Three cultivars of African violet (Saintpaulia ionantha H. Wendl.) were propagated by leaf cuttings. Each cultivar possessed flower color series where the petals were of a single color (pink or blue, white and colored, or pure white. Most of the regenerated plants developed flower colors true to the mother plant, but some plants expressed different colors or color pattern. A hypothesis is tested, which is based on a periclinal chimeric structure of the plants including four cell layers in the petals of the cultivar 'Aksel' and three cell layers in the petals of 'Rokokko' and 'Rick'. In 'Aksel' the outer cell layer and the position of a blue pigmentation in the second layer do not determine the petal color, here the third or fourth layer determine the amount of blue color in the petals. Blue flecks were observed on pure white petals, these flecks could be due to a periclinal cell division of the outermost cell layer. In the cultivar 'Rokokko', bicolored plants with petals possessing pink margins and white center were the normal color pattern. The reverse color pattern with a pink center and white margins were observed among the regenerated plants.