YOU CAN Grow African Violets: The Official Guide Authorized by the African Violet Society of America, Inc.

I’m so disappointed in this book. It takes up more space telling you how cool it is to grow African Violets and how it will change your life than giving you useful techniques.There is not one diagram or photo! The main reason I bought the book was to see photos of suckers because I’m really have a problem with that one thing.Nutrition - check; Watering-check; Lighting-check; starting new plants from LEAF CUTTINGS-check; Plucking out suckers-HELP!If it was easy to do so I would return the book. I think a book just about plucking out suckers and getting a violet back in shape that’s overgrown with many photos and/or diagrams could easily take up a quarter of a thorough book about grooming and propagating new plants from leaf cuttings and suckers.It would be worthwhile to most new growers. Certainly I can’t be the only one having trouble with this one crucial area. The first time I tried to follow internet instructions I ended up removing the entire top tier of the crown leaves and have a ‘bald’ violet. Sure, they’ll grow back but it will take forever. Meanwhile the other leaves are growing.If I’d had a decent book with good photos I wouldn’t have butchered this poor plant. This book was a total waste of money.

I was initially disappointed by this book and wrote the following preliminary review: "African violets are not easy to grow. Reading this book will not make the difference in your technique, if you currently love African violets but struggle to grow them well. This book is not for novices or even for the home grower who wishes to improve his/her horticultural technique. This is a book geared towards the exhibition circuit, for growers who show or aspire to show their plants. The authors concede with surprise that it is possible to grow African violets skillfully without following much of any of their advice."I looked for a better book, a general-purpose guide to growing African violets in the home; I didn't find such a book, and then I took a closer look at this one. I had remarked that reading this book will not make the difference in your expertise with violets, but I would revise that to read that reading this book may indeed make such a difference: Even if you don't understand capillary matting or want a fluorescent apparatus in your home or see the point of disbudding an African violet, the effort to adapt the practices outlined in this book, to one's home growing, can and will make that difference in time. In adapting the information in this book to what we do in our homes, we find that there's little not covered in these pages. So this is an even better book than at first it appears to be, especially in light of the other options available for home growers of African violets. There is a quiz in the back of the book to help each of us evaluate his/her proficiency with these plants, and as someone who rated a "5" (out of a possible 20), I am haunted by an observation made a couple of times in the book: that the art one can learn by following this book's advice, can bring about the transition from being an average grower who is just trying to keep African violets alive, to being someone who understands the form of these plants and works to maintain that form. In short, this is the "big step" of mastery in growing African violets. I have not yet made that shift, but I am beginning to aspire to do so. Also, what I had interpreted as the authors' hubris turns out not to be that at all. A thorough and informative and well-written guide.

I started my African Violet hobby more than a year ago and I've expanded my collection to include a sinnigia and some streps. This would have been more useful to me when I first started. I don't mind the lack of photograghs; however, this looks reads like a compilation of previously published magazine articles, so there is quite a bit of duplicated information. Also, I believe I've already seen some of the articles online. The part on forcing blooms was useful to me, but the other parts, not so much.I didn't find it overly technical and it would be good for someone starting out, but I would recommend borrowing a copy or seeing if you can get it from the library. I don't see myself pulling it off the shelf frequently as a reference book; it will probably go into the donation box. With good research skills, or a helpful research librarian, you could likely find most of the information here in short order online. I thought the price was a little steep considering the content.

This book had almost all a person needs to know about AVs. It didn't have any more or different information than the books I've gotten from my library, or information from AV sites, so in a way, I feel like I shouldn't have spent the money. The good thing is that I now have an AV book at home for reference without going to the library or online. Something else I should have noticed before buying is that it was first published in 2007, and as far as I can tell, there may be a few changes in AV keeping in the last 11 years.

This book was purchased as a gift for a relation in the UK. From the feedback received, I assume the book is very informative and well received.

a well written book tells you every thing you need to know well worth buying

Written in a personable style, full of useful information. Their many years of experience with violets shines through in this book.

This book is written in an easy to understand format and is full of useful information for those who want to grow/maintain their african violets.

Nice