Under a Blue Moon

We are coming up on the six year anniversary of living in our house in lovely old town Livermore.  We fell in love with the wide streets, the older homes and the proximity to the charming down town area.

One thing we always wanted was a crab apple tree in our front yard.  Just before we got the notion to sell our last home we redid the front landscaping and one of the features was a crab apple tree.  It was just a sapling so we never go to see it grow and blossom.

We first saw our current house in the doldrums of February.  All the trees were still leafless and all the roses were slumbering.  What we didn’t realize at the time was there was/is a magnificent crab apple tree right in the middle of our front lawn.  It wasn’t until it started blooming that we realized it.  What a bonus!  It has a beautiful shape and blossoms beautifully late in April.

Right down the street from us someone has planted a bower  of crab apple trees that creates a fabulous tunnel over the sidewalk.

There are 16 trees in total and every year, around this time, I start driving along that particular street to see if they are blooming yet.  For some reason everyone else’s crab apple trees bloom way earlier than ours.  I’m not sure why that is.

But while I wait for our tree I get to enjoy this gorgeous display.

It’s just one of the many charming features of our neighborhood.

I have always had a fondness for African violets.  When Rick and I were first married my mother in law gave me one in a giant champagne coupe (it was the 80’s…) and I have had one or more ever since.

I have one now that was in desperate need of repotting.  This particular one is over a decade old.  I have repotted it in the past but had let too many years go by this time around.  Did you know you should actually repot African violets every six months or so?  A year at a maximum.  What happens is they lose their leaves from the bottom up and develop long “necks.”

Mine did an interesting thing about a year ago.  It bifurcated!  That is one violet in a single pot above.  I’ve never had an African violet do that before.   I keep this violet on a shelf on one side of my kitchen window where it is very happy.  It blooms constantly.  I had a matching one on the shelf on the opposite side of the window and it up and died.   I think the soil was compacted and the roots just couldn’t breathe properly.

Look how long those “necks” are!  Terrible!  I really should have repotted this ages ago.

Both necks are really curved which complicates the repotting.  First of all, African violets don’t like a lot of room for their roots so you don’t want to repot them to a much larger pot.  You can go up a little bit, but not much.  You’ll need to bury the neck so that its lowest row of leaves is level with the pot rim.  Add potting soil, up to the pot rim, covering the neck.  The neck will produce new roots into the added soil.  To make it all fit you may need to cut the bottom off of the root ball.

In my situation I wanted to separate the two halves of the violet.

Yep.  I pretty much just cut it in half.

I had a couple of pots that are just a bit bigger than the original plastic nursery pot it was in.  I cut out a couple of circles of needlepoint canvas to put in the bottom of the pots to keep the soil from washing out every time I water.  I would have preferred window screening but didn’t have any on hand.

See – just plop it in the bottom of the pot.

I placed a half of the original violet into each pot and carefully added soil all around, gently pushing it down.  You don’t want to compact it but keep in mind the soil will settle once it is watered.

Speaking of watering…I like to water African violets from the bottom.  I’ll place the pot into a container that has about a half inch of water.  Since the soil was fresh from the bag it was rather dry so I watered from the top too.   I let it sit in its water bath for about 15 minutes.

Now I have a violet on each side of the window again.  Not only will I rotate them regularly but I’ll also have them swap sides now and then so they both get the same amount and type of light.

A few last thoughts.  I just use regular house plant potting soil.  I know you can buy specialty soil that is specific to African violets but I’ve always had good luck with the regular old stuff.  There is a picture of an African violet on the bag so I figure it must be okay.  I generally water once a week unless they are looking droopy.  As for light I keep them in a bright spot, with indirect sun and they reward me with flowers pretty much year round.