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!

Preparing for Cuttings

I know that I should be cutting the violas back now, so that they will produce lots of new growth for cuttings and division; however, it is very hard to cut off these beautiful flowers when winter is approaching and there will be less of them anyway;  having said which, some of my plants flowered right up to November last year, so there could probably be two more months of bloom to be had this year, unless we get some freak bad weather.

Viola 'Vita'

I have found some seed heads too, but have not labelled them nor noted which plants they came from this year;  it is very interesting and enormous fun to sow them in spring and see what new plants grow,  This is one of the many joys of growing violas; or indeed any plants, from seed.  They are very easy to grow from seed too, germination seeming to be 100%.

Viola 'Columbine'

Here are some pictures of my plants: the first is Viola 'Vita', discovered by Vita Sackville-West in her garden at Sissinghurst Castle. The pink flowers are small, but it flowers on and on.
Viola 'Columbine' seems to be quite healthy. The flower stems are very wiry, and you have to be careful when deadheading, so as not to take a large tuft of new flowers and foliage at the same time. It has lovely stripy flowers with a beautiful scent.

Viola 'Helen Dillon'

Viola 'Helen Dillon' has recovered from a mildew attack in this picture, but has lost a lot of foliage  in the process.

This plant was actually sold to me in Woodies as Viola 'Etain', but since I already had that plant I knew that name was incorrect.  Graham of the U.K. National Pansy and Viola Society pointed me in the right direction to identify it, and it seems to be Viola 'Helen Dillon', but strangely, not the plant which originally bore this name - just the one that does now.  I am not very clear about all this, so will report back at a later stage when I learn more about it.