What's In A Name?

You can buy violas almost anywhere plants are sold, that is, the pansies and their tufted cousins, although of course I am talking about garden violas here, but you cannot buy the named varieties everywhere.  Garden centres generally sell seed-grown violas in huge numbers, both in the spring and at this time of the year, for bedding purposes.  What is the difference between the so-called 'named' violas and those grown from seed?  This puzzled me for a good while.  I knew there was something, I could see it, but not say it.  Eventually realisation dawned.

The main difference you will find is in the habit of the viola - the seed-grown ones are very vigorous, very hardy, but not the same as their named cousins.  In the main,  the flower stalks of the named varieties are taller, held well above the foliage; this foliage, as I have mentioned before, tending to spread outwards in a tuft-like manner, not holding together in a clump as with most of the seed-grown plants. In the case of the seed-grown plants, this clump will spread, but the flowers are held close to it, even if they have fairly long stalks. You need to look yourself at the two types to see what I mean. As to scent, those grown from seed often do have it, but the perfume from the flowers of the named ones is usually truly delicious, and rises into the air all round the plants.  Both the plants grown from seed and the named varieties attract all kinds of pollinating insects; today, in the heat of our tropical weather which has come from the Azores, so the weathermen tell us, the air over the violas was teeming with hoverflies, bees, other flies gleaming like jewels that I have no name for, and even the odd wasp, which latter insects do not always seem to be very attracted to violas.

Sorbet Mixed Violas

There is one type of viola grown from seed which often does have tufted foliage and tall flower stalks; I was informed by the sales person in the nursery that they are called Sorbis violas - I have just now discovered that this should actually be 'Sorbet'.  No wonder I couldn't find them online.  At the outset I should say that one box of these violas can embrace several different-looking plants.  Some look rather like the primitive wild pansy, in shape and even at times in size.  Some have a modest scent, some don't.  Some have a very attractive, rounded shape flower, and nice colours, some are more like the ordinary

A Sorbet viola, scentless

bedding violas that have been available for years.  I don't think they could be F1 Hybrids, because of this inconsistency, but I am willing to be proven wrong, because my education in such matters is quite deficient, and I am only learning as I go.

In Lidl I bought a box of mixed bedding violas, and a couple of plants have indeed long flower-stalks, a memorable scent, and very desirable colours; however, the flowers despite the long flower stalks still do not stand out as high as I would like over the foliage, and the leaves are not spreading, but rather make a clump, so that the flowers seem to be studded on the plant rather than dancing above as in the case of the named  'tuftys', which, it seems to me still have not been surpassed by any seed-grown varieties..

An orange Sorbet viola, scented

I am more than willing to admit that plants of the last description are in the end a matter of taste; also that some named varieties do not hold their flower-stalks as high as those of other named plants; nor do all the named varieties run and create offsets so willingly as others.  I will discuss these again.  Suffice it to say for the moment that it is the named varieties of viola that have stolen my heart and remain true to their promise year after year.

On the left is the viola purchased in a mixed box from Lidl.  It is very highly-scented, a beautiful colour, but the flower-stalks, of medium length, hardly clear the foliage, which is in a clump rather than tufted, as with named varieties and in the case of the two Sorbet violas pictured above.
As I said above, not all Sorbet plants show this tufted quality either.

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.