There are a wide variety of African Violets with single, double, wavy or ruffled flowers. Pick a colour and there is probably one available in it. There are several bi-colour hybrids available too. If cared for correctly, they can flower several times during the year. A selection of plants in one large pot should give you flowers all year round.
Care for this plant is not unlike that required by Begonias. To ensure you grow a nice healthy plant, use terracotta pots, pick a warm (18-20° C) bright spot with no or very little direct sun and always remove dead flowers and damaged/dead leaves. Finally only water with room temperature rain/filtered tap water.
Watering can be a bit tricky. The idea is to keep the soil moist, but not too wet as the roots will rot. This is one of the easiest plants to kill with kindness/over watering. There is nothing African Violets hate more than soggy feet and leaves, so try to avoid this situation at all costs!
I found the following approach to watering quite affective for my African Violets. Only use terracotta pots, which are porous and breathe, not plastic ones that don't. If the top ¼-½ an inch of the topsoil is dry and dusty to the touch, it needs watering. Stand the plant in a bowl/sink of water for 15-20 minutes or until soaked fully. Stand the now soggy plant on the kitchen drainer, for at least 15 minutes, to allow the excess water to drain off. This way you don't get the leaves wet and the soil won't get waterlogged, thus avoiding the whole rotting problem.
Most houseplant books suggest you pot on and start feeding weekly from spring and during summer. I pot on when not in flower and tend to feed my African Violets as soon as I see the flower buds forming. I continue to feed until the last of the flowers die off, no matter what time of year it is. They don't seem to be suffering for it and flower regularly :)
Pests shouldn't be a problem if the plant is being kept in the correct conditions. The two main culprits are Mealy bugs and Thrips. These pests usually apppear if the plant is in a location that's too dry. In this situation I would do one of two things after trying to remove as many pests as possible. Change the plants location for a more humid one or provide for indirect humidity by spraying near/around the plant daily or standing the pot on a tray of wet pebbles.
The only other problems that may appear are grey mould around the base of the plant/on the soil and crown rot in the very center of the plant. These are both indicative of an incorrect watering method. The mould is caused by soil that is too wet and should be allowed to drain properly after watering (see above on watering). The crown rot is a direct result of water being allowed to rest on the leaves for a long period of time. Water should be poured off/mopped up immediately if it gets onto the leaves!
Cuttings are dead easy and can be taken at any time of the year. The downside is that they require a lot of patience. Simply find a reasonably large leaf and cut it off cleanly as near to the base of the plant as possible. Fill a small glass with rain water/filtered tap water and place a small piece of charcoal in the bottom (to prevent algae from growing in the water) and cover the top with cling-film. Pierce a hole in the centre of the cling-film with a pencil, large enough to get the stem of the cut leaf through and allow it to sit in the water, but not touching the bottom or sides of the glass. Place the glass next to the plant you took the cutting from or in a location as described above and leave to grow roots. Change the water regularly, weekly should be reasonable. Take care to not damage the developing root system when doing this.
