by Erika Love

Created on: June 19, 2008   Last Updated: March 22, 2010

Growing African Violets is simple and rewarding. These pretty little plants are beautiful for their foliage, not just their flowers. Many people might pass by a non-blooming African violet and purchase only a blooming plant. This is a mistake because the bloom-less plants are very pretty on their own without the added display of flowers. If you look past the absence of blooms, a whole new world of African violet plants opens up

There are hundreds of different types of African Violets with a wide variety of leaf types and patterns. The foliage color can vary from light, pale green to a very dark blackish or even reddish green.

The "Red-reverse" leaf is a particularly stunning leaf pattern and is one of the more readily available ones. These plants have foliage with green topside and a red to purplish-red underside. This top of the foliage is often very dark, appearing nearly black

African Violets also come with many different leaf variegations. These types typically have green foliage which is blotched, edged or spotted. Some have leaves which are decorated by a complete ring around the edge around the leaf. The ring may be white, pink, cream or tan. Variegated leaves will show many different colors. There are pink variegations, yellow, cream or white, and some plants may exhibit a tan color.

The variegations can be anything from little splashes of color showing on the tops of the leaves, to bigger areas of color extending out from the leaf base. On some plants, the foliage may appear to be almost 50% color. With all the hybridizing today the possibilities are endless!

The shape of the foliage is also widely varied and can include plain, smooth and serrated, ruffled and scalloped edges. There are 11 common leaf types which are readily available.

There are "boy" and "girl" type leaves. "Girl" type leaves are scalloped, rounded or heart-shaped and will have a white marking at the base of each leaf which may or may not extend out into the leaf itself. The smooth edge leaf type is generally referred to as the "boy" type. Quilted foliage exhibits marked raised areas between the veins. The leaves of the quilted foliage plants tend to be large in size as do the "Oak-leaf" types, which exhibit indented leaf margins. Fringed or ruffled leaves are exactly as they sound, and give the plant an overall lacy appearance. There are pointed, compound, and spooned foliage types.

So think outside the bloom!  Even without their flowers, African Violets are pretty to look at and easy to appreciate.

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