There are lots of cool things about African Violets, but nothing sparks more fascination than their blooms. These plants flower in a jaw-dropping variety of shapes and shades, from lacy ruffles to multicolored pinwheels. If you’ve ever wanted to know more about African Violet blooms, this article is for you! We’re going to answer the most common questions about the delightful flowers of the Saintpaulia plant.
African Violet blooms can grow back again and again. These plants are tropical perennials with no built-in dormant season. With the right balance of light, water, humidity, and nutrition, they’ll flower more or less continuously. How long the individual blooms last will depend a lot on which cultivar you’re growing.
We’ll give you an overview of the life cycle of an African Violet flower. We’ll also tell you what you can do to help your plant bloom with gusto. Let’s dive into the fascinating details of African Violet blooms.
Will African Violets Bloom Again?
Some plants bloom in a swan song of blazing color – only to die off, requiring you to replant them. African Violets are not like this. They’re perennials, meaning the same plant can flower over and over.
Your African Violet can also live for a long time. It’s not uncommon for skillful growers to keep the same plant going for 50 years or more. And even that may not be the upper limit!
However, if you want to keep your plant blooming, it’s best not to let it grow out of control. A Saintpaulia with too much foliage may not be able to spare the energy for flower production. It’s best to prune your African Violet regularly to maintain its vigorous blooming.
When Do African Violets Flower?
There’s no fixed season for African Violet blooms. Saintpaulias developed near the equator, where plants can count on roughly the same amount of sunshine all year long. As a result, the cycle of the seasons isn’t built into their genes.
Still, an African Violet’s ability to flower does depend on factors like light and humidity. If you’re growing your plant with only natural light, it will probably stop flowering as the days get shorter. The dryness of the winter air also tends to suppress blooming. So unless you’ve invested in some climate control equipment, your African Violet will probably bloom only between April and September.
How often it flowers in that period depends a lot on how much light it gets. In general, these plants need at least 12 hours of bright, indirect light per day to maximize bloom production. With less light, you may get a few rounds of flowers before winter sets in, but they’ll be broken up by bloom-free stretches.
Want some suggestions on finding good lighting for your African Violet? Read our article: How Much Light Do African Violets Need? And When to Add More or Less.
How Long Do They Last?
How long do African Violet blooms last? And how long before new ones appear? This is a tough question to answer because there are so many different varieties of Saintpaulia. The African Violet Society of America recognizes over 16,000 cultivars. In reality, there are probably many more, since many hobby growers like to whip up new crossbreeds at home. And all of these variants have slightly different growth rates.
In general, though, you can expect your African Violet’s flowers to stay alive for a few weeks after blooming. Then the next round will appear around 6-8 weeks later. That’s assuming your plant’s growing conditions are good, of course. Problems like underwatering, sun scorch, or lack of humidity can make your African Violet blooms die young.
What if you’re raising an African Violet from a seed or a cutting? How long will you need to wait before you see flowers? The minimum timeframe is about 6-9 months from when the plant first sprouts.
The Life Cycle of African Violet Blooms
Let’s get into a little more depth about how African Violet flowers form, develop, and die off. Knowing what’s normal for your plant will make it easier to tell if something’s off with its flowering.
Phase 1: Blossoming
The process begins with the formation of a flower stalk, also sometimes called a blossom stem or bloom stalk. Flower stalks grow from the main stem of the plant, but not from the center where new leaves grow. They’ll show up a little farther out, at the joints between established leaves. As they grow, they’ll push their way skyward.
Note that suckers can appear at the same spots. Suckers are secondary clumps of foliage that can sap the energy and nutrients that your plant normally uses to bloom.
You can often tell a sucker from a blossom because it grows out rather than up. When in doubt, wait a little while. Suckers will form rows of three leaves each, while bloom stalks will sprout clusters of longer stems that look sort of like antlers. Eventually, small bulb-shaped buds will appear at the ends of those little stalks.
Phase 2: Blooming
Assuming your African Violet is healthy, those itty-bitty buds will start unfurling into flowers after a week or two. As we mentioned, the shapes, colors, and arrangements of the petals can differ wildly from one variety to another. But the basic structure of the flower should be pretty much the same.
At the base is a green, cup-shaped structure called the calyx. The petals grow in rows from the calyx. Depending on your cultivar, each flower could have as few as 5 petals, or more than 25. Meanwhile, the reproductive organs grow from the center of the flower, surrounded and sometimes covered by the petals.
African Violet flowers have both male and female parts. The male segments are the anthers, which hold the pollen. They form a cluster of small yellow pods on top of a slender stalk called the filament. Next to the anthers is the pistil, the flower’s female portion. This looks like a whitish tube (the style) with a small, sticky tip (the stigma).
African Violets can pollinate themselves, but this rarely happens in nature. Usually, if you want to fertilize your plant, you’ll have to do it yourself. Or you could leave it outside and hope that a passing bee does it for you.
Phase 3: Fading
Most African Violet blooms will remain healthy for 2-4 weeks after opening. Then they’ll start to dry out, wrinkle up, and fade away. They’ll shrivel up and lose their bright colors, turning yellow, then brown. Before long, they’ll drop right off the plant.
If you (or some helpful bug) pollinated your plant, this is when you’ll see the evidence. While the flower crumples up and fades, the base of the pistil will swell up and turn green. This is a developing seed pod.
The pod will hang out long after the flower drops away. If you’re going to try to grow new African Violets from seed, you should wait at least 5 months to harvest and plant it. In the meantime, it will mature and the pod will turn brown and brittle as it ripens.
What Do African Violets Need to Bloom?
So what can you do to encourage your African Violet to produce lots of flowers? To help your plant bloom, you’ll need the right balance of light, moisture, and nutrients. As well as the proper pot and some light pruning. We’ll start with the most basic needs and then move to some advanced tips and tricks below.
Light
First and foremost, African Violet blooms require light. Your plant has to spend a lot of energy on every flower. And the only way it can get that energy is through photosynthesis.
To ensure healthy blooming, give your African Violet gets 10-12 hours of bright light per day. Don’t put it right in the sun, but make sure there’s plenty of ambient brightness in the room. You’re shooting for 10k-20k lux, which you can measure with a tool called a lux meter.
If you’re dead set on keeping your plant in constant bloom, you can go up to 16 hours of light per day. This will almost always require grow lights. That’s especially true if you want your African Violet to keep flowering over the winter. See here for our instructions on setting up grow lamps for your Saintpaulia.
Moisture
African Violets can’t flower unless they’re well-hydrated. Check on your plant’s soil every 2-3 days to see if the top inch feels dry. If it does, give it a thorough watering and allow the excess to drain out the hole in the bottom of the planter. If you let the roots dry out completely, your Saintpaulia will stress out and fail to bloom.
Don’t misunderstand us – we’re not saying more water equals more African Violet blooms. In fact, watering too much can cause root rot, possibly killing your plant. Stick to checking on the soil regularly and giving it water as needed. Or you could try a wick watering system. These “self-watering” pots should let your African Violet drink as much as it needs and no more.
Moisture in the air is important too. Sainptpaulias prefer a relative moisture level above 50%. If the air is drier than that, the flower buds may die of dehydration before they can open.
You can help correct for a dry environment by placing your African Violet close to other tropical plants. This helps to create a small zone of heightened humidity. Or you could go the more expensive and reliable route of getting a humidifier.
Nutrients
This is a catch-all label for all of the things your plant needs besides air, water, and sunlight. In the wild, your African Violet gets these ingredients from many different sources. Some come from dissolved rocks. Others come from decaying plants and animals. Nitrogen, one of the most important nutrients, is often pulled right from the air and into the soil by bacteria.
For potted African Violets, the picture is a lot more simple. You’ll supply all of their needs with fertilizer. No, that doesn’t necessarily mean heavily-processed synthetic fertilizer – things like worm compost or organic formulas can also work.
However, our usual recommendation is to give your African Violet a ¼-strength or ½-strength dose of balanced synthetic fertilizer every 4-6 weeks. This makes it easy to monitor and adjust the dose as needed. Hold off on fertilizing during the winter unless you’re keeping the plant growing using artificial lights.
It’s a good idea to flush out the soil every 1-2 months to avoid a harmful buildup of fertilizer. To perform a soil flush, slowly pour a large amount of distilled water into the soil and let it drain out. Ideally, you’ll want to use 4-5 times the total volume of the pot.
Limited Space
This one might sound odd, but it’s true. African Violets are more likely to bloom in a somewhat small pot. Your plant may send up more flowers in an attempt to reproduce while it still has the chance.
For the best blooms, your Saintpaulia’s pot should be roughly ⅓ to ⅔ as wide as its foliage. If it’s bigger than that, consider moving your plant into a smaller container.
Note that an overly small pot can restrict flowering by stressing and starving the roots. Don’t let your African Violet outgrow its home by too much. You can often tell it’s gotten too big because the pot no longer seems to hold water. Other signs include crispy, wilted foliage, or roots poking out of the pot.
Pruning
It’s also helpful to get rid of excess growth on your African Violet. Only the first 3-5 rows of leaves (counting from the center) contribute to flowering. One simple way to help keep your plant is to remove a few of the outermost leaves every month.
Pinch each leaf where it connects to the stem and give it a sharp tug. In most cases, that’s all it takes to remove an African Violet leaf. Otherwise, a small craft knife or a set of pruning scissors should do the trick. Always wipe down your tools with a disinfectant, like rubbing alcohol or a 10% bleach solution, before cutting your Saintpaulia.
Slicing off suckers is especially important. Check below the outer leaves regularly to see if new growth is sneaking in at the edges. The bigger you let suckers get, the more they’ll siphon away from your plant’s bloom budget.
You can also encourage your African Violet to bloom again after flowering by deadheading. For those who are unfamiliar, deadheading means pruning flowers at the end of their lifespan. Even an old, shriveled flower is consuming some of your Saintpaulia’s resources. Snip those older blooms off so your plant can redirect its resources to making new flowers.
To read more about pruning your African Violet, check out this article: How, When, Where, and Why to Prune African Violets.
What Kind of African Violet Blooms Do You Have?
Saintpaulias have a pretty dedicated fanbase among houseplant growers. And those enthusiasts have come up with a whole bunch of jargon for different types of flowers. Here’s how to describe African Violet blooms if you want to sound like a real expert.
Colors
First, we’ll talk about color patterns. Petals that are all one solid color don’t get a fancy name, but there are many other types. Examples include:
- Edged. This is just what it sounds like: your flowers have a thin stripe of a different color around the edges.
- Geneva. A special term for flowers with white edges.
- Multicolor. Blooms with two different colors.
- Two-tone. Two different shades of the same color.
- Thumbprint. Multicolored flowers with round dabs of a secondary color at the ends of the petals.
- Fantasy. This alluring name refers to African Violet blooms with random speckles or dashes of a secondary color.
- Chimera. Also known as pinwheel. These flowers have stripes of a second color down the middle of each petal.
Shapes
Here, we’re talking about the shape, number, and position of the leaves.
- Single. A somewhat confusing term – this means that your African Violet has 5 petals, with 2 on top that are a little smaller than the rest.
- Semi-double. These blooms have 5-10 petals, some of which are curled up in a smaller tuft in the middle.
- Double. This means a flower with 10 or more full-sized lobes. There may also be a few extra small flowers in the middle.
- Star. Blooms with 5 evenly-sized petals.
- Cup. Like a “star”, but with the petals linked up to form a single unit.
- Wasp. 5 petals, like a “single”, except all of them are very skinny. The 2 lobes at the top are particularly slender and stunted.
- Bell. You could think of this as a combination of the “single” and “cup” shapes. There are 3 normal lobes plus 2 smaller ones up top, all of them merging together.
Edges
Some African Violets have additional flourishes at the edges of the petals. These can be combined with any of the shapes and colors above. There are 2 types of fancy edges:
- Frilled. These flowers are ruffled like the sleeves of an old-timey silk shirt.
- Fluted. Each petal has just one small curl at the tip.
Final Thoughts
Now you know a little more about African Violet blooms – maybe even more than you wanted to know! If you’re feeling overwhelmed, remember that the most important factors in getting your plant to flower are light, water, and humidity.
Once you have your care system figured out, your plant should reward you with flowers that stay around for a few weeks and come back every few months. No matter the variety you own, if you can get the basics right, your African Violet should give you lots of stunning flowers for years and years to come.