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

African violet light blue

The first African violet I got was an unnamed variety that was called "light blue".  The plant was small and appeared to be light starved when I got it, and at the time I had never grown one.  It was in a self watering pot with a wick, which made it easy for a beginner to grow.  

African violet light blue

The flowers are double and large, on average they are roughly 5 to 6 cm across.  They are somewhat ruffled (I don't know the correct term for this). 

The colour is said to be light blue, which they kind of are.  I am told there are not many true blue flowers, most are sort of purple, and this flower probably fits into that category.  The flowers also sometimes get little splashes of pink on them, which I like.  

You will see the colour varies a bit in my photos, this is mostly due to the camera picking up the colour slightly differently.  In real life the colour is pretty consistent.  I like the colour of this variety, I think it is pretty.

This variety of African violet is a larger grower, reaching about 7 inches across.  While I don't go to African violet shows and am not really across the terminology, I think it would be considered to be 'standard'.  

The leaves can be large, the leaf stems (petioles) can be relatively long even under good light.  

Photos of two of my plants are below next to a tape measure.  While they can be a little more compact than this under higher light, this gives you an idea of their size.  Those plants are not yet flowering, but they have buds and should bloom not too long from here.

I am not a huge fan of the larger African violet varieties.  Larger African violet plants certainly look incredible, the thing I don't love is how much space they need, and how little space I have.  

I don't have a lot of room to grow these.  The space I need to grow two standard sized African violets I could grow three or four smaller varieties.  

That being said, a large African violet in full bloom is an incredible sight.  For this reason I will probably always have a few larger varieties.  

African violet comparison - large vs small

Same plants, different light, the photos don't exactly capture the colour

For me this plant is a little slow growing.  It isn't painfully slow like some other varieties, but it is not one of the faster growing varieties.  I am told by people who know a lot more than I do about African violet growing that larger flowers and double flowers use a lot of energy, and can result in slower growing plants.  

As well as being slower growing, I also find this plant slower to propagate.  Some other varieties send up half a dozen leaf babies each time I plant a leaf cutting, this variety seems to put up 3 leaf babies for me on average, sometimes I only get one plant.  The up side of this is the leaf babies from this variety are always very strong. 

Once a cutting does strike, they are incredibly simple to grow, they just take a little extra time to reach a flowering size plant.  Other people may have better luck as I don't give them ideal conditions.  

For me this variety has never produced seed.  I have attempted to self pollinate, and I have tried to cross pollinate, but each time the flower grows old and aborts.  I had one seed pod produced once, I was planning on letting it ripen but I absent mindedly cut it off before the seeds were fully formed.  I regret that, but I may get another seed pod some day, and hopefully I remember to protect that.

I have been able to use this as the pollen parent and cross pollinate other varieties.  I think this variety is lovely, and has some interesting traits, so should be able to use it to create something special in the future.

I don't have a huge number of house plants as I don't have a lot of space.  I sometimes grow some African violets outside under cover, but have to bring them indoors over winter as it gets too frosty here.  This light blue variety seems pretty hardy, it has survived some pretty harsh conditions when I forgot to bring it inside on frosty nights and during heatwaves.  While it will survive harsh conditions, they perform far better if looked after properly.  

Sometimes I sell African violet plants locally, at this stage I don't post them but this may change in the future.  I do sell African violet leaf cuttings through my for sale page, I am happy to post these.  At this stage I don't have many varieties available, but hope to increase my range as I get a few more nice varieties.  I would also consider a leaf swap if someone has a another nice variety. 

Replanting African violet mother leaf multiple times

African violets are often reasonably simple to propagate.  Most people have great success rooting an African violet leaf in water, it is meant to be very simple, yet for some reason I have zero success when using this method.  

Other people cut off a leaf, wrap the petiole in damp paper towel, and propagate new plants that way.  That sounds easy, but I haven't tried it myself.  

I take a leaf cutting, plant it in soil, and usually end up with 3 or 4 leaf babies after about 3 months.  For me this method has been largely successful, and the majority of leaves I try tend to work.

Often when planting a leaf cutting, the mother leaf will produce some baby plants, then I normally leave them until the mother leaf dies and then separate off the baby plants.  Often the mother leaf looks alive and healthy for a very long time. 

I started to wonder if I could replant the mother leaf.  If I cut it off just above where it attaches to the baby plants, could I replant it and get a second set of leaf babies?  I thought I could, so I gave it a try.  

Light Blue African Violet getting old

I have an African violet with sentimental value that I have had for a few years.  Rather than risk losing this plant to some mishap, I decided to propagate a leaf.  

I planted a leaf on 03/12/2023, in March 2024 it produced three plantlets.  Taking about 3 months to produce leaf babies is pretty common, sometimes a bit faster, sometimes much slower.  

I left the leaf babies to grow out for far too long, they had competition, no fertiliser, and were in a small pot so did not reach their potential.  I divided them 12/01/2025.  This variety is a slow grower, so the timeframe to being large enough to divide are rather long, other varieties seem to grow a lot faster.

Three plants divided and mother leaf replanted 12 January

When I divided the baby plants the mother leaf looked old and shabby, one part of the leaf blade was dead, but the leaf was clearly still alive.  I replanted the mother leaf on 12/01/2025 (about a year after first planting the leaf) to see if it would give me any more leaf babies.  

The mother leaf, and all three of the leaf babies, were planted in the same pot.  You can see a photo of them above.  

The mother leaf produced its second set of leaf babies 18/04/2025, which was about about 3 months from cutting off and re-planting the mother leaf.  It seems to have produced only one or maybe two baby plants, if you squint you may be able to see them in the photo below.   

I left the leaf babies to grow a little larger before trying to remove and replant the mother leaf another time.  

The leaf was already about a year and a half old by this time, and the weather was getting cooler, so I didn't get a third set of leaf babies out of this leaf.  Had the leaf been younger (rather than leaving it attached to the babies for so long before trying this) I think I would have probably got a third set of leaf babies from it.  

Mother leaf sprouting second set of leaf babies 

The same baby plants from above 

This has shown me it is possible to get a second set of leaf babies from an African violet mother leaf.  

I thought it may be possible to get a third set of leaf babies, or even more if the mother leaf is healthy.  I also wondered if you get less leaf babies each planting as the leaf gets older.  

No one seems to talk about this, so I need to give it a try and find out for myself.  People don't need a lot of plants of the same variety, so probably don't try this/record it/bother to tell anyone.  

I tend to grow rarer things, and like to share them around, so for me it would be good to know how many sets of babies I can get from one leaf cutting.  

All of these were divided from the same pot - far too crowded

Again I used the light blue flowered African violet.  I planted a new leaf on 27/01/2025 (along with a few leaves of another variety).  

This mother leaf produced its first set baby plantlets on 19/03/2025 - which is day 72 (about two months).  Normally it takes me about 3 months to produce leaf babies, but it varies a bit, I think the weather has a lot to do with it.   

I allowed the leaf babies to grow, but not get very large.  I then cut off and replanted the mother leaf 06/04/2025.  The leaf babies survived the mother leaf being removed so were clearly large enough.  

The leaf babies possibly grew slower after the mother leaf is removed as they were not drawing any energy from the larger leaf, or maybe it makes no noticeable difference, I don't know yet.  

The second set of baby leaves was noticed 06/07/2025.  This was about three months after the mother leaf had been cut and replanted.  It was winter here in July, so the second set of baby leaves grew very slow.

The babies grew slow at the start, and I somewhat forgot about them.  This leaf was cut off again and replanted 23/11/2025.

The mother leaf was looking great, until I went away in December.  I think I bumped it out of the pot while moving things around, when I got back home the leaf was out of the soil and had dried off badly.  I replanted it but it was too late, and the leaf died.  I think it would have produced a third set of leaf babies had it not bee knocked out of the soil. 

African Violet leaf babies sprouting - too early to remove the mother leaf

Same pot. Mother leaf (on right) cut off and replanted further back

The leaf babies survived the mother leaf being removed

The other two leaves in that pot were from another African violet variety, as you can see in the photo above they also produced leaf babies.  This variety is called New Hampshire, and for me it is simple to propagate and goes from leaf cutting to flower much faster than the light blue one.  

I figured I would like to learn more about re-using an African violet mother leaf so cut off and replanted both of those mother leaves.

The New Hampshire mother leaf was first planted 27/01/2025, produced its first leaf babies and was cut off and replanted 03/05/2025.  

All mother leaves produced leaf babies, were replanted, and produced more

These leaves sat over winter and didn't do a lot as it is too cold in my house for them.  Spring came and I had largely forgot about them.  They had produced a second set of leaf babies in this time.  They were relatively large before I even noticed them.  

Early November 2025 I cut off the New Hampshire mother leaf and replanted it.  Late December it produced its third set of leaf babies.  This variety is very vigorous, and tends to propagate faster and more easily than many other African violet varieties. 

Once the leaf babies get larger I will cut the mother leaf off again, and see if I can replant it to get another set or two out of it.  

More flowers than leaves - this variety is incredible

All of this has shown me that African violets are simple to grow from leaf cuttings, and a single leaf can produce leaf babies reasonably easily several times before it grows too old.  I am not sure how many times a mother leaf can be reused, but three times has worked for me pretty easily.

I don't use rooting hormone, or humidity domes, or bottom heat, or supplemental lighting.  I just plant the African violet leaf, keep it in bright indirect light, and water it from time to time.  If I used hormones and humidity and all the other things this would probably work a lot better, but I don't have the time or money do do that, and my simple way of doing things is working fine.

Various African violets

I tend to get 3 or 4 leaf babies from the mother leaf each time, and from what I have seen the mother leaf produces slightly fewer leaf babies after being reused.  Given the low number of times I have tried reusing a mother leaf, this could just be coincidence.  Even if it is not a coincidence and I am getting lower numbers with repeated replanting of the same leaf, getting a single extra plant would be worth it if the variety is rare or holds sentimental value.  

I sell African violet leaves through my for sale page, and sometimes I sell flowering size African violet plants.  I only have a few varieties at the moment, but am looking to expand my collection a little and expect to have a few more varieties to add to that page soon.  

African violet leaf damage

I have always heard that people tend to water African violets from underneath.  The reason is that any water that splashes on the leaf may make spots.  

Watering African violets from underneath to prevent spots is good advice that is given to people who are new to African violets.  Strangely enough, I have never seen a photo of these spotty leaves.  If you are new to African violets you probably want to see the thing you are trying to avoid - I know I do.  The first time I saw it was when one of my plants was damaged.  I thought I would share this so other new growers know what people are talking about. 

I have some African violets growing outside.  They are under shelter and get an hour or so of direct sun at sunrise, then bright shade the rest of the day.  I find they grow very fast out there over the warmer months, partly because of the lighting, and partly because it gets rather warm.  I think the air movement in the spot I have them is good for them.  

One afternoon we had a storm.  Normally I bring the tray of African violets inside when there is a storm, but this time I didn't.  Some water splashed on the leaves.  Not long after that the damage became very noticeable.  

African violet spotty leaf

The damage is pretty noticeable

There is no way to fix the damaged leaf.  Once it is damaged, it stays damaged.  That is why people tend to water African violets from below.  When watering from below they don't accidentally splash a leaf and cause spots.  Makes sense to me.  

You could cut off the damaged leaf, or you could leave it on the plant.  If you remove the leaf you can plant it and use it to grow new plants, so all is not lost.  If you decide to leave it, it does not get better, the spots don't go away, but it doesn't take too long before the plant produces new leaves and you forget where the damaged ones are.  

The photo below is of the same pot not too long after the above photos were taken.  The spotty leaves are still there, but new leaves have grown and cover them.

The same plant, the spotty leaf is there somewhere

The same plant, the spotty leaf is lower/middle of the photo

Given these are ornamental plants, I want them to look nice.  I do not like the look of the spotty leaves.  Vegetables can be as ugly as they want as long as they are tasty.  Plants with fragrant flowers can be somewhat ugly if they smell nice.  African violets only have their looks, so I do not want them to have spotty leaves.  

So now I know what happens when cold water splashes on African violet leaves.  I now know what it looks like, I know that I don't like the look of it, and I know once the damage is done it never fixes itself.  

I grow some African violets in wicking self-watering pots.  These are simple to use and prevent any spots on the leaves.  I grow cuttings and seedlings in pots that are not wicking, so I will either have to be careful not to splash water on the leaves, or try to water from underneath.  

African violet leaf propagation in water

I grow a few African violets, I think they are nice little plants.  I tend to propagate them by leaf cuttings, and sometimes seeds or even flower stalks, and I usually have good success. 

I propagate them by planting a leaf in soil, and it tends to produce several leaf babies.  I don't use heat, or grow lights, or humidity domes, or hormones, or anything special.  I just cut it off, plant it, treat it like the parent plant, and it produces a few baby plants (albeit slowly).  

I keep hearing how simple African violets are to propagate by putting a leaf in water.  There are plenty of photos of this on the internet which make it look very simple and possibly faster than in soil. 

Growing African violets by putting a leaf in water is simple - yet for some unknown reason I can't do it! 

I propagated all these African violets

Propagating African violets is simple but takes me months, quite often longer than everyone says it should.  If propagating in water is faster I would like to do that.  Water propagation would also take less space than soil.  I can see a few benefits of this method. 

I have one variety that is reluctant to propagate, each time I attempted to propagate its leaf in water it rots.  I have another variety that is far more vigorous and propagates more easily, I figured this would be the one to try in water.  

I put a leaf in water in March 2024.  I set this on the kitchen windowsill next to the parent plant.  I top this up with water when it starts to get lower, and never let it run dry.  

This leaf has not produced any roots, it has not produced any leaf babies, and as of April 2025 it is still alive even though it hasn't really done much.  That is 12 months of sitting in water.  

I have no idea what I am doing wrong.  All the plants in the photos above are from leaf cuttings I grew by planting it in soil.  They are all the same variety as my water attempt, it is a vigorous and simple to grow variety.  I don't understand why I can't propagate them in water. 

Leaf cutting after 12 months

The cut end of the petiole started to callus, which I thought was a good sign, but has done nothing since then.  

I started to wonder if it was too hot or too cold in my house, or if the humidity was wrong.  I don't think that is the issue because plants grow well and leaf cuttings that are planted in soil all work.  

Also, given that this has been here for a year, it should have been through the correct temperature range at some stage.  

12 months, no roots, no leaf babies

The leaf itself still looks alive.  Perhaps it does not look as healthy as it did 12 months ago, but it is still firm and green.

You can see the mother plant in the background, it is blooming happily so the conditions can't be too bad.  If the mother plant has enough sunlight to bloom this well, the leaf cutting should have enough light to grow leaf babies.  If there wasn't enough light, or if there was too much direct light, the leaf should have died by now.  It is a mystery to me.

Leaf still looks healthy enough

While certainly not perfect, I don't think the conditions are too bad where this leaf is situated.  The mother plant is growing right next to this leaf, it blooms for months on end and generally looks great.  

To add to the mystery, more recently I took two leaf cuttings of the mother plant (and one from another plant) and have them in a pot of soil beside the leaf in water.  

I planted those leaves 27 January 2025, the first leaf babies popped up on 19 March 2025, about two months later.  During those two months the leaf in water sat there and didn't appear to change. 

African violet leaf cuttings in soil work well for me

I have no idea what I am doing wrong, and to be honest it doesn't matter too much.  I know propagating African violets in water is simple for many people, I also know that I can propagate them in soil pretty easily, so the fact that I can't propagate them in water doesn't change a great deal for me because I can still propagate these lovely plants. 

If you propagate African violet leaves in water and it works for you, keep doing that.  If you propagate African violet leaves in soil and that works for you, keep doing that.  If you propagate by wrapping the stem in damp paper towel and that works for you, keep doing that.  It doesn't matter too much what doesn't work, as long as at least one method does work for you. 

I plan to keep this leaf in water until it dies or produces baby plants.  It isn't taking much room, and isn't taking too much effort, so I may as well leave it to the bitter end.  Edit to add: My leaf died in September 2025.  For a year and a half it sat in water, and did nothing.

Propagating African violets by planting leaves or flower stems in soil works well for me, so I will continue to do it this way.  The fact that I can't propagate them in water is no great loss.  

On occasion I list African violets or African violet leaves on my for sale page.  I don't have a lot of types, and don't usually have many extra plants, but if you are interested it is worth a look.