The Violet Hospital

For some time I’ve had African Violet leaves potted and in the birthing room.  Of course, these leaves put up babies that have to be dealt with.  This morning I opened the operating room and birthing room — the action began.  What a mess!

The Hospital

Our  eldest had brought two patients that really did need some help and this caused yet another problem — pots.  One plant was very overgrown with a very large and old stem  — it had to have a larger pot.  I had a pot that belonged to Daughter, but it had a Christmas Cactus growing in it.  I had a pot I could put the cactus in, but it had a Philodendron growing in it.  John came to the rescue and found a pot I could use for the Philodendron.  That’s where I started — washing pots came into play here, too.  I repotted the Philodendron and Christmas Cactus and then pruned the roots of the overgrown violet and got it in the pot.  Plant # 2 had multiple crowns and it took major surgery.  Here’s where the patience is called on.  This little plant had three crowns and the weak leaves were interlaced and had to worked apart — much like a jigsaw puzzle.  These babies are weak.

Operating Room

Following all this I took my leaves out of their pots and separated the new babies putting them in their own pots.  I have at least two plants in ICU and I’m not sure whether they’ll make it or not, but others show promise.  However, I have them all in the recovery area for close attention.

Clean up is probably the worst job of all and by that time I’m worn out and need a little rest.  I hated to discard all those leaves, but I don’t need more violets — I believe there’s more than 20 here on the sun porch now.  Everybody who visits carries home a violet — if I can talk them into it.

There are still four leaves in the birthing room.  In a few weeks I’ll be going through all this again and I ask myself, “Why?”   Because I enjoy gardening, I suppose — I enjoy having my hands in the soil and then enjoy the fruits of my labor.  This, too, is one of the pleasures of country living.

The Recovery Room