a panorama image of gasworks park, looking south over south lake union. the day is sunny, the lake is calm, and the path lays at your feet

Musings and Mumblings

African Violets and Algae

by: Rey, Sun, Aug 03, 2025

Blaugust, gardening, aquariums, orchids, african violets

...aka, it's Plant Chore Sunday! ...Kind of. Really it's "go plant-shopping to fill in some holes in my aquarium, and while I'm out, stop by the hardware store for some weed-killer and a rescue orchid, and oh, those african violets need some attention" day. But that's a lot to say, so Plant Chore Sunday it is.

So first of all, my aquarium is just getting over an intense war with algae. (No, I'm not looking for advice, right now, I got this.) Poor Bloo (yes, Blooregard Q. Kazoo) was living in some seriously Mountain Dew-esque water for a bit there. I've raised the light, cut it back to 6 hours, and cut it down to 60% power, and after a 3-day black out, we're back to water that is actually transparent, mostly. Whew.

A five-gallon aquarium with plants and a blue betta with orange colored fins. The water is bright green with algae, so thick that the back of the aquarium is difficult to see.
I swapped to a "better" light, and let it use it's default schedule, and this was the result. Oops!
Same aquarium, but now the water is no longer green, only slightly cloudy. The plants are very sparse, now, however.
Black-out, timer adjustment, and light riser to the rescue!

However, the plants IN said tank have been... having feelings, and making them known. The anubius nana is perfectly happy - in fact, today I noticed that it's two plants whose rhysomes had been squashed together, so a gentle tug and I had twice as many plants! The cryptocoryne wendii green, though, decided that a couple days of no-light was justification for a full on tantrum, and melted most of it's leaves away. (That's what aquarium plants do when they get grumpy, they don't crisp up, they literally melt. It's kind of horrifying.) I also got, and then hated, some pogostemon stellatus 'Octopus', and yanked it out, so, the tank was looking kind of bare, as you can see. The roots of the scindapsus (which is not pothos, nor philodendron, don't get me started!) helped, but more was needed. So, into the car, and off to Edmonds and Aquarium Co-op, which is always a fun trip!

a tank full of bright red-orange fish staring out of the tank at the photographer, over a gravel substate.
These guys had opinions on which plants I picked from the tank below theirs.

I came home with another anubius, a java fern, and an optimistic replacement crypt, as well as some superglue. Which is how that one anubius ended up sideways, because apparently you shouldn't leave me unsupervised with glue and plants. Who knew! (My husband, he probably knew, but he didn't catch me, so I win!)

A small aquatic plant, planted in a small puck of rock wool. The wool had been pulled apart, and one plant had separated to each side.
Oooh, free plant!
Small aquarium again, it's now got about twice as many plants in it including a new fern attached to a piece of wood, and a decent clump of scindapsis growing out of the tank in the front.
It's not art, but maybe it'll be more comfy for the residents.

On the way home from Edmonds, I stopped in for a refill for my death-bottle of round-up, for the inevitable Round Two of my war of the bindweed, and saw they were selling these absolutely tiny little Better-Gro branded vanda and cattleya orchids. They were all in these little mesh sleeves, none of them seemed like they'd been watered in quite awhile, and I was extremely dubious. But, I stopped to take a look, and found a cattleya with a new growth starting, and decided to take a chance. Time will tell, but as far as timing goes, it's the right point in the growth cycle to attempt a rescue!

A small dehydrated orchid, resting on a bed of sphagnum moss, with a stick and a small rubber band holding it upright. There is a small nub about an inch tall, that is the start of the next structure for the plant, beginning to grow.
The entire plant's fate is resting on your hands, tiny new growth, no pressure! (To give you a sense of scale, that's a 2" diameter saucer she's sitting on.)
The back of the same plant, and the very tip of a new root growing can be seen, sticking out of the new growth.
This is the only healthy root in the entire pot. I left one mostly-dead one on for support and in case it wasn't completely done for, but I don't have high hopes.

I cruised the clearance racks while I was there, and wow, there was nothing with any life worth rescuing there, the whole way across, and plenty of plants on the full-price shelves that deserved to be on the clearance rack. Kind of embarrassing, really. Water your plants, Lowes!

A 6” tall glass jar with a sphere of cork closing the opening. inside are long thin pitchers of adolescent american pitcher plants, over 3” of sphagnum moss
What fresh new hell is this, by the way, Lowes?! Was the fly traps in death cubes not good enough, now we have Sarracenia in vases?!

So, back home I went, got my aquarium sorted, and the cattleya assessed, and was about to clean up for the day, when I looked over at my window sill, and realized I had not one, but two african violets that were more sucker than mother-plant. "I may as well, I'm already making a mess," I thought, and grabbed em down to figure out what was going on in that wild chaos of leaves.

A small baking tray holds five plants. Closest to us, we have a small fuzzy-leafed plant growing in a circular pattern with round leaves on long stems, in every direction. it's in a 3 inch pot, and the leaves stretch beyond it's edges. Behind it are four other smaller versions of the same plant in a row, each in a two-inch pot. A small pile of broken leaves sits in a corner of the tray.
Momma, you had four babies! how did all of that fit in the same pot?
a lone african violet plant sits on the baking tray. It's leaves, instead of going outwards radially, seem to be going in multiple directions.
I didn't get a photo of pre-delivery momma the first, but here's the second one, before she was separated.
a 3 inch pot with a single african violet. It's leaves are deep green and very fuzzy.
This was one of two babies I removed from her, it rivals it's parent in size!
A tray with six new plants all in their little pots.
Six new violets. I only had four to begin with!

What was going on was six baby suckers on two plants, one was almost as big as the mother plant! When I pulled em off, all but one had their own root systems starting, so I potted them up, and started texting my neighbors to see if anyone wanted a free fuzzy plants. One taker, so far! I've got 4 left, so if you're local and want a baby violet, and can be bothered to come snag it, well, you know how to find me!

Putting the babies away under my grow lights led me to eye my other baby orchids, so check out how great this Sharry Baby seedling is doing! Some year soon, my whole office is gonna smell like chocolate!

a close up of the bottom of a two inch seedling pot. It's full of sphagnum moss, and many small roots are visible along the bottom.
So many roots!
Side view of the same spot, the roots are visible all the way down the side of the pot.
LOOK AT THE ROOTS, PEOPLE!
a view of the plant in the same seedling pot. A large oblong pseudobulb can be seen with thing flexible long green leaves coming out of it, and at the front there is a new growth, which is developing the leaves but doesn't have the chubby part yet.
Ok, you can see the top of the plant, too.
A small white tag, hand-written in black marker, reads 'Onc. Sharry Baby 'Sweet Fragrance' AM/AOS'.
The care it took to hand-write new tags for these made me smile. The proprietor of Little Orchid Annie's rocks!!

Happy Sunday, hope y'all were as productive as I was!!