Last year in September, Nolemana and I had to do an appraisal in Battle Ground, Washington. We were zipping along I-5 when sudddenly I realized that I’d missed the exit. Sheesh! ‘A‘ole pilikia [no problem]. I just kept driving till we got to the next exit, which happened to be in Woodland.
I remembered that there was a Visitors’ Center there, and asked Nolemana if we could stop by and check out a way to get back to Battle Ground along back roads instead of the freeway. So stop we did. It’s a cute building with a wonderful mural on the outside.
While talking with the friendly volunteers, I noticed an absolutely gorgeous African Violet that was blooming on the counter, and asked if I could have a leaf to start a plant of my own. They readily agreed, and I cut off the leaf, surrounded the stem in a wet paper towel, and after getting directions for where we wanted to go, Nolemana headed on our way back to Battle Ground. (I’ll post the wonderful serendipity of that visit next time.)
When we got home, I took the leaf, cut it on the diagonal, and planted it in straight sand in a small kine pot. Then I gently watered the sand and put a plastic Ziploc bag over it.
And then I waited.
And waited.
And waited.
I checked on the bag regularly to make sure nothing was drying out. Then I waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And checked some more.
All I saw was a nice green leaf.
At least it wasn’t mahkediedead.
Then I waited some more.
Months went by.
And more months.
Yesterday, almost fourteen months later, I casually checked the Ziploc bag again. Oh my gosh! It worked!!!
I can hardly believe it!! I get keiki [baby]!!! Easy labor, too! Heh heh. Just look at that kewt face!!
A Mānoa Girl's Bloggie 
Awesome! I can never keep African Violets alive.
I love African violets, but not as much as my mom does. When I was tiny, about 2 years old, I would climb up wherever she put them and eat them. She waged a desperate war, wanting to keep the violets safe, but not wanting to put me in danger. Finally, she had one little leaf left from all her pots, and she put it way way up high in the window above the kitchen sink, hopefully out of my sight. It didn’t work. I ate that sucker too. Turns out I had a severe iron deficiency, and craved those violets.
I don’t eat them any more, but once a year, for her birthday or for Yule, I give mom a new African violet in penance. :-}
Oh congratulation! Those are usually very hard to grow. I’m still working to keep my plumerias from going dormant. I got through Battle Ground all the time, but I don’t think I’ve been to Woodland. I’ll have to see if I can drive through next time I head down to Portland. They must be nice their… if they let you have clipping. =)
I found your site as I was surfing knitting sites and wanted to say Aloha.
Hi, Mokihana!
I believe you visited me on Ravelry…I wanted to say “thank you” for my blog comment and the warm welcome to Ravelry–I appreciate it.
I am glad to see that you got keiki from a violet leaf! You are a miracle worker to me–I have a black thumb 😦
Thanks again for visiting!
Imagine that! I rest my case about you having a GIANT green thumb… Amazing how you can knit with that buggah not getting in the way. LOL Hugs!
Congrats! I’m in awe, too – black thumb of Calcutta here, I swear. Although my mom? She could grow anything. She kept starting African violets with the cutting in a glass of water method, and those lil’ suckers would start putting out roots in a week or so. She was always giving away African violet starts!
It must skip a generation. [g] I’m guarandamnteed to kill plants in a week or less! Good with animals, though. 😉
(Btw…Tag, you’ve been memed. [eg])
(Only if you want to; if you loathe memes, ignore at will.)