Precipitation and Participation

My New Violas From Tomás

Firstly I want to say thank you to a lovely plantsman who sent me ten shiningly healthy violas in exchange for five of mine, a most generous trade, I'm sure you'll agree.  Trading plants is another joy of gardening, and imagine my delight on opening the carefully packed plants to discover Viola 'Molly Sanderson', which I told you I lost two years ago, nestling amid violas I have never seen, nor in some cases even heard of, before.  How I look forward to seeing them flourish and flower !  Tomás, believe me they are truly much appreciated.

The rain today is that falling straight-down, no-nonsense kind of deluge.  The only way to see my violas is by pressing my nose to the foggy kitchen windows, but I know the plants are probably loving the unexpected precipitation, especially since the temperatures are still around 18 degrees celsius.

Viola 'Columbine' blooming away

Viola 'Etain' October Blooms

The cuttings I took during the last week or so are still perky and greener than green.  I didn't come across one seedhead yesterday as I pottered around the tubs.  It looks almost as if  the bees and hoverflies are taking 'industrial action' (which strangely means the very opposite of how it sounds).  or perhaps it is holiday time for pollinators - I'm sure they can take holidays too, like the rest of us.  There are usually bees (mainly the bumble ones) busy in the garden right through December, so they have hardly gone into hibernation.  Maybe they will all be back with the sun.  There are still many violas in bloom, in some tubs just one or two, while in the case of violas 'Etain' and 'Columbine' the plants are still covered in blossom.  Interestingly, in the case of the latter, there has been a change, in that the deadheads which used to be so hard to remove now just snap off at the base of the flower stem - perhaps there is some kind of seasonal cause for this new behaviour.  I know other growers would fervently urge me to trim all the flowers and foliage off, in the interest of the production of cuttings, and perhaps to give the plants a rest from spending their energies in flowering, but I tend to go with nature in this, and will not be cropping back my plants yet.  Those two violas have been in bloom steadily since early April and are looking very upbeat about it.

Car Boot Sale Viola Book

Here are two more viola books, one by Roy Genders, who has written umpteen books on different garden plants, some on gardening generally, many on specialist plants.  I can't remember where I read the interesting comment that this prolific writer plagiarised his own books constantly in his production of endless garden works, but I have always enjoyed everything he wrote and learned a lot from his books.  The second volume is one I found at a car boot sale, casually thrown into a box of mixed items.  Naturally enough I was instantly attracted by the cover illustration.  It is a small work of some thirty-two pages only, full of common sense.  The illustrations inside are copies of pencil drawings, but very helpful in their clarity.  Look at the cost of this little book !  I paid fifty cents for it,  I will allow someone of more mathematical ability to decide how much its value has inflated or otherwise since its publication.  There is no date on it but I am guessing it is a good few decades old.

Recommended Viola Book

To go back to Roy Gender's book, which is full of good stuff, in his list of viola species he mentions how the species Viola gracilis is very much involved in the ancestry of the garden viola.  The editor of the other book, T.W. Sanders, who I see from the cover was a one-time editor of Amateur Gardening , gets to the question of "what constitutes the difference between a Pansy and a Viola.  Well, first of all, both are Pansies and both Violas; they are merely distinct types of the same genus and species."  Now no-one could dispute that the viola known as 'viola' has a lot of Viola tricolor in its blood, but the horn at the back of its flowers loudly proclaims the importance of its Viola cornuta ancestry.  Other writers stress the participation of Viola lutea in the viola's origins.  It would be wonderful if there were an apt, catchy name for the so-called viola, to halt all the confusion. 

Near the top of this blog, on the right, are  two links.  The top one is to the Viola Tub Forum, and if there is anything anyone would like to say about violas, please feel free to go on and post.  This little forum is literally in its infancy, and if people have anything they would like to say there,  posts would be really welcome.  You can start your own threads, it's not necessary to keep to what I have blogged here.  Eventually we might be able to use the forum to set up viola exchanges, even.  You can write about violas, pansies, viola species, seed sowing, cuttings, varieties, anything, it's your forum.

Viola 'Orange Sorbet' yesterday

The second link is to the website of the National Viola and Pansy Society of Great Britain.  It's a fascinating website, and you never know, you might even be tempted to become a member.  Graham, who runs it, is a goldmine of viola information and enthusiasm.  I have not the competitive urge myself, but I know some people would really enjoy growing and showing plants if they got into it, and for this reason alone the society would welcome you with open arms.  If, like me, you just want to grow violas for the sheer interest and love of them, you will still find a lot to inspire you in the NVPS, which is almost one hundred years old now.

I don't know if it's raining where you are, but we have had more than enough now, thank you. Maybe when I write again the sun will be shining down on us and our violas.

Viola 'Aspasia' enjoys the October sun. The sticks are to deter a determined cat

Admiring From Afar...

The rain came down, yesterday and today, and I am snug in the house, but looking through the windows at the violas.  They are flowering on and on, holding their faces up to the unfamiliar rain; the temperatures are still warm, so they will bloom on, no doubt, for a good few weeks yet.

Viola 'Columbine'

I read on another forum that Viola 'Columbine' was lost in the winter in parts of the U.S.  I only have this viola since this last spring, so I will have to watch it carefully in case we get frost;  it has grown so well and flowered all summer, I would not like to lose it.  Deadheading this plant is not as easy as it is with some; the flower stems are quite wiry and grow very very long as the plant matures;  while with other varieties, a quick nip between finger and thumb is enough to remove the dead flowers, Columbine resists, even though the stalks are thin, and it is only too easy to pull part of the plant up if you use too much pressure in the pull.  Hence I found myself with quite a few unplanned cuttings as early as June and July.  Viola 'Vita', which has a similar habit of growth to Columbine, with similar string-like flower stalks, is much easier to deadhead, for some reason.  If it were not for the lush foliage which supports both these violas, I would imagine that the flowers would lie down in the tubs and not look half so perky as they do.

Viola 'Vita'

Viola 'Etain' still blooming away

It is amazing how different the different viola cultivars behave in many ways.  Some are easy to deadhead, some are difficult like Columbine; some need much more deadheading than others; some produce seed heads quite easily while others only yield four or five over the flowering months.  And the plants even behave differently in different gardens.  I know people who praise fulsomely Viola 'Maggie Mott' for her long and prolific flowering, while with me she flowers for a few weeks, sparingly, and now is just green leaves, not very lush either, although she has been fed and watered just the same as all the other violas.  In a way I love this individuality of the different cultivars, though.  It shows that even plants of the same variety are little personalities in their own right.


Viola 'Cleo', blooming since April

One thing I keep meaning to mention.  When deadheading your plants, make sure to run your finger and thumb right down to the base of the flower stalk before you nip.  Some people do not do this, and leave long stalks which eventually turn brown and dry but do not fall off.  A plant bristling with these redundant stalks is not really very attractive.  Also, I would fear that they might eventually rot and harm the whole plant.  At the top of the blog you can see Viola 'Jackanapes', with just such a stalk.  This occurred, however, because an enthusiastic puppy lopped off the flower just before the photo was taken.  It does serve, however, as an illustration of how not to deadhead.