African Violet New Hampshire

I like African violets (Streptocarpus ionanthus previously called Saintpaulia ionantha).  They used to be very common houseplants, but like many old things they are becoming rarer.  Some of the older varieties are not particularly great, and many of the newer varieties are vastly superior in a number of ways. 

African violets are perennial plants that can live virtually forever.  I hear of a lot of African violets that are 20 to 30 years old and being grown by someone's mother or grandmother.  I got my first African violet in May 2021, I had never grown one before I got it and didn't really know what I was doing, yet it is still growing strong. 

I also have a variety of African violet called "New Hampshire".   I got this variety as a leaf in July/August 2023.  I had never grown an African violet from a leaf cutting at that stage, and I was hesitant to try, but it all went well. 

New Hampshire is a relatively newly bred variety.  I believe it may be one of the 'optimara' African violets.  These were developed to be compact plants that are simple to grow and produce abundant flowers. 

This is a great variety that is well suited to beginner growers as it grows so easily and performs so well. 

New Hampshire African Violet

New Hampshire is a small and rather compact plant, making it great for small spaces.  

While massive African violet plants do look incredible, I don't have enough space to grow them.  Even if I had space, I would much prefer several smaller plants rather than one larger one.  I have never even seen a trailing African violet, I assume they would be a bit of a hassle to manage and think I prefer these smaller compact plants.  

Plants stay small

African violet New Hampshire produces a lot of flowers

This variety of African violet produces a huge number of flowers.  It can produce a lot of flowers on each stalk, and it produces a good number of stalks.  Sometimes there are more flowers than leaves!  It produces flowers for many months of the year.  

My house gets very cold in winter, and hot in summer, plus I don't fertilise these often.  I don't know the best way to do this, but I give them a little liquid from my worm farm every now and again as fertiliser, and this seems to encourage a new flush of flowers.  I am sure you could buy African violet fertiliser, and that would probably work better, but worm farm leachate is free and does a good job for me.

If I fertilised properly, or my house was not so cold in winter and hot in summer, I think this could flower continuously all year. 

The colour of the flowers is beautiful, and the flowers are mostly single.  I say 'mostly' as it does throw the occasional semi-double flower from time to time.  Flowers produced by young plants are usually smaller and produced in good numbers, while older plants produce larger flowers and more of them.  The flower colour is always rather intense, my photos do not do it justice. 

Flowers are held in clumps above the foliage

This variety stays small

The flowers are on long stalks, and held high above the foliage.  If you wanted you could cut them and place them in a small vase. 

The flowers are a lovely colour, and are relatively large.  Flowers start out small, and get larger as they get older.  On average the flowers reach about 4-5cm across. 

The plant itself grows pretty fast, and is forgiving of less than ideal conditions.  I don't know the best way to grow African violets, and can only comment on what works for me.  

I grow mine in potting soil mixed with perlite, and I grow most in self watering wicking pots.  I have a few others in just pots (of potting mix and perlite) that I water by hand.  They both do equally well, but the wicking pots are far less work.  

Even small plants are quite floriforous

Another thing I like about this variety is how vigorous it is.  This plant has a desire to survive.  

I was always told how finicky African violets are, and how tricky they are to grow, but I have never found this to be the case with any variety I have tried.  While all of the African violets I have grown have been simple to grow, this variety is one of the easiest.  This variety propagates easily, grows fast, and flowers like mad.  

Sometimes this variety produces suckers.  I know this is not a desirable trait if you are showing them, but for the home grower it is great.  Once the baby suckers reach a good size, I cut them off, and plant them in soil.  The mother plant continues flowering, and the divided suckers produce new plants. 

Some flowers semi-double, most are single

Many African violets propagate easily by leaf cuttings, while some varieties are far more reluctant than others.  I am happy to say this variety is one of my simplest to grow from leaf cuttings.  

I only propagate African violet leaves in a small pot of soil.  For me these generally grow 3 or 4 leaf babies per leaf, and they go from leaf to flowering size plant reasonably quickly if I divide them.  

Other people propagate African violet leaves in water and have great success, but for unknown reasons this has never worked for me.  

I love the colour if its flowers

This variety is one of the few that will produce viable seed for me.  I hand pollinate flowers, and they take a few months to develop seed pods.  The seeds are tiny, and need light if they are to germinate.

I have a few other varieties that will not produce seeds no matter what I have tried.  If they have traits I want to breed with I could use those varieties as the pollen parent, and New Hampshire as the seed parent.  

Flowers start small, and get larger as they age

African violet seeds are tiny, and are produced in their hundreds.  Every seed grown African violet, even self-pollinated ones, are genetically unique.  Growing them from seed is a bit fiddly, and the results are unpredictable, so I understand why few people attempt this. 

Growing an African violet from seed to a mature flowering plant takes about the same amount of time as growing from leaf cutting to flowering.  When growing from a leaf cutting I am pretty much guaranteed to get genetic clones (unless I have a chimera, which is a lengthy topic for another time), when growing from seed there is a lot of diversity among the plants.  

Under good conditions, this variety of African violet usually takes 2 or 3 months from planting the leaf until I see tiny leaf babies.  From there is is another 2 to 3 months before they are flowering.  If I over crowd them, or it is winter and super cold, then it can take a lot longer.  

New Hampshire is a great variety of African violet that is well suited as a gift as it would grow well for beginners.  It is easy to succeed with this variety as it is so vigorous, and produces so many flowers for months on end, and the flower colour is impressive.  It is also small so it is easier to find a small spot on a window sill to grow this. 

If you grow house plants, African violets are worth considering.  I sometimes sell extra African violet plants, but at this stage they are only for local pick up at the moment.  I may post plants at some stage in the future.  I do sell leaf cuttings of  African violets through my for sale page as leaves easily survive being posted.  I may also be interested in doing a leaf swap with someone if they had another nice variety.  

Small plant producing blooms

African violet - small and cute plants