Cooler Days

Even though I have not been out deadheading so much lately, there are very few seedheads,  the pollinators having obviously been deterred by the suddenly cooler weather.  Today I sat in the kitchen with the Stanley cooker glowing and burping gently beside me, and sorted through my saved viola seeds.  How amazing to consider that each tiny hard seed is a potential viola of goodness knows what colour or habit, that will raise its leaves and flowers to bask in next summer's sun.  I look at my seed trays and ponder whether to sow some now, or wait until spring.  I have read that the saved seed has a short shelf life.  Yet all 2011's seeds overwintered in the kitchen in a sealed jar, and very many germinated when sown in the spring of 2012.  I saved none in 2012, as the crop was very sparse, on account of the tubs along with the whole garden undergoing the upheaval of a total makeover which is not completed yet.

In the white sink - Viola 'Molly Sanderson'

I saw some seeds of a black viola called 'Sawyer's Black' on Ebay, and couldn't resist them.  They arrived last week and, if their picture is anything to go by, they should be lovely.  What seed strain they are from I cannot tell despite hunting all over the web for the information.  I really look forward to seeing if they are anything like Viola 'Molly Sanderson', a low-foliaged totally black viola which I lost two years ago in the unusually cold winter and have not got around to buying again yet.

The thing about having a special plant in your life is that even if the weather is very bad and you can't get outside comfortably, there is so much to read about, to study.  The year that rolls on for me is a viola year indoors and out.  Even general garden writers have words to say in passing about the viola, and herbals also talk about them, since they are edible and have many therapeutic uses which older gardeners knew about.  You never know what you will find said about them. 

Here are two books by the late Rodney Fuller.  The larger one is packed full of information and advice on the care and cultivation of pansies, violas and violettas, including their history and how they differ from one another; there are lists of all the known species, but better still of all extant varieties and cultivars with a succinct description of each one.  The centre of the book has pages and pages of colour photos of many of these plants which is a great help particularly to a beginner.

The smaller book is a little work of art; it describes a mere thirty varieties of garden violas and violettas, and there are entrancing illustrations by the artist Elizabeth Dowle.  This little book would easily fit in your pocket or handbook, to dream over on the bus or train or while in a queue at the doctor's.  Both books are readily available on Amazon and no doubt on many other bookselling sites, and are a delight for anyone into violas.

I suppose some people might be wondering by now about the difference between the viola and the violetta.  Basically it is a question of origin, both having been hybridised in the 1800s by different growers, and although they are said to be different in appearance, personally I find no difference except that which exists between viola varieties in general. The violetta is reputed to be smaller, with the flowers always scented and having absolutely no rays or whiskers on their faces.  However, that description also fits many violas, and I am sure that they interbreed, so the giving of separate names to them is a little of a puzzle.  Violettas 'Rebecca' and 'Zoe' are very unalike to me, for instance, and both much more resemble other viola cultivars than each other.  Perhaps in time it will become clearer.  I really think of them all as violas, to be honest.