African Violet

For years I have wanted an African Violet.  For some reason or another I have never bought one.  

Nowhere around here seems to sell them.  I thought about buying leaf cuttings, but only one place seems to sell them and they have minimum purchase numbers.  Also, I don't know how well I would go at growing them from a leaf cutting.

My daughter saw African violets on the internet and really wanted one.  Her birthday was coming up, so I looked on gumtree and found someone selling African violets locally.  

I went over to buy one and none of them were in bloom, most were very small plants.  I think this person had bought leaf cuttings and grew them out for sale.  

I still got one, but my daughter doesn't want a plant, she wants flowers.  I doubt this thing will be ready to flower for a long time, so rather than give it to my daughter ended up keeping it myself.  My daughter's birthday has been and gone, and the plant has not really grown, so I made the right choice not to give this to her.

Hopefully I can keep this African violet alive, and hopefully it flowers for me when it is large enough.  If it flowers maybe I can give it to my daughter then.

African violet in self watering pot

African Violet - too small to flower yet

I got this plant in May, as of January 6 it started flowering.  Which means it would not have made a good birthday present for a little girl, and I am glad I grew it out rather than giving it to my daughter.  

I'm not sure if I would call this 'light blue' but I still like it.

African Violet in bloom