Weathering The Weather

Left to right, Violetta 'Zoe' with Viola 'Vita' with Viola 'Cleo' at the back

We were lucky and escaped the terrible winds they got in England and Wales.  I wasn't really worried about the tubs because they weigh tons and it would be a brave wind would move them, but it was one of the times the weather forecasters were right and the storm gave us a miss.  The blowy weather we get this time of year brings bonuses too, such as the lovely fishbox my son brought home to me from the beach a few days ago.  It is in these boxes as well as in sinks and large garden centre tubs that I grow my gardens, including my violas.  They have several advantages, not least being the fact that they need not be disturbed when the rest of the garden is being torn asunder, as is the case with ours now, while gardening son works out his dream design on our half-acre.

Viola'Irish Molly' beside lemon-yellow pansy, Viola 'Aspasia' in front
 

Fishbox with pansies and mixed plants

The photos here were taken in July.  One thing immediately noticeable is that the pansies in them were inclined to wilt in the heat, while the violas seemed to love it.  Interestingly,  violas are not half so affected by rain either, while pansy petals seem much more easily marked by raindrops, and the plants being of a more straggly nature are easily flattened.  That is one thing I have discovered about the Sorbet Orange viola, it may well have lots of pansy ancestry because the rain tears its petals and makes the stems hang lankly.  I wonder if anyone else has noticed that pansy foliage stems seem hollower than those of the viola, which makes them much less supportive of the plants in conditions of heavy rain. I must add that violas and pansies do very well in tubs of mixed plants as well as in ones dedicated to them alone.

Left to Right, Violas 'Helen Dillon', 'Vita', 'Cleo', Violetta 'Rebecca'
Viola 'Zoe' at back of centre tub

Viola 'Sawyer's Black'

Here is a picture of the Sawyer's Black violas from the Ebay seller from whom I bought the seeds.  I'm afraid it is not very clear if you try to make it larger but you can get the general idea of how they will hopefully look.  I would love to know the ancestry of the various seeds on sale, and no doubt there is somewhere online some hints of these can be found. There seems to be a very laid-back attitude to violas and pansies by many sellers - the term pansy and viola seem freely interchangeable particularly on the U.S. websites.

I came across this old book on pansies, violas and violets in a secondhand bookshop some years ago, and found it recently in my store of books having forgotten about it.  It was published in 1898, and therefore lacks the colour plates which so enhance the more recent titles by Rodney Fuller and Roy Genders.  I don't see any familiar viola names in the lists Cuthbertson gives, though he gives lots of information on the origins of the pansy and viola, more or less the same as given in later books. No doubt you could easily stumble across a copy yourself at some sale.  The child who scrawled over many of the pages with an indelible pencil (remember them?) is more than likely now dead.  It reminds me to make the most of the time I still have.  Books are less mortal than we.