Growing Better

Viola 'Aspasia', happy in mixed company

Viola cornuta minor last summer

I hadn't realised how much I had missed them until I turned the corner of the house, and there before me were the viola tubs. It was astonishing how green and fresh their foliage was, some holding teardrops from a recent shower.  When I left for a morning visit to a hospital clinic in early November, I fully expected to be back in my little garden by noon. Instead I was transplanted to a room in the hospital, to be scrutinised and analysed and generally brightened up if possible. It was somewhat akin to what happens when we decide that some works needs doing with a plant which is failing to thrive; thankfully the doctors, like myself, seemed to prefer the conservative approach - liquid feeds were deemed better than a good prune, at least for the moment. Now that I am perking up, here I am back to talk about my little plants.

Here we are already in December, and violas 'Etain', 'Columbine', and 'Aspasia' are still flowering; the lovely yellow viola from Lidl is still in bloom, also the two Sorbet violas.  All the cuttings I took in October are green and flourishing, and the cuttings from Tomás are looking happy and even seem in some cases to be increasing. It's 13 degrees celsius today, the mild temperatures no doubt help with the growing.

I am considering sowing the seeds I saved shortly, dying to sow them, in fact, and start off the new growing year.

Has anyone grown a pansy or viola as a house plant, I wonder? If so, I would love to know how they did, whether or not they thrived, if they flowered well, and so forth.  If anyone tried this, I would love to hear about it.

Today's photos are from last summer, because I haven't got any current ones, but I hope I will have some

Viola 'Etain' last May. So far it has been blooming steadily since April

shortly.  Meanwhile, I'm sure you are all up to your eyes getting ready for the coming holidays.  Have fun!

To Start With

Viola 'Aspasia'

Welcome to The Viola Tub,  where I shall be writing about my adventures among my pet violas.

Why Tub?  I like to grow my violas in tubs and sinks, because I have mobility issues.  That is a grand way of saying that I often cannot walk.  That may not always be the case, but for now, it is.  You might like to grow yours in the ground, or on walls, or in hanging baskets - violas will grow anywhere and be happy.  Well, they do need a few things to keep them content; like all plants they need watering, feeding, the removal of dead flowers and checking for pests and diseases, which are thankfully few and far between in the case of  violas.  But I love looking after mine, it is part of the joy of them.

All that, of course, applies to other plants and flowers.  Violas happen to be the plants that keep me happy.

Violetta 'Rebecca'

Unnamed Viola seedling summer 2013

I want to straighten a couple of things out first.  The plants I mean when I say 'violas' are in a genus with many other viola species and hybrids.  The pansy, for instance, is very little different from the plant known as the garden viola.  The difference is firstly in habit.  The pansy tends to straggle, as its ancestor, the wild pansy, does.  Enthusiasts mainly in the 1800s started to 'improve' the pansy, by selecting the best colours and shapes and crossing these, thus producing the show pansy. Later, the show pansy was crossed with, among other viola species,  Viola lutea and Viola cornuta, a European mountain viola the foliage of which was tufted and spread by runners, rather than by small side plants, as with the pansy.  Initially, the hybrids produced were known as tufted pansies.  Now the name 'viola' is the preferred one for these plants, but it is easy to get confused, and I think tufted pansies might have been a handier appellation.

Anyway, next time I will bring along a few photos of my violas, and if you don't know them already, it will be interesting to see what you think of them. By the way, the little viola pictured at the top of the blog is Jackanapes, reputed to have been discovered in her garden by the famous Gertrude Jekyll.