Got this plant as a housewarming gift last year and it’s blooming for the first time!
Beautiful. My mother always grew them and, growing up in Indiana, they were grown indoors (they’re not fans of cold). Then I moved to L.A. and my first day on the job, I see a row of African Violets planted outside the building. I was just stunned.
That’s awesome, I would be stunned by orange trees tbh lol
We had a grapefruit tree in one backyard and a key lime tree in another in the places where we lived. Never got an orange tree sadly, but there were lots of opportunities to get fresh oranges. Avocados too.
Jealousy intensifies I had a crab apple tree in my yard when I was a kid, I guess they theoretically might be edible?
In L.A.?! What part? Maybe down by the coast? 🤔 My part of the city is just too hot and dry in the summer. We get down to single digit humidity when the Santa Anas roll through, and well over 100 degrees a lot of days in the summer. I would have thought we’re just too warm for them here.
Hollywood. Raleigh studios. They had them all along the outside.
Interesting! I suppose if they got enough shade and water they could handle the ambient air conditions. :)
Alternately, they leave them there until they die and replant them. That just occurred to me and it’s the sort of wasteful thing the entertainment industry does.
TBH I had the same thought; there are entire companies that will just rotate the plants out for businesses.
btw, I think I recognize you from reddit! :)
Probably. I was a power user there. No more though. Sorry, I wish I remembered you.
Yeah, I’m leaving a lot behind too. It’s fine; platforms come and go. Once a couple of communities I follow over there have active Lemmy equivalents I won’t be back much at all.
I just got my first African Violets for Mother’s Day! My kid asked me what I wanted and I said space violets and she came through. I’d been looking at them on the website for years but never pulled the trigger. If you like space and want more violets, check them out. :)
https://www.optimara.com/everfloris.html
“EverFloris Varieties are a direct outcome of the Optimara Space Violet program. The US Space Shuttle Program was retired in 2011, but the legacy lives on in EverFloris Space Violets! The development of EverFloris Violets began in 1984, when 25,000 Optimara seeds were launched into space aboard one of NASA’s space shuttles. The seeds remained orbiting the Earth for nearly six years aboard the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF).”
What a good gift, thank you for sharing. I didn’t realize how much variety could be found (well, selected and bred for!) in these until fairly recently, and your post introducesd me to African violets with curly petals. I legit almost cried when I first saw some of the “dwarf” varieties for sale at a greenhouse, lol
