All About African Violets: The Complete Guide to Success With Saintpaulias

Montague Free

Description

Here is Montague Free's classic work on how to succesfully propagate and care for African violets. This book provides extensive information on all aspects of growing this popular house plant. Among the book's many photographs are examples of the most popular and newest varieties of saintpaulias, as well as sequence pictures which give step-by-step directions on propagating, potting, watering, and fertilizing your plants.

Sujets

• Jardinage
• Jardin décoratif
• Gardening
• Flowers

Informations

• Publié par: Rare Treasure Editions
• Date de parution: 11 novembre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781774644744
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

All About African Violets
by Montague Free

First published in 1949
This edition published by Rare Treasures
Victoria, BC Canada with branch offices in the Czech Republic and Germany
[e-mail]
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except in the case of excerpts by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
ALL ABOUT African Violets THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO SUCCESS WITH SAINTPAULIAS
by Montague Free STAFF HORTICULTURIST THE HOME GARDEN


Saintpaulias in a strawberry jar (see Chapter V ). Varieties inflower: top, rear, Blue Boy; front, Double Blue Boy; left, LadyGeneva; center, Redhead Supreme; right, Amazon Pink abovePeriwinkle.


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FOR WINIFRED AND ROGER
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Praise and Thanksgiving
To my wife, for never fussing (well, hardly ever!) about thedisruption of our home by an influx of more than a hundredSaintpaulias and by the traipsing in and out of photographerswho, it seemed, always came on cleaning days. Her complaintsof water drips on the furniture and chicken grits andsoil on the floor were mild indeed. Actually she was bitten bythe Saintpaulia bug herself and on more than one occasion“wiped my eye” by growing better plants with bigger flowersthan mine. I supplied the soil and did the potting, though!
To Maud H. Purdy, for her exquisite and accurate watercolors of Saintpaulia flowers and leaves. Miss Purdy is anold friend of whom it has been said “she is the best botanicalartist in America.”
To the late Kenneth Steenson (of Steenson and Baker,Poughkeepsie, New York) who was responsible for almost allthe photographs that illustrate this book. He spared no pains 18 to arrive at first-class results and, in the process, became aSaintpaulia fan.
To Freeman A. Weiss, formerly Senior Pathologist of theBureau of Plant Industry, U.S.D.A., for “vetting” the materialon growing conditions and avoiding Saintpaulia troubles.
To Edward Wentink of Rose Acre Nurseries, SalisburyMills, New York, for putting the facilities of his establishmentat my disposal. He did not seem to mind in the leastwhen we interfered with the orderly running of his greenhousesin the process of making pictures of choice varieties.
To Neil C. and Mary J. Miller, for their investigation ofhome treatments against mites and nematodes; and for manyhints obtained from them in conversation.
To the African Violet Society of America, for informationgleaned from the pages of the African Violet Magazine ,and to two past presidents—Alma Wright and Myrtle Radtke—inparticular, who were most courteous and helpful in obtainingand providing some needed pictures, and in manyother ways.
M.F.
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CHAPTER I What Are African Violets?
Let us make it clear from the start that African-violets(Saintpaulias) are not true Violets (Violas). They belong inthe plant family Gesneriaceae , the most familiar members ofwhich, apart from African-violets, are Gloxinia and Cupid’sBower or Magic Flower (Achimenes). The member of thisfamily most closely approaching African-violets in generalappearance is Ramonda ( picture 1 ), a genus of about tenspecies native to the mountains of Europe.
Saintpaulia was discovered by the imperial district governorof Usambara in East Africa who sent seeds (or plants)to his father Baron Walter von St. Paul-Illaire in Germanyabout 1890. St. Paul-Illaire brought the plants to the attentionof the botanist Herman Wendland, director of the RoyalBotanie Gardens at Herrenhausen, who described the speciesand gave it the name Saintpaulia ionantha . (Actually, therewere two species in the original shipment as discussed in 22 Chapter XII .) The genus name Saintpaulia, of course, commemoratesthe family of the discoverer and introducer; thespecific name ionantha comes from the Greek, meaning “withflowers like a Violet.” Apparently Wendland was responsiblefor the use of the word “Violet” in the common name ( DasViolette Usambara ), which is rather surprising coming froma botanist. In English the common names are: UsambaraViolet, East African Violet, and African-violet; with the latterin most common usage.
While I think the name Saintpaulia should be preferredbecause it is correct, euphonious, easy to pronounce and spell,I have no unsurpassable objection to African-violet as a nameprovided the distinguishing adjective “African” is retained—bothnames are used interchangeably in this book. But latelymany people have fallen into the habit of calling Saintpauliasjust “Violets,” which is misleading, and has already resultedin wasted efforts on the part of those who, unfamiliar withthe fact that their botanical relationship is remote enough toinhibit a successful “take,” have tried to produce the elusiveyellow Saintpaulia by crossing African-violets with one ormore of the native yellow true Violets which belong in thegenus Viola .
Representatives of the genus Saintpaulia are found invaried habitats in Tanganyika Territory, the altitude in whichthey grow ranging from 30 to 150 feet above sea level in theTanga area ( S. ionantha ), to around 3,000 feet in the EastUsambara Mountains ( S. diplotricha ) and near the summit ofMt. Tongwe ( S. tongwensis ), usually rooted in humus increvices of limestone and gneiss rocks, but always in someshade, heavy or light.
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EARLY DEVELOPMENT
My first acquaintance with African-violets was about fiftyyears ago when I saw them growing under the name Saintpauliaionantha in the tropical greenhouses of the UniversityBotanic Garden of Cambridge, England, where I was employedas a gardener. At that time Saintpaulias had onlyrecently been introduced to cultivation from German EastAfrica (now Tanganyika Territory) and they were seldomseen except in botanic gardens and the plant houses of largeestates. No one, I suppose, and certainly not I, had any ideaof the popularity they were to achieve as the most widelygrown house plants in the United States. In those early daysSaintpaulia was thought to be rather delicate in constitution,needing a humid, tropical atmosphere provided by a greenhouse.Now we know it is one of the toughest and mostadaptable of plants for house culture.
Although Saintpaulias were widely grown by Europeangardeners and some few varieties were segregated, such as albescens , grandiflora , purpurea , and variegata , it was notuntil about 1926, when Armacost and Royston, a Californiafirm, introduced a number of named varieties, that they beganto come into their own. These varieties were selections fromthe plants raised from seeds received from Europe as Saintpauliaionantha . Among them were such well-known varietiesas Admiral, Amethyst, Blue Boy (the pre-eminent commercialvariety), Commodore, and Neptune, all good varieties,still holding their own in spite of modern introductions, 24 and beloved by connoisseur and beginner alike. Armacost andRoyston no longer raise Saintpaulias, but the excellence ofthose they released to the trade and the impetus given to commercialculture by their introduction are largely responsiblefor the popularity of African-violets today.
As soon as it was discovered that Saintpaulias would thrivein an ordinary dwelling, even under the care of the veriesttyro, the interest in them increased to an amazing extent sothat it is now easily the most popular house plant, beinggrown for sale by the hundred thousand by commercialflorists and to a lesser extent by “semi-pros.” Hundreds ofdistinct varieties are now available to tease the palate of thecollector, and the end is nowhere in sight. But enough ofspecies and varieties for now—they will be discussed morefully in the last chapter.
It is not necessary to scurry around and invent reasons forSaintpaulias’ phenomenal rise in favor. The charm of theirflowers and, in the case of some of the modern varieties, thebeauty and distinction of their foliage are enough to endearthem. There is a wide color range in the flowers, from whitethrough pale “blue” to deep purple, and from pink to almostred. The flower size varies according to variety, culture, ageof plant, and season—from the 1-inch flowers of a poorlygrown Viking to 2½ inches or more of a well-grown Du PontLavender Pink. There is just as much variety in their leafcharacters: some are long and narrow, as in the curiouslynamed Blue Longifolia Crenulate; others are almost orbicular,as in the Du Pont series. Some are flat; others have theiredges turned up so that they are said to be “spooned”; stillother varieties, just to be contrary, turn their leaf margins 25 downward; and occasionally both types may be found on oneplant. In many of the varieties the veins are much depressed,giving the leaf a quilted appearance, and in some (Old Laceis an example) this is so pronounced that the leaf is pleasantlyblistered; and in Blue Pet the leaves are fluted. The leafmargins, especially on the young leaves, are toothed, but theteeth may disappear with age even as they do in humans;sometimes they are deeply scalloped, or even lobed, and insome varieties they are waved or ruffled. In color they maybe pale green, deep green, or bronzed on the upper surface;and the underside may be silvery white, flushed with rose, orcabbage red. In the Girl series the leaves of certain varietiesremind one of those of a Zonal Geranium, with a coloredblotch at the junction of blade and petiole which may becreamy white, pinkish, or bronze.
One could slightly paraphrase Shakespeare and say: “agedoth not wither them nor custom stale their infinite variety.”This applies not only to the group as a whole but also to individualplants whose mutability in the case of some varietiesseems to be almost unlimited. A plant just beginning to bloommay present an entirely different aspect as it ages. Often itstarts off with flowers held erect in the center of the crown;as the days pass new leaves develop, the flowers continue tounfold on the