This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Re: INDOOR-GARDENING digest 562

Hello Dee,

African Violets need much light to bloom. If you can give them about 10-14 hours
of indirect sunlight combined with artificial light a day, yours should be in
bloom almost all year. Mine get about 8-10 hours of light and they bloom all the
time with very short resting periods. The secret is in the light. As for x-mas
cactus, it is now supposed to be coming out of its resting period. From about
febuary till now, you should have watered it very little and kept it on the dry
side. Now you should start watering it more, when the compost fells dry, water.
In mid-june, it would benefit from a stay outside till september. You can also
keep it inside in a brightly lit spot (some sunlight is fine). In
September-October, start keeping it dry and cool again until flower buds form.
You can also give it less hours of light each day by covering it with a garbage
bag or something else so that it gets about 5-6 hours of light only. When the
buds appear, start watering normaly and bring up the temp to a minimum of 55F.
After flowering, start the whole thing over again. My aunt has a x-mas cactus
that flowers twice a year and she doesn't have to go through all those periods. I
have to do the period thing for mine to flower. Perhaps you can just do the
dry-ish cool conditions combined with less light in september instead of going
about the whole system. I know that last period is the most important one.
Especially that low light thing. Hope this helps.
helga

Dee2540 wrote:

>      I have an african violet which has just been recently purchased.  It was
> in full bloom.  How do you keep the violet in bloom.  I have never had much
> luck in getting a second bloom.  Also my Christmas cactus has not bloomed for
> Christmas or Easter.  What am I doing wrong??   Thanks Dee
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index