Scored for an African violet at 22 °C, 50% humidity and light airflow, an east sill at an estimated 6,500 lux comes back 98 out of 100. The score holds to 0.6 m from the glass and drops to 68 at 0.7 m. So the African Violet Society of America’s twelve to eighteen inches is sound, with about six inches to spare.
Read on 14 October 2026, the answer box at the top of Google’s results ranks east among a violet’s best spots. It sets the pot 12 to 18 inches from the pane, or on the sill if the morning sun is weak, and says to move it back or add a sheer curtain if the leaves bleach. The pages beneath name east as well, the society’s among them. A year-old r/AfricanViolets thread near the top asks in its title if east is too much sun.
Every caution there points at too much light. Our numbers point the other way. At an east window a violet sits near the bottom of its band, and at latitude 40 the sill itself drops below it from October to February.
Great fit
This plant should be happy in this spot.
Just the right amount of light
Comfortable temperature
Humidity suits it
Airflow suits it
Is an east window bright enough for an African violet?
First, everyone else’s figures, each in the unit its source uses:
| Who publishes it | What it says an African violet needs | What the figure is |
|---|---|---|
| espacepourlavie.ca | 10,760 to 16,140 lux (1,000 to 1,500 foot-candles) | Montreal Botanical Garden: what a violet requires |
| espacepourlavie.ca | 8,600 lux (800 f-c) | Montreal Botanical Garden: young plants |
| espacepourlavie.ca | 5,380 lux (500 f-c) | Montreal Botanical Garden: below this, plants stay vegetative |
| edis.ifas.ufl.edu | ~1000 foot candles | UF/IFAS MG028: bright light but no direct sun, within 3 feet of a southeast or west window |
| edis.ifas.ufl.edu | approximately 600 foot-candles | UF/IFAS MG028: under fluorescent light alone, about 16 hours a day |
| edis.ifas.ufl.edu | 800 to 1,200 foot candles | UF/IFAS EP360: commercial production range |
| edis.ifas.ufl.edu | 150 foot candles | UF/IFAS EP360: indoor minimum after shipping |
| getgrowli.app | 1,500–4,000 lux | Medium Indirect tier, shared by several plants |
| getgrowli.app | 150–400 fc | the same tier in foot-candles |
| foliage-factory.com | approx. 10,000–20,000 lux | shop listing for the cultivar 'Little Love Blue' |
| bloomingexpert.com | 500–600 foot-candle | winter minimum; the page also credits 1,000 foot-candles to UGA Extension, second-hand |
Yes, with less room than the lists imply. The sill estimate of 6,500 lux sits inside the band the engine holds for a violet, so the card gives it 98/100 and flags nothing. The lower edge falls between 6,015 and 5,743 lux, the readings at 0.6 and 0.7 m in the next table, which leaves the sill well under a thousand lux of headroom.
The published figures can’t settle this, because they disagree by more than tenfold. Growli’s 1,500 to 4,000 lux takes in the two- and three-metre rows of the next table, which the engine scores worth a try and not the best fit. The Montreal Botanical Garden’s 10,760 to 16,140 lux is above anything either table on this page gives an east window.
The engine doesn’t model blooming, so nothing here says whether a pot at 0.7 m will flower. Montreal’s garden puts its line for flowering at 5,380 lux, and on these estimates an east window crosses it somewhere between the 0.7 m and 1 m rows, just past our step.
How far from an east window should an African violet sit?
Within about two feet. One violet, moved back from the same glass:
| Distance from the glass | Estimated light | What the light is doing | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.3 m, against the glass | 6,500 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 98/100 |
| 0.45 m back | 6,447 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 98/100 |
| 0.6 m back | 6,015 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 98/100 |
| 0.7 m back | 5,743 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 68/100 |
| 1 m back | 5,000 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 67/100 |
| 2 m back | 3,150 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 64/100 |
| 3 m back | 1,984 lux | Too dim here | Not the best fit right now, 47/100 |
The first two rows are the society’s range in metric: 0.3 m is a foot and 0.45 m is just under eighteen inches. Both score 98, and so does 0.6 m. At 0.7 m the light column turns from just right to a little dim and the verdict drops to 68. After that the slope is shallow, 67 at a metre and 64 at two, until three metres takes it to 47.
So once a violet sits at eighteen inches, the move-it-back advice has about six inches left. A violet on a side table 70 cm from the glass looks as if it shares the sill’s light, and by the engine it’s already past the step. At the same glass, a moth orchid holds its top band to nearly three metres back.
Those lux figures come from the window direction, the distance and a clear sky, not a meter; your room will differ. Take them as a shape: two feet of level ground, one step, then a long shallow slope.
Does an east window still work for an African violet in winter?
Not all year. Leave the pot on the sill a foot from the glass and score it on the 21st of each month, September round to March:
| The month it is | Estimated light | What the light is doing | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| September | 6,481 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 98/100 |
| October | 5,253 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 68/100 |
| November | 4,186 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 66/100 |
| December | 3,793 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 65/100 |
| January | 4,225 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 66/100 |
| February | 5,314 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 68/100 |
| March | 6,461 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 98/100 |
September and March both read 98. In between, the sill drops to 68 in October and February, 66 in November and January, and 65 at midwinter, as the clear-day estimate falls from 6,481 to 3,793 lux. That’s latitude 40, about the line through Philadelphia or Madrid. The estimate allows for the lower sun but not the shorter day, so a real December sill gets even less.
Summer pushes the edge out instead. The distance table reads like a spring or autumn day, its sill figure all but matching the March and September rows, and in June at this latitude the top band reaches a full metre from the glass.
Should an African violet move back from cold glass in winter?
Yes, and in December it costs nothing. In the distance table, sliding a violet from 0.45 to 0.7 m loses the top band. By December there’s no band left to lose within reach of east glass: probed at 0.6 and 0.7 m, December reads the same worth a try as the sill. Cold does count. This sill reads a great fit down to 18 °C and only worth a try at 16, the risk behind House of Hawthornes’ advice to pull violets back. The winter guide argues for a hand’s width off cold panes, and for a violet here in winter that move is free.
Which window is best for an African violet?
On the engine’s light scores, south. It holds a violet in the top band deeper into the room. Missouri Botanical Garden’s advice to use south only in mid-winter is about the season, which we don’t score for south glass. The sources still put east first, for its gentle morning sun, and the south-window page works through what they’re guarding against at south glass.
North is where the sources split. NC State, Epic Gardening and House of Hawthornes rank it with east, while a garden centre says it won’t give enough light to keep a violet flowering. On fit, the engine sides with the garden centre: a north sill reads only worth a try, and the north window guide lists the violet among three plants that miss a great or good fit even on the sill.
Can morning sun be too much for an African violet?
Not by these numbers. The light column never reads bright at any distance or in any month scored on this page. The estimate is one figure for a clear day, and the direct beam that crosses an east sill in the morning runs brighter than that while it lasts, so a leaf pressed to the pane may still pale. If that happens, a sheer curtain softens the beam and leaves the pot where it is, which at this window is worth more than any step back.
How do you check your own east sill?
Put the phone where the pot would sit and look at the number. The label is too broad to help: the app’s meter calls everything from 2,500 to just under 10,000 lux bright, indirect, and a violet’s step at this window falls inside that range.
Every figure above assumes an unobstructed east window on a clear day. A building across the street or a deep window reveal can take far more than the few hundred lux between 0.6 and 0.7 m, and neither is an input here. The east window guide puts the violet on the sill with hoyas and moth orchids, and the free spot checker scores your own sill against the weather where you live.
Published October 14, 2026
