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News Letter 
January, 1950 
Or alll eileen 
Dear Friends: 
If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to take 
better care of your violet collection, please don’t 
include in your ritual of care such 
odd practices as feeding the plants 
fresh orange juice, washing the 
leaves with sour cream, and mix- 
ing face powder into the potting 
soil. 
The unbounded enthusiasm of Violet collectors 
has led to some of the screwiest experiments the 
world has ever seen. Indeed, the African Violet 
is now the subject of as many old wive’s tales as 
were circulated about childbirth fifty years ago. 
Now, really, girls!! 
Fresh orange juice will not benefit African 
Violets or any other plant. On the contrary, when 
undecayed matter is used as part of a soil mix- 
ture or applied as a top dressing, one may expect 
an early demise of the plant. Vegetable matter 
(or garbage, or compost, or whatever you want to 
call it) is toxic if used before it thoroughly de- 
composed. 
You may or may not be repelled by sour cream. 
The aim here, of course, is to produce a gloss on 
the foliage. Sweet cream or milk will do the 
same thing. (Anybody tried Glass Wax?) A pro- 
duct called Flora Glo also answers this purpose 
but care must be used to apply it to foliage only. 
It will burn the flowers. 
Would advise saving this sort of grooming for 
state occasions, however. Remember that the 
more layers of goo you put on a leaf, the less sun 
filters through, which is also why you should 
keep the dust washed off. Don’t worry about 
whether or not your violets can breathe, fer good- 
ness’ sake! Plants absorb and release various 
Copyright ab omer 1949, by Russell Gray 

