| ~~continued from Page One~~  Encouraging Others.... To Live With a Passion!
Dr. William Price, with the AVSA 2003 National Convention Best Trailer and Best In Show plant, Baby Brian.
Just how does Bill grow those award winning plants? "I have experimented with numerous soil mixes ( commercial and home made recipes) over the years. When I lived in eastern Canada ( Winnipeg and Toronto), I found that plants did better with a slightly heavier mix. Since moving to the west coast about 25 years ago and initially trying my same soil mixes here, I have found that the plants do better with a lighter mix. My current mix is a roughly 1/3 each by volume of perlite, vermiculite and (reconstituted) New Zealand Moss pellets to which I add some dolomite lime and bone meal."
BELOW~~'Light garden shelf with Episcia 'Chocolate Warrior', S. 'Deer Trail' and S.species #21'  Leaves are started in pure vermiculite in individual small plastic pots and Bill keeps them under a dome on the light stand until the new plantlets start to show. "I then remove the dome and let the clump of plantlets grow in the open until they are large enough to handle, which may be several months. I just don’t happen to like working with very small plantlets-probably because my fingers are just too clumsy! I transplant the babies to small 1 oz. plastic cups ( like the ones that sauces are given in from Asian restaurants) with holes drilled in the bottom. Then they are just potted up as they grow to 2-3-4" pots,etc."
"Watering is done twice a week with dilute fertilizer at one of these times. I use several commercially available fertilizers in rotation (eg. 20-20-20, Peters, ‘Fish’, etc.) at rate of ¼ strength ( for most brands that suggest 1 tsp./gal/month-this works out to be ¼ tsp/gal./week). I haven’t yet used wick watering but plan to try it this year. Temperatures in my growing areas range from 18- 23C in the winter and 20-27C in the summer. Humidity stays quite even as well between 40-70% year round." BELOW~~'Saintpaulia orbicularis, Petrocosmea paryorum and Chirita tamiana on my office coffee table'  " I have several hundred violets growing under standard 2-tube light shelves (on timers for 12 hours/day) as well as in natural light. I have found that AV species do very well under natural light - east windows at home or north-east windows at my office."
What types of violets does Bill prefer? "Other than liking them all ( ! ) , I do lean towards the species, trailers, and semi-miniature and miniature varieties. I prefer the simplicity of single blossoms in general but enjoy  other blossom types too,especially when bloom shape and colour is consistent on the plant. For good use of space, one gets so much bloom from the semi’s and mini’s." LEFT~~S.rupicola 'Cha Simba' (natural light grown) The question had to be asked: Does he have any favorite hybridizers? "I don’t really have any particular ones. I am fussy though in selecting varieties that are not only distinctive ( eg: that are easily recognizable as a different variety) but that also are good growers-vigorous, good form and of course, lots of flowers!" Bill was very honest when asked what he felt were his biggest mistakes as a grower. "Let’s see…mistakes…not sure if your page is big enough ! A few mistakes stand out:
1) Being slow to learn to not pot plants up too soon.
2) A couple lessons that made me learn to isolate new plants- a) When I was moving to Vancouver, I didn’t pay attention to the grey centers on a few of the plants as I packed all the plants in boxes and so when I got here, I had virtually a 100% cyclamen mite infestation. b) Learning the hard way about soil mealy bug-thinking the white cottony marks inside the pots was just squashed perlite- duh !" "Concerning what I do well, I feel I am a reasonably good grower and am always learning from what I hear that others do/don’t do to improve my techniques. My one major new experiment on the horizon is to try 'wicking'." BELOW~~Aeschynanthus humilis ( light stand shelf-2-tubes)  "My experience is that African Violet and Gesneriad growers are very generous not only with their plant material but in addition with giving helpful advice and support." Bill has been very generous with his time and many av growers send their thanks for his enthusiastic example of growing African violets.
**Dr. Price is presenting a program entitled, "Compatible Gesneriads!" at the 2004 AVSA Convention on Saturday, April 17, 2004.**
For details, see AVSA website . Back to Grower Interviews | 
