Episode 88: African violets with Annie Rieck plus #OTLsowalong part two
On The Ledge
Jane Perrone
4.8 • 773 Ratings
🗓️ 21 March 2019
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
African violets have been loved and nurtured by generations of houseplant growers, but they’ve got a reputation as plants that our grandparents love to grow: cute, maybe, but not cool.
That’s changing, though. Many of us are (re)discovering that African violets make wonderful houseplants! And now there’s more choice than ever before, as breeding programmes have created a rainbow of flower colours and styles, variegated leaves, tiny teacup plants and huge dinnerplate-sized ones.
I talked to African violet grower and show judge Annie Rieck about why she loves these plants, and how to grow them successfully. Annie has her own podcast called All About African Violets and has been growing them since the 1990s.
See full show notes here: https://is.gd/Vhf2Cm
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm a lot of my |
| 0:02.0 | my |
| 0:05.0 | and I'm a |
| 0:07.0 | ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha |
| 0:09.0 | ha ha ha |
| 0:10.0 | ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha This week's episode looks at a plant that has been in the style doldrums for quite some time. |
| 0:33.1 | The African Violet, aka St. Paulia, is the kind of plant that you probably imagine your nan growing, |
| 0:41.7 | somewhere in a dark corner, not something that perhaps you would want to be including in your |
| 0:47.6 | Oh So stylish house plant collection. But think again because African Violet are on the way back up. These plants are starting to be |
| 0:56.7 | recognised as one of the most wonderful house plants. I admit, I've been a skeptic in the past, |
| 1:05.0 | but I'm quickly coming round to the view that these plants deserve a place on the ledge. |
| 1:10.1 | My interview today is with Annie Break, |
| 1:12.8 | who has her very own African Violet podcast. |
| 1:16.8 | Annie is a member and a judge of the African Violet Society of America. |
| 1:21.8 | She started growing seriously in the late 1990s, |
| 1:25.3 | and her collection has been growing ever since. |
| 1:28.6 | I start the interview with a bit of a confessional to Annie about my love-hate relationship |
| 1:34.7 | with the African Violet. |
| 1:39.6 | I have to admit Annie that I, until very recently, at the end of last year, I hadn't had an African violet in my possession since I was a teenager. |
| 1:50.4 | They were plants that I was one of the very first plants that I grew as a teenager, getting into house plants and a child. |
| 1:57.4 | But then at some point, I kind of went off them. |
| 2:00.7 | I have to be totally honest with you. |
... |
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