How To Get Perfect Symmetry
NATURAL GROWTH PATTERNS
Even though I don't grow for show since there is no AVSA violet group near me or within 100 miles, I do love a healthy, beautifully grown violet. And violets love to put on a show of their own. To me, it's not enough for a violet to have a lot of flowers, those flowers have to form a mound at the top of the leaf line. And, the leaves have to form a round rosette to be attractive. But roundness of the plant is a little misleading. Their natural growth pattern is pentagonal. It's hard to get a photo from the exact top of a plant. The tilt of the camera can change so much of the symmetry but you get the point.
When viewed from the top, beautiful round mature violet leaves grow naturally in a five sided star shaped pattern as do many plants. One of nature's favorite numbers is the number five. Violets show the Fibonacci sequence of numbers in the arrangements of the leaves around their stems according to https://keplersdiscovery.com/divineProportion.html . Violet leaves grow in a spiral in sets of three per round. The plant forms a beautiful overall pentagonal pattern from the displacement of the leaves. The arrangement of leaves on a stem is called phyllotaxis.
Each round of leaves grow in sets of three but they are not equally spaced in each round as you can see. If you connect the petioles of each leaf you will see they form a pattern called a scalene triangle where all sides are unequal. An Isosceles triangle has two equal sides but no two leaves are exactly the same size or distance in each round. The distance from one leaf to another is slightly longer as they grow. That's probably more geometry than you really wanted to know, right?
But since they are growing in a spiral and their growth is affected by the amount of light they get, they may not form perfect outer pentagonal shapes or inner triangular shapes and sometimes you can see more than one set of pentagons formed by the shape of the leaves as they grow around the stem and overlap each other. Interesting, no?
To start a young plant on the road to perfect symmetry you want to remove all the small leaves under the outermost large leaves in the pot. So at about this stage of growth you can remove what I call "the underbrush" - smaller underdeveloped leaves that add nothing to the plant. That allows the plant to put all its energy into new leaf growth from the center of the crown.
If you count your leaves in sets of three, you will know which ones to remove. As the plant grows out, it should naturally form a good symmetry if you've given it the light requirements it needs to grow - and, let's not forget the genetics of the plant. Some varieties are just naturally good round symmetrical growers with little fuss from the grower. It's good plant genes.
If you do grow for show and you should accidentally break a leaf off, it's not the end of the world. Just count from the center out and find the other two from that round and remove them too. Your plant will still keep its symmetry.
I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE
Five is the magic number although some of them may sometimes appear to have six sides, that's just not the case but usually caused by a wayward leaf that's grown too large or moved over into another place. You can easily see this pattern by looking for the five longest leaves most equally spaced and then connecting the leaf points of them. Can you find the five most equal sides in this one?
I wouldn't remove the extra leaves if they add to the "roundness" of the plant looking down from the top or if its removal would create a gap. With a little practice you can learn to spy the pentagonal shape of each violet and what I call the in-between leaves. Those are leaves that add to the symmetry of the violet in-between the five point leaves. To maintain perfect symmetry, you could remove all the underbrush, that is the leaves below these prominent leaves on the stem.
Now you know why it's so hard to get a "perfect" symmetrical violet. Not only do the leaves have to be in the right place, but they need to be without blemish and flat and not twisted to have the best symmetry and greatest eye appeal. Whether they are being judged or not, you still want the best looking violets you can grow.
TRAIN YOUR VIOLET
The leaves in between the pentagonal points add to the round look of the plant so five points turns into ten or fifteen - or more to get that roundness. Of course you can train the leaves to be more equally spaced and flatter by using wooden sticks to separate and hold the leaves in place to give it the shape you want. Or by propping them up from the top of the pot with leaf supports. (You can make your own supports with paper plates and chopsticks or wooden popsicle sticks). And by gently twisting the leaves out straight and manually manipulating them straight out and downward as they grow if you're careful not to break them.
Many times I've had to help the bloom stalks get through a dense growth of leaves so it could bloom more toward the top of the plant in a mound and help the leaves lay flatter. Sometimes you just have to maneuver the leaves down in between the stalks to make the plant look right. You want a profuse blooming circle of flowers. If you don't remove the center buds, the crown can't get light to produce more leaves and your plant could die back.
All violets regardless of their size can look like show stoppers. There's really no need to grow your violet super large if you're not competing - or to pick off all the flowers until 8 - 10 weeks before you want them to bust out in bloom. You can let them bloom any time of the year and enjoy them as they naturally bloom! To achieve perfection, each leaf needs to point straight out from the center. You can easily see how one crooked leaf can change the symmetry of the violet.
Additionally, if you grow plants in windows, you will want to turn them 1/4 turn every day or two so they will have equal exposure to light and promote equal growth on all sides. But to get those show stopping mounds of flowers (even if you don't show), you will have to supplement your natural lights with either grow lights or warm white lights for up to 12 or even 14 hours a day. It really depends on your lighting and the brightness of your light source. Experiment with your lighting until you get the blooms you want.
Anyone can grow beautiful violets. Even if you don't compete with other growers, you still can have gorgeous, show stopping violets in your collection to be proud of. The goal is to attain maximum healthy growth potential for each of your plants. You want to grow it to be the best it can be because you love beautiful violets. The rest is just icing on the cake.
Enjoy your violets and happy violeting!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 17, 2018 - When I really want a violet to bloom I put it in my south window (frosted glass) with red/blue LED grow lights 2 - 4 inches from the top of the plants for 12 - 14 hours a day. My grow lights are only 1152 lumens so they are not the brightest you can get but they don't burn my violets either and I can have my shelves 12 inches apart. More shelves = more plants in the window. :)
Even though I don't grow for show since there is no AVSA violet group near me or within 100 miles, I do love a healthy, beautifully grown violet. And violets love to put on a show of their own. To me, it's not enough for a violet to have a lot of flowers, those flowers have to form a mound at the top of the leaf line. And, the leaves have to form a round rosette to be attractive. But roundness of the plant is a little misleading. Their natural growth pattern is pentagonal. It's hard to get a photo from the exact top of a plant. The tilt of the camera can change so much of the symmetry but you get the point.
Each round of leaves grow in sets of three but they are not equally spaced in each round as you can see. If you connect the petioles of each leaf you will see they form a pattern called a scalene triangle where all sides are unequal. An Isosceles triangle has two equal sides but no two leaves are exactly the same size or distance in each round. The distance from one leaf to another is slightly longer as they grow. That's probably more geometry than you really wanted to know, right?
But since they are growing in a spiral and their growth is affected by the amount of light they get, they may not form perfect outer pentagonal shapes or inner triangular shapes and sometimes you can see more than one set of pentagons formed by the shape of the leaves as they grow around the stem and overlap each other. Interesting, no?
To start a young plant on the road to perfect symmetry you want to remove all the small leaves under the outermost large leaves in the pot. So at about this stage of growth you can remove what I call "the underbrush" - smaller underdeveloped leaves that add nothing to the plant. That allows the plant to put all its energy into new leaf growth from the center of the crown.
If you count your leaves in sets of three, you will know which ones to remove. As the plant grows out, it should naturally form a good symmetry if you've given it the light requirements it needs to grow - and, let's not forget the genetics of the plant. Some varieties are just naturally good round symmetrical growers with little fuss from the grower. It's good plant genes.
If you do grow for show and you should accidentally break a leaf off, it's not the end of the world. Just count from the center out and find the other two from that round and remove them too. Your plant will still keep its symmetry.
I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE
Five is the magic number although some of them may sometimes appear to have six sides, that's just not the case but usually caused by a wayward leaf that's grown too large or moved over into another place. You can easily see this pattern by looking for the five longest leaves most equally spaced and then connecting the leaf points of them. Can you find the five most equal sides in this one?
I wouldn't remove the extra leaves if they add to the "roundness" of the plant looking down from the top or if its removal would create a gap. With a little practice you can learn to spy the pentagonal shape of each violet and what I call the in-between leaves. Those are leaves that add to the symmetry of the violet in-between the five point leaves. To maintain perfect symmetry, you could remove all the underbrush, that is the leaves below these prominent leaves on the stem.
TRAIN YOUR VIOLET
The leaves in between the pentagonal points add to the round look of the plant so five points turns into ten or fifteen - or more to get that roundness. Of course you can train the leaves to be more equally spaced and flatter by using wooden sticks to separate and hold the leaves in place to give it the shape you want. Or by propping them up from the top of the pot with leaf supports. (You can make your own supports with paper plates and chopsticks or wooden popsicle sticks). And by gently twisting the leaves out straight and manually manipulating them straight out and downward as they grow if you're careful not to break them.
Many times I've had to help the bloom stalks get through a dense growth of leaves so it could bloom more toward the top of the plant in a mound and help the leaves lay flatter. Sometimes you just have to maneuver the leaves down in between the stalks to make the plant look right. You want a profuse blooming circle of flowers. If you don't remove the center buds, the crown can't get light to produce more leaves and your plant could die back.
All violets regardless of their size can look like show stoppers. There's really no need to grow your violet super large if you're not competing - or to pick off all the flowers until 8 - 10 weeks before you want them to bust out in bloom. You can let them bloom any time of the year and enjoy them as they naturally bloom! To achieve perfection, each leaf needs to point straight out from the center. You can easily see how one crooked leaf can change the symmetry of the violet.
OR
Additionally, if you grow plants in windows, you will want to turn them 1/4 turn every day or two so they will have equal exposure to light and promote equal growth on all sides. But to get those show stopping mounds of flowers (even if you don't show), you will have to supplement your natural lights with either grow lights or warm white lights for up to 12 or even 14 hours a day. It really depends on your lighting and the brightness of your light source. Experiment with your lighting until you get the blooms you want.
Anyone can grow beautiful violets. Even if you don't compete with other growers, you still can have gorgeous, show stopping violets in your collection to be proud of. The goal is to attain maximum healthy growth potential for each of your plants. You want to grow it to be the best it can be because you love beautiful violets. The rest is just icing on the cake.
Enjoy your violets and happy violeting!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NOTES
August 17, 2018 - When I really want a violet to bloom I put it in my south window (frosted glass) with red/blue LED grow lights 2 - 4 inches from the top of the plants for 12 - 14 hours a day. My grow lights are only 1152 lumens so they are not the brightest you can get but they don't burn my violets either and I can have my shelves 12 inches apart. More shelves = more plants in the window. :)
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