It's an addicting hobby! At my worst, I had over 350 different named varieties. And it all started with a few innocent leaves rooting so sweetly for me. LOL - it's a terrific way to expand your indoor varieties. I could never have been able to have such an expansive collection if not for the leaves being so much cheaper to purchase. I'd like to get back into it after my next birthday rolls by - Social Security kicks in, so I'll have more 'me' time. I will still have to work, just not as hard.

Right now I have 9 adult violets and a couple dozen babies waiting for me to pot up. If I can get one of each of the different 12 plant leaves to make babies, that will put me up to 21 that I definitely plan to keep. I will try to raise current babies plus all I get from her leaves because I need the experience, I am still in the trial and error stage. Once they are up and blooming I hope to give away what I can. My sister and I have a booth in an antique mall (and also sell on eBay). I will rotate some of the plants into the booth because blooming flowers seem to catch shopper's eyes. I'll put a few bucks on them in case someone wants to buy one, but don't expect that will be a big seller for us. Space is very limited in my townhouse, so I can't have anywhere near 300 plus plants!

But now, they've all left the nest so I gots lotsa room! Seriously, I kept it going for years though. But when I moved my 93 year old grandfather in with me to take care of in his final months, I let it all go. Priorities. Alzheimers = full time attention. He was my priority while he was alive. We had almost a year of westerns and chocolate cake together, irreplaceable time!

Since I got chickens, my outside gardening has took a bad hit. Little buggers eat everything! I need to get those carpentry skills cracking on a big coop so I can get to planting again! Plant any thing and they just say "for moi?" and dive in.

Come May 1st, imma gonna start dabbling with the AVs again. I never made a lot reselling, but it helped with the electric bill. Those plant lights added up. I got real good at building plant shelves - growing vertically. Who knew, I got carpentry skills!

Funny story ... had a cop knock on my door, looking for a neighbor. He was drawn to the plant lights, and joked about me being a "grower". He went home with a box of babies for his wife. Yes, we dealers love to spread the plant crack!

My mother has a very healthy one. Maybe I will grab a leaf or two next time I visit her.

Would love to see some pics of yours when they bloom.

At my peak madness, I had seven 4ft wide x 6 ft tall freestanding wire shelf units with lighting, that included rare AVs. Then, I had my first major attack of cyclamen mites about 5 years ago, and it's been downhill ever since. I did my best to save them using expensive pesticides, but lost most of them. I'm now reduced to two shelves in one shelf unit. It's so sad thinking of all the plants I've lost. I'm rebuilding my collection but going to keep it manageable and concentrate on minis and micro-minis (and perhaps a few chimeras).

Meanwhile, in the basement, a jungle of succulents is emerging! AArghhhh!

Edited to add:
Moral of the story is isolate all new plants from your collection for a couple of months.

I have isolated the only two new violets since I got my first ones. Good thing, I got one with mealy bugs. Fortunately I saw them right away and treated it. I haven't seen any more but it is still in isolation and will be for a few months more. I am going to repeat the treatments one more time and repot it. If it still looks clean I won't treat it again, but will still watch it for a while before it joins the general population.