Replanting African violet mother leaf

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.  

Growing African Violets

African violets used to be very common houseplants, they are surprisingly low maintenance if you meet their minimum requirements.  I like the looks of them, some of the colours are incredible, and I am amazed at how long they can produce flowers.  

While African violets used to be very common, and many households grew them, I don't see them for sale very often.  In the old days there were only a few varieties, and most were not all that great.  

Nowadays there are a lot more varieties, many are superior to what was available in the past, and some are not as good as the old ones, yet for some reason these plants are not commonly seen anymore.  

African Violet

I grow a few African violets, and have read a lot about their history and genetics, yet I still feel like I don't know what I am doing with them.  

I got my first African violet in early 2021, it was unnamed other than to say it was 'light blue'.  It was in a pot with a wick which made care very simple.  It is the only one I have in a pot with a wick, all the others grow in regular plant pots.  I probably should grow a few more with wicks as it really is very simple to care for plants in these pots. 

After growing this plant for about 4 years, it is still alive and flowering.  It was not overly symmetrical as I didn't rotate the pot often enough.  It took me some time, but I eventually fixed this and evened out the plant's growth.  

I took a leaf cutting from this plant, which produced 3 baby plants.  I probably should take some more leaf cuttings as it is a lovely plant. 

My first African violet - looks better in real life (I am no photographer)

I got a leaf of another African violet variety in July or August 2023.  This leaf cutting produced baby plants, which grew well, and flowered in March 2024.  This was about 7 or 8 months after I first got the leaf.  From leaf to producing baby plants felt like it took forever, from baby plants to mature plants felt a lot faster. 

The leaf cutting grew several plants.  They flowered, then some stopped flowering.  I fertilised with leachate from my worm farm, and they flowered again.  I like the colour of its flowers.  

They stopped flowering again, so I divided them into their own pots and ended up with four healthy genetically identical plants.  I love the colour of the flowers and really should take some more leaf cuttings of this variety.  

African violet - I was told the variety is 'New Hampshire'

This stopped flowering so I divided and planted in its own pot

African violets are reasonably simple to grow.  They don't love lots of full sun and don't like deep shade, and don't cope with frosts, other than that there is not much to worry about with them.  You would likely get better results by using expensive and specialised equipment, but I don't use anything special to grow them, and so far they are doing well.

Special African violet pots with self watering wicks are strangely expensive.  I have one plant growing in one of these, and it practically takes care of itself.  All my others are in regular small plastic plant pots.  I keep considering buying some pots with wicks, perhaps one day I will do this as they really are a lot simpler to care for.  

Each year my African violets flower for most of the year.  It is incredible how many months they will bloom.  Winter is a little cold, and a bit dark, and I don't use heating or lighting and my plants don't flower well over winter for me.  Grow lights and heat mats would certainly help, but they cost money to run, and anything electrical poses a fire risk, so I don't tend to use them.  

I have seen special African violet fertiliser for sale, it is meant to be good but I have never used it.  I sometimes fertilise with leachate from my worm farm.  I don't know if this is just a coincidence, or if African violets like worm farm leachate, but each time after doing this they always throw up a flush of new growth and some flower buds.  

I have seen special African violet potting mix for sale in stores and online, other than my first plant which probably came growing in this mix I have never used it.  I buy regular potting mix, and perlite, and mix them together to make a light airy soil.  I use this mix when growing African violets, and it seems to work ok.  The regular potting mix has nutrients in it, and the perlite adds air space in the soil.  From what I have read, this is what these plants need.  Unless something goes very wrong, I will probably continue to use this mix as it is cheap and seems to do the job well.  

Seed pod beginning to develop

As well as growing the original plant, and growing new plants from leaf cuttings, I cross pollinated some flowers, and self pollinated some flowers.  These produced seed pods which contain lots of really tiny seeds.  I planted these seeds, many of which germinated.  I then accidentally dropped the pot and lost all the seedlings!  I have since pollinated more flowers, collected more tiny seeds, and have recently planted another batch of seed.  This time I plan to be more careful.  Hopefully they produce nice plants with interesting and unique flowers, but only time will tell.  

African violets seedlings are said to flower in much the same time as using a leaf cutting, but each will be genetically unique.  Growing from seed seems like a good way to increase my collection and hopefully add some more diversity of flower colours/types.  It also gives me a chance to develop something new and nice and to mess around with breeding if I can find the time and energy. 

'Light Blue' African Violet

Apparently few people grow African violets from seed, I am not sure why.  Other than fake seeds being sold through ebay, I can only find one place online who actually sells African violet seed.  I have seen a few social media posts of people who have grown nice looking plants from their own seed, but none of them appear to sell seed.  

Perhaps the lack of seed sellers is due to these lovely plants becoming unpopular.  I looked for a club or something so I could learn more, and discovered that there used to be a local club and it closed a few years ago due to lack of interest.  I looked for clubs further away, and the ones I found only have meetings during the day as their members are mostly retired people.  This surprises me because African violets can look rather incredible, and are not difficult to grow.  

African Violet - New Hampshire

Even though I have successfully grown African violets for about four years, and have propagated them using leaf cuttings, and I have self-pollinated and cross-pollinated flowers, and my seed have produced seedlings, for some reason I still feel like I don't know what I am doing with African violets.  

These plants have always seemed so mysterious, and have always been described as being difficult to grow, that something inside me still thinks I am missing something.  It almost feels wrong that they could be this simple to grow.  

Then again, plants such as saffron, watercress, and Chinese water chestnuts have reputations for being difficult yet are absurdly easy to grow and are all very productive.  Many people have killed their share of maidenhair ferns and venus flytraps, both of which are reasonably easy to grow for many years and have an undeserved reputation for being impossible to succeed with.  Perhaps the reputation of African violets as being hard to grow is equally as undeserved. 

African Violets double and single

I have always liked African violets, for some reason I didn't get one until the year 2021.  

The first African violet I got was a small weak plant that was not flowering when I got it, it had no variety name and was labelled as 'light blue'.  It was in a self-watering pot, which made it very simple to look after.  The plant grew larger and stronger, eventually it flowered, and flowered, and kept on flowering.  

African violets really are remarkable with how long they can flower.  

After a few years it eventually stopped flowering, and stopped growing.  I meant to repot it, but didn't.  I fertilised it with leachate from my worm farm.  It then grew leaves far larger than it ever has before, and started flowering again.  

I also have another African violet that I grew from a leaf cutting from a different variety.  This is growing in a normal pot with soil that I mixed myself because I am too cheap to buy African violet potting mix.  The leaf babies were growing well, I am not sure how many were in there.  I then fertilised them with worm farm leachate, not long after that they also started flowering.  

Perhaps it is a coincidence, or perhaps African violets like worm farm leachate.  I don't know, and as long as they are healthy and flowering I don't really care.  

My African Violets

Below are the plants I am currently propagating.  I hope to have a few baby plants of each large that are enough to be flowering and ready for sale by spring.  

Light Blue, has very large double flowers, frilly petals, and I am not sure of the variety name.  To the best of my knowledge there are no true blue African violets, most are some type of purple like this one, in the right light it kind of almost looks blue.  I don't care what the colour name is, I really like it.

African Violet

Purple or Magenta (I am not great with colour names), single pansy type flowers, small compact and highly vigorous plant.  The colour of the flowers is a little darker than in my photos, it is an amazing colour.  I was told the cultivar name is 'New Hampshire'.  The baby plants only have a few flowers per stem, I assume this is because they are still very young as the mother plant I got the leaf from had a lot of flowers per stem.  

African Violet

I like the larger frilly double flowered types of African violets.  There are also a few colours that I am considering trying to get.  I wouldn't mind doing some breeding with African violets to see what I can produce.  

I saw the picture below on a social media page, I would love to grow one that looks like this some day.  If you have a plant like that and are interested in a leaf swap, or would be willing to sell me a leaf, let me know and we will see if we can work out something.  

African Violet - not my picture

Hopefully in spring I will have a few flowering plants of my magenta/purple and the double blue African Violets for sale, and there is a slight chance I may have another few varieties.  If I have a few flowering plants for sale the details might be found on this blog's for sale page.  

Leaf Cuttings African Violet

A few years ago I bought an African violet.  For some reason I don't see many African violets around these days.  They are lovely little ornamental flowers with no particular use that I can gather beyond being nice to look at.  

I have always heard that African violets are difficult to grow.  My one has been easy to grow.  It lives in a little self watering pot on my kitchen windowsill.  Every few weeks I fill up the water reservoir, from time to time I remove dead flowers or dead leaves, and I rotate the pot occasionally to keep the growth reasonably even.  Other than that it takes care of itself.

Up until recently it bloomed for most of the year, only stopping over winter when it gets too cold.  My original one grows large ruffled blue flowers, it is rather pretty.  It needs repotting and/or fertilising if it is going to keep flowering well.  Using leachate from my worm farm seems to be good fertiliser for African violets. 

At that start of winter I saw an African violet that had dark red flowers.  I had heard how simple African violets are to propagate form leaf cuttings, so thought I would give it a try.  I removed a leaf, put it in my pocket, and brought it home.  When I got home I mixed potting soil with perlite, put this in a pot, watered it until damp, and planted my leaf cutting.  

African Violet leaf babies 

I have heard that the plantlets are produced from the cut part of the petiole, and to produce extra plantlets you cut the petiole on an angle with the cut section facing up.  I did this, I also nicked the petiole a little further up to see if it produced any extra plants for me.

Several months passed, the leaf looked fine, but nothing really happened.  It can be very cold in my house over winter, so it is not unexpected that it did not grow during this time.

One day in early spring the potting mix looked like it had been pushed up near the base of the leaf.  I looked closer and saw several tiny leaves.  It looks like my leaf cutting worked, and the leaf cutting is producing several baby African violets.  

Now the weather has warmed, the tiny plantlets have started to grow relatively quickly.  The leaf itself still looks healthy.

I am still not sure how many plants it produced as the leaves of the baby plants are all close together.  It looks like this leaf has produced three or four little plants.  I am happy with that number.  

I am told if you slit the end of the petiole about a centimeter or two that you should get a much larger number of plantlets, but they will be a bit smaller.  I have taken a leaf cutting from my blue flowered plant and am trying this.  

African Violet leaf babies

Look how cute leaf babies are!

I plan to let these grow a bit larger before I repot them into individual pots.  If I divide them too early I risk killing them, if I wait too long to divide I risk stunting them, so it is a bit of a guesswork balancing act.  

I think they are ready to be transplanted now, but am planning leaving them to grow just a little larger.  I really don't want to lose them.

Leaf babies ready for transplant 

The mother leaf itself still looks remarkably healthy.  If I cut it off just above where the plantlets are attached, I wonder if I could reuse the leaf as a cutting to produce even more plants.  I would hate to lose my little leaf babies, so perhaps I will attempt this with another leaf at another time.  

It is early summer here now.  After repotting I have no idea how long until they will be large enough to flower, I am guessing it won't be before late spring or early summer next year at the earliest.  From everything I have read it takes about 6 to 9 months to flower after being separated.  

Edit to add: this post was written December 2023, the leaf babies were flowering March 2024, they had not yet been divided or repotted.  The leaf cutting from my blue African violet has just started to grow baby plantlets.  Perhaps the 6 to 9 months includes 3 months for the leaf to produce baby plants, and then another 3 to 6 months before they are large enough to flower.  I have been told growing from seed takes a similar amount of time.

I would like to get a few more types of African violet.  I don't have a lot of places in my house where I think African violets will thrive, so I will never grow a large number of them and will need to be picky about what varieties I grow.  

Once my leaf babies are larger I will probably keep one and offer the others for sale or trade, or I may offer to sell leaf cuttings.  If I do this I will try to list them on my for sale page along with the perennial vegetables, herbs, and vegetable seeds and things that I sell.  I don't plan of selling them before they start to flower and I work out the best way to post them, so this won't be until some time from now.

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 around 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 and all of them were light starved and leggy.  I think this person had bought leaf cuttings and grew them out for sale.  

Even though the plants didn't look great 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 bought this African violet plant in May 2021, as of 6 January 2022 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