GYATAYAYAYAYA'AYAY AA ATA AR AAA A SARA AR RA A 
table might boast of fifty flowers and twenty 
more buds, but splotchy foliage and one-sided 
growth would earn only 40 points. 
Diligence, then, kids, should be devoted to 
the foliage. The foliar pattern will be pretty well 
taken care of by the plant itself. It becomes the 
task of the hobbyist to see that nothing interferes 
with the natural tendency. In the case of single 
crowns, suckers must be kept trimmed off the 
main crown stalk. If these are allowed to attain 
any great size, they will shove the larger leaves 
out of place and before you know it, the symmetry 
of your plant is permanently gone. A pair of long 
tweezers make an excellent tool for this operation. 
A drip of cold water on a perfect plant might 
well mean disaster. As in all things, the nearer 
one approaches perfection, the more glaring is the 
smallest defect. An unsightly white blotch would 
hardly be noticed on a third-rate plant, but would 
immediately strike a judges’ eye at a violet show 
if it appeared on a possible winner. 
If, in spite of all your precautions, you should 
happen to come up with a spotted or broken leaf, 
however, it might be disguised in one of the fol- 
lowing ways: (1) If the plant has a nice full 
growth, and you still have a couple of months 
until show time, you might remove the marred 
leaf and gently pull the adjacent leaves together 
to fill the gap left by the bad one. They may be 
secured in this position with pipe cleaners until 
they are trained. (2) (This one takes longer— 
about six months). Remove the offender. In 
about a month a new little crown will start to 
grow from the scar of the old leaf. Trim back all 
of this new sucker except one up-facing leaf. In 
time the new leaf will fill in the vacant spot in a 
very satisfactory manner. (3) Good only if an 
outer leaf is involved. This is also an excellent 
way to fill in lop-sided growth. Borrow a leaf 
or two from another plant of the same variety 
(or similar foliage type), place in water or sand 
until roots about % inch long have formed. Now 
“plant” the rooted leaves in the same pot with 
your show plant—near the base of the crown so 
they will fill in your gap. You'll have to keep 
the little plants trimmed off of your rooted leaves 
