Intriguing Violas

The necessity of getting ready for a day or so away from home this week has limited my time for the viola tubs;  however, a quick visit outside in a strong breeze shows that there are still blooms on Violas ' Etain', ' Vita'  and 'Columbine'.  Not that many, to be sure, but still they beam at me and bow cheerfully in the breeze.

On the left, Viola 'Maggie Mott', in company with
Violas 'Ivory Queen' and 'Glenholme'

Four ladies, Violas 'Mrs. Lancaster', 'Helen Dillon', 'Vita' and
at the back, Violetta 'Zoe'.

I was remembering when I first saw Viola 'Maggie Mott', a root with flowers all wrapped up with some pelargonium cuttings sent from England years ago.  That first sight of this lovely, scented viola has remained with me.  It is very old, appearing first in commerce in 1902, and several seedlings from Maggie appeared later, including Charlotte, Emily, Jane and May Mott.  Sad for me that when, having lost Maggie Mott for some time I bought her again this year, she flowered for a mere couple of months.  Perhaps I will do better next year, or maybe this is a type of behaviour others have noticed also.  Incidentally, very many violas bear feminine names; by far the majority of viola names, it seems to me, are those given to girls - there are a few masculine names, such as Lord Nelson, Mark Talbot, James Pilling, none of which I have ever seen, although I have certainly heard of the last.  I wonder if the combination of delicate name and viola have made some varieties more saleable, as the commonest varieties to be come across in garden centres, at least in Ireland and in my personal experience, seem to be Irish Molly, Molly Sanderson, Rebecca, Columbine and Helen Dillon.  Or is Columbine a feminine name, I ponder?  Was there a character in Shakespeare of that name or am I imagining it?

Two  photos of pansies taken by my son in a local garden centre really caught my fancy.  I was reminded of a crowd of onlookers at Croke Park for the hurling final, or perhaps waiting for some kind of popular spectacle, and the flowers all seem to be chatting and socialising in a very happy way.

The book 'Pansies, Violas and Sweet Violets' by Elizabeth Farrar, published in 1989, gave me a couple of smiles.  She writes in a very whimsical way, though she does know her stuff, but it is obvious that her main interest is in sweet violets, as she races through the first section, on pansies and violas, to get to the much larger part of the book which is devoted to violets.  One very interesting piece of information she mentions, which I may have referred to before, is about a way to measure the hardiness of violas:"It is worth noting that the horn at the back of the Viola flower is an indication of perenniality and hardiness; the longer the horn, the more robust the plant."  I must test this out for myself over the winter.


Elizabeth Farrar says of the firm of J.W. Boyce, who specialise in pansies, that a customer reported "that their Soham Surprise Mixture was so good that even the cat admired them."  In a section devoted to the division of violas, she opines that "Even experienced gardeners can be timorous about interfering with a plant's nether regions...."  but the most piquant statement she makes is about the growing of pansies for exhibition and how it is a specialist activity - "There are a number of publications, listed in the bibliography, that cover all aspects of this absorbing and controversial hobby."  So that is what all those pansies are gossiping about in the garden centre !