Back in October I received a bundle of tiny African violet plantlets from The Plant Man on my first visit to the greenhouse (as an employee). I was excited, and nervous, because I didn’t feel like I was ready to be a parent of such small foliage. With failure in the far corners of my brain, I joyfully accepted the role of infant-caretaker.

At the time, I had five beautiful, mature AVs that were doing just fine at home, but the sad ghost of my first African violet, whom I slaughtered with ignorance, appeared to me once again as I potted the babies in its former home – a small, purple, self-watering planter. It was the only one I had. (It’s still the only one I have.)

I was determined to overwrite the sad memories of this pot, which had been dwelling in a ziploc bag since its former inhabitant died in 2015, with ones of victory and accomplishment. Learning from my mistakes, I did the best thing I could do for these little babies – plant them, water them, and LEAVE THEM ALONE. I learned the hard way that being a helicopter parent is just as bad for leafy children as it is for human ones. I base all my plant-parenting around this concept now. (I wonder how I’ll do if I have human kids?)

So I left my kids in their pot on the baker’s rack for a few months to let them get established, get a degree, buy a house, raise some kids of their own… but seriously, I had 5 plantlets in October… and ended up with about 8 or 9 when I took them apart! They grow up so fast. :’) They were getting pretty crowded by this point, so I started thinking about how I was going to separate them, and where I was going to put all the babies!

Five days later I had to do a double-take, but yes, the largest plantlet had buds! I was so surprised, I didn’t think baby plants could/would produce flowers since they are still growing. I guess this one was comfy enough, being all snug in a little pot with its siblings, that it decided to throw out these cute little buds. I had to memorialize this discovery with a macro photoshoot, of course (I use the Xenvo clip-on macro lens + my iPhone 8 plus). In light of this, I thought again about separating the little violets: if they’re budding already, they should probably already be separated, but at the same time, I don’t want to risk losing these precious first buds. I stalled for about 5 more days and finally separated + potted them up on April 4. The 2nd and 3rd largest planties were given their own tiny growers pots, the assortment of tiny babies were planted together in a repurposed plastic strawberry container to continue growing, and the biggest baby got the purple pot all to herself (spoiled!). I held my breath for a few days after that because her leaves started to droop, but after about a week she bounced back to her usual perky self. I checked on her (and her siblings) every day for updates, but she was taking her sweet time growing those buds as she stretched her roots around her newfound space. I wonder if she was lonely?

About a week later I was having kind of a bad day, got some bad news, then got some more on the way home. I was emotional, kind of ticked off, and came home to rant to my roommate about the frustrating day I’d had. As I was really getting into it I walked into my kitchen and saw this:

How could I stay upset after seeing this?? The baby I had been growing and encouraging for 6 months finally bloomed! I was so happy and proud – my frustration with life and the world evaporated at the sight of her first flower. I’m not religious, but little things like this remind me that for all the bad in the universe, there is so much more that is beautiful.

I hope you see something beautiful today!

Amy