Awash in violets

Flowers occupy much of the Kast home, even a bathtub.

By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF, Times Correspondent
Published October 8, 2007

Nancy Kast watchs as her husband Jerry pulls back plastic covering shelves of flowers growing in their kitchen. The plastic helps maintain humidity on the plants.
	[Mike Pease | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Mike Pease | Times] Nancy Kast, with help from her husband, is growing this Streptocarpus 'Bethan' for competition.

SAN ANTONIO - Nancy Kast grows African violets that most of us only get to see in a botanical garden - or a science fiction movie. Profuse and voluptuous, they bloom in shades of pink, fuchsia and purple and grow to the size of old-fashioned church hats.

She tends to them inside her house on the seventh hole at the Tampa Bay Golf and Country Club. African violets bloom in the living room, bedrooms, sunroom and bathrooms - even in the large garden tub off the master bedroom.

No need for a bathtub anyway.

"We decided we couldn't get out of it if we tried," says Jerry Kast, who is 73 and retired from his job as a traffic manager for a company that manufactured dust collectors for commercial sanders.

Until four years ago, the couple split their time between a mobile home in Zephyrhills and their home in Adrian, a small Michigan town not far from Toledo, Ohio.

"We got tired of going back and forth," says Nancy, 72.

So did the magnificent show plants, which Jerry carefully packed in their Dodge conversion van.

She didn't grow as many then, though she was working on it, "reading and reading and reading" until she knew just about everything she needed to know."

There are no secrets, she says, just a loving husband who helps her keep track of the watering schedule.

"They used to be a lot smaller and I didn't grow as many," says Nancy, who got interested after going to an African violet show in Spring Hill and "getting hooked." These days she belongs to the Tampa African Violet Club, which meets at the Seminole Heights Garden Center.

"I've had a few plants through the years - but nothing like this. It's a compulsive thing," she says.

Now she grows African violets by the hundreds, lecturing widely on the subject and raking in awards at the local, state and national level.

This weekend, her plants will be on parade at a show at a Holiday Inn in Lakeland. Next week, at another show in York, Pa.; then, a road trip to Boston to visit friends who are also African violet enthusiasts.

It takes almost two years to grow a show-worthy plant, Nancy says. That's from the time she "sets" the leaf in water her preferred method for growing them to the time it reaches a mature beauty at about 20 inches in circumference.

"People think African violets are hard to grow, but they're really not. You just can't give them too much water, it rots out the roots," says Nancy, who used to raise canaries and admits she just "likes to take care of living things."

The Kasts' three-bedroom, two-bath, 1,245-square-foot house is a testament to that, with the racks of well-tended, well-lit flowering plants that catch the eye at every turn.

Around this house, plants have no choice but to sprout like something out of Jack and the Beanstalk. There are even special signs to cheer them on like: "This is Your Last Chance - Bloom!"

The Kasts also collect antiques, a collection that spans centuries and includes fine furniture, china dolls, clocks and kitsch, notably a mid-20th century electric marshmallow toaster and a toy truck advertising Wrigley Spearmint gum. The collection extends to the personal as well and includes a quilt Jerry pieced with his grandmother when he was 9, and a child-size princess dresser that belonged to one of Nancy's great-grandmother's sisters.

Also on display are several beautiful antique rocking chairs that Jerry restored and caned.

The couple say they love living at the Tampa Bay Golf and County Club, a 55-and-older community, where they've made a wide circle of friends among the many other retirees.

"There's so much going on that they have to have their own TV channel to list it all," Nancy says. "There's crafts, a book club, even motorcycle, computer and writing groups. You can play pinochle, dominoes or Mah Jongg. We're bridge players. You can play bridge four days a week."

The couple, who have been married 55 years, have four children and 10 grandchildren andstill get along famously. They drive around the Southeast to African violet shows, transporting their precious cargo on racks that Jerry devised to stack inside the van.

"He's really supportive. I don't know what I'd do without him," Nancy says with a smile. "I like seeing the flowers at the shows; he likes the people. The people really are what keep him going."

After all, Jerry's only been in his own bathtub twice.

No problem, though, because he can actually joke about it.

Says Jerry: "We're growing a garden in our garden tub - so we take showers instead."

Elizabeth Bettendorf can be reached at ebettendorf@hotmail.com.

[Last modified October 7, 2007, 21:02:02]