHY they grow like that?
OK Now I really better get off of here.Hubby is finally ready for us to leave for the weekend.He told me to be ready 2 hours ago and he is still in there primping..lol..Now he sounds serious..be back Monday..Have a Great Holiday Weekend Everyone: )
Nancy
Yep ... it's kinda funny now, but it sure wasn't at the time it happened @ 25 years ago! I am soooo afraid of snakes! Gives me the creeps just thinking about them! I would never kill one on purpose, I know they are God's creatures too. Last year I was mowing the lawn and ran over one, poor fella .... I felt so bad, really! I have a riding mower and never saw the thing in the grass. This past spring I came across a Coral Snake in the back yard when I was weeding a flower bed ... now that one really had me shaking, scared the bejeebies outta me! The coral snake is deadly .... very poisonous! I got the shovel and tried to kill it, but it buried itself in the mulch. I went in and when hubby got home, he went looking for it and never found it! A couple of weeks later my backyard neighbor said one of her sons killed one in her backyard! A few weeks after that my hubby found one in our driveway .... he called me out to our back driveway asking me "What color did you say the coral snake's head is?" I said if the first color on the head is black it's the coral snake. He still wasn't sure and didn't want to kill it ... so I went in and got the color photo's of the coral snake and the king snake so he could see .... it was another coral snake so he took the shovel to it. Sometimes black snakes have gotten up through the wood deck and our cats are out there day and night so I sure didn't want that poisonous snake to get ahold of one of the cats! Or me! Hubby says at least it's not the striking kind of snake like the rattler's, the coral snake just sinks his fangs into you and chews away, not letting go ... just keeps injecting that venom! I just do not like snakes. After the hurricanes of 2004 our next door neighbors were taking the boards off their windows and found two pygmy rattle snakes between the boards and their window! They were able to kill one but the other got away! Those are very poisonous too.
oooooh .... enough about snakes, I'm sitting here feeling the creepy crawlies while thinking about them!
You have a great weekend too! We are not going anywhere. I hate to travel on holiday weekends!
Here she goes outside.................please wish her well as I will do for yours.............
Godspeed little AV!! Enjoy your time in the sun (so to speak.)
Gail, I am like you .... I adore some of the named AV's but I really, really LOVE some of the Noids too!
I just love that "Godspeed litle AV".........(LOL)
Lin,
Thanks for the laugh. Not funny I know. I hate snakes. And spiders too. I scream when I have a spider in the house. My twin sis put one of her snakes in front of me and I almost left her house. Not for me.
Laura
Oh Laura ... your twin? One of you likes snakes and the other doesn't?! You are the "Good" twin! LOL.
I don't like spiders either but at least I can keep a can of bug spray for them .... and point and shoot.
gessiegail, good luck with your AV, and keep us posted please. Contrary to popular belief you can mist them when outside and this should help with the heat.
Let's not forget that African Violets in the wild live outdoors. :)
She has lovely colours and future flowwers should be more vivid.
Here's the same AV that I started off this thread with, taken during the winter.
This concept is simply amazing to me................am very excited about trying it............yours are just too pretty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the tip about misting but our humidity generally stays above 80 or 90 percent...........
Hard to believe that is the same plant with such a huge color change! Can't wait to try this next year. Wish I had found out about this earlier this year! Very pretty!
I am going to put out some more AVs today on the front porch...............I think they will be happy and give me some more growing space....................