
poor Saintpaulia grower. His eager quest for in- 
formation about his hobby leads him into a maze 
of conflicting information. 
Having been on the scene for such a short 
time, it is to be expected that African Violet 
lore will be long on theory and short on fact. 
What seems true today has a disconcerting way of 
turning out to be false tomorrow. We have had 
occasion to feel silly more than once. For that 
reason we try to precede our statements in these 
letters with “perhaps” or “usually” or “many 
collectors believe.” 
Truth of the matter is that there’s very 
little of this information that we’re sure of. We 
base the discussion in this leaflet on our green- 
house experience here, on what tips we can 
glean from other growers, and on the reports you 
customers send in. All this information frequent- 
ly conflicts. For example, people grow violets in 
north windows in Wisconsin; in Mississippi plants 
in a northern exposure just sit and do nothing. 
Why? Reflection from winter snow maybe? I 
don’t know. Lots of things I don’t know. So if 
you've been growing violets successfully for years 
and I come long and say your're all wet, don’t pay 
any attention. | 
FOR THE GARDEN CLUB PROGRAM 
Strangely enough, African Violets actually 
did come from Africa. The first seeds were sent 
to Walter von Saint Paul-Illaire, of Silesia, Ger- 
many, by his son in Usambara, East Africa. The 
elder Saint Paul-Illaire took some of the plants 
to Herman Wendland, then director of the Royal 


CEE PED ORE CED (2 OBA EEO EB E EDDGE. 
