One of my African violets developed droopy leaves and no matter what I did to try to revive it—water less, water more, fertilize less, fertilize more, give it more light, give it less light—it was having none of it. I finally gave up and tossed it.
My other three African violets were no longer blooming, and I’d been moving the pots around quite often recently while trying to make the droopy one happy. Determining the color of the tossed plant would be like trying to find the ball under the moving cups. I had to take a guess.
I decided I would be most disappointed if I didn’t have the pretty purple-and-white-flowered African violet, so when I saw this one at the garden center I brought it home:
Of course not more than a week later, one of my original plants started blooming again:
Whoops. Now I have two purple-and-white plants, although at least one struts its stuff on the petal edges and the other at the flowers’ center.
My other plants are in no hurry to bloom, so it could be awhile before I solve the Mystery of the Murdered African Violet.