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I'm currently away at the moment and unable to post, but I will be back soon.

- Mairead

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 !

Weathering The Weather

Left to right, Violetta 'Zoe' with Viola 'Vita' with Viola 'Cleo' at the back

We were lucky and escaped the terrible winds they got in England and Wales.  I wasn't really worried about the tubs because they weigh tons and it would be a brave wind would move them, but it was one of the times the weather forecasters were right and the storm gave us a miss.  The blowy weather we get this time of year brings bonuses too, such as the lovely fishbox my son brought home to me from the beach a few days ago.  It is in these boxes as well as in sinks and large garden centre tubs that I grow my gardens, including my violas.  They have several advantages, not least being the fact that they need not be disturbed when the rest of the garden is being torn asunder, as is the case with ours now, while gardening son works out his dream design on our half-acre.

Viola'Irish Molly' beside lemon-yellow pansy, Viola 'Aspasia' in front
 

Fishbox with pansies and mixed plants

The photos here were taken in July.  One thing immediately noticeable is that the pansies in them were inclined to wilt in the heat, while the violas seemed to love it.  Interestingly,  violas are not half so affected by rain either, while pansy petals seem much more easily marked by raindrops, and the plants being of a more straggly nature are easily flattened.  That is one thing I have discovered about the Sorbet Orange viola, it may well have lots of pansy ancestry because the rain tears its petals and makes the stems hang lankly.  I wonder if anyone else has noticed that pansy foliage stems seem hollower than those of the viola, which makes them much less supportive of the plants in conditions of heavy rain. I must add that violas and pansies do very well in tubs of mixed plants as well as in ones dedicated to them alone.

Left to Right, Violas 'Helen Dillon', 'Vita', 'Cleo', Violetta 'Rebecca'
Viola 'Zoe' at back of centre tub

Viola 'Sawyer's Black'

Here is a picture of the Sawyer's Black violas from the Ebay seller from whom I bought the seeds.  I'm afraid it is not very clear if you try to make it larger but you can get the general idea of how they will hopefully look.  I would love to know the ancestry of the various seeds on sale, and no doubt there is somewhere online some hints of these can be found. There seems to be a very laid-back attitude to violas and pansies by many sellers - the term pansy and viola seem freely interchangeable particularly on the U.S. websites.

I came across this old book on pansies, violas and violets in a secondhand bookshop some years ago, and found it recently in my store of books having forgotten about it.  It was published in 1898, and therefore lacks the colour plates which so enhance the more recent titles by Rodney Fuller and Roy Genders.  I don't see any familiar viola names in the lists Cuthbertson gives, though he gives lots of information on the origins of the pansy and viola, more or less the same as given in later books. No doubt you could easily stumble across a copy yourself at some sale.  The child who scrawled over many of the pages with an indelible pencil (remember them?) is more than likely now dead.  It reminds me to make the most of the time I still have.  Books are less mortal than we.  

The Bee And Me

Viola 'Columbine'

The downpours have finally departed, for the moment at least.  Out in the tubs this afternoon the violas were certainly showing signs of having been well and truly drenched.  At least the gnats are gone for good, the boiled stones having done the trick. 

There are much fewer blooms on the plants now.  Violas 'Maggie Mott', 'Zoe' and 'Rebecca' have ceased blooming altogether, and I don't see any more buds.  'Glenholme', 'Etain', 'Aspasia', 'Irish Molly', 'Columbine' and 'Vita' are still blooming away, but with the exception of 'Etain', the flowers are much less in number than a couple of weeks earlier.

Viola 'Vita' still standing proud

After being cured of its mildew, viola 'Mrs. Lancaster' never bloomed again, for the last two months, in other words, but has spread lushly all over its tub.  'Helen Dillon' is moribund, although I have managed to save a couple of healthy cuttings from it, and no doubt will be able to buy it again in the spring, as it is one of the named violas sold by three local nurseries,  although in two of them it usually bears the name of viola 'Etain'.   I bought the real 'Etain' from Murphy and Wood, a rare plant nursery near Cabinteely in south County Dublin,  and they never make mistakes in their plant names.

I found a mere five seedheads today, on 'Vita', 'Aspasia' and 'Columbine', and brought them inside to mature as I have done with all this summer's seedheads.  I have a nice little container of seeds now;  as I said before, I didn't record the plants they came from, although perhaps in the future I may be more careful.  So if I find a really splendid viola amongst my seedlings next spring, I won't know its ancestry.

The Last Flowers on Viola 'Ivory Queen'

Never mind, such an outcome would be a great thrill anyway.  From what I read in my books, it is not as easy as all that to find a really worthwhile viola seedling which might go into commercial production.  From all my books it is clear that more than a unique colour is necessary; you need those long flower stalks I am always going on about, they need to hold the blooms well clear of the foliage and not let them flop or lie along the plant; flowers should be produced freely, that is, more than just one or two here and there; also importantly, the viola should flower over a long period as all the best named varieties do.

Then there is the worry that a plant which starts off in fine fettle will lose its enthusiasm and start producing much smaller flowers, something I have witnessed myself and have read warnings about.  An added bonus is scent - I confess I much prefer violas with a noticeable perfume.  This is more often than not, I think, a feature of the best violas.  My Viola cornuta minor has a beautifully strong scent, and I am really curious to see if this is true of the new cornutas my gardening friend sent recently and which I mentioned last week.

'Irish Molly' with mixed violas

So all the fun lies ahead, the seed sowing, the nourishing and cherishing of the seedlings, the testing of their qualities.  I suppose the solitary bumble bee I met bobbing around the tubs today might well feel a similar anticipation - sadly, I may never know.

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

Cooler Days

Even though I have not been out deadheading so much lately, there are very few seedheads,  the pollinators having obviously been deterred by the suddenly cooler weather.  Today I sat in the kitchen with the Stanley cooker glowing and burping gently beside me, and sorted through my saved viola seeds.  How amazing to consider that each tiny hard seed is a potential viola of goodness knows what colour or habit, that will raise its leaves and flowers to bask in next summer's sun.  I look at my seed trays and ponder whether to sow some now, or wait until spring.  I have read that the saved seed has a short shelf life.  Yet all 2011's seeds overwintered in the kitchen in a sealed jar, and very many germinated when sown in the spring of 2012.  I saved none in 2012, as the crop was very sparse, on account of the tubs along with the whole garden undergoing the upheaval of a total makeover which is not completed yet.

In the white sink - Viola 'Molly Sanderson'

I saw some seeds of a black viola called 'Sawyer's Black' on Ebay, and couldn't resist them.  They arrived last week and, if their picture is anything to go by, they should be lovely.  What seed strain they are from I cannot tell despite hunting all over the web for the information.  I really look forward to seeing if they are anything like Viola 'Molly Sanderson', a low-foliaged totally black viola which I lost two years ago in the unusually cold winter and have not got around to buying again yet.

The thing about having a special plant in your life is that even if the weather is very bad and you can't get outside comfortably, there is so much to read about, to study.  The year that rolls on for me is a viola year indoors and out.  Even general garden writers have words to say in passing about the viola, and herbals also talk about them, since they are edible and have many therapeutic uses which older gardeners knew about.  You never know what you will find said about them. 

Here are two books by the late Rodney Fuller.  The larger one is packed full of information and advice on the care and cultivation of pansies, violas and violettas, including their history and how they differ from one another; there are lists of all the known species, but better still of all extant varieties and cultivars with a succinct description of each one.  The centre of the book has pages and pages of colour photos of many of these plants which is a great help particularly to a beginner.

The smaller book is a little work of art; it describes a mere thirty varieties of garden violas and violettas, and there are entrancing illustrations by the artist Elizabeth Dowle.  This little book would easily fit in your pocket or handbook, to dream over on the bus or train or while in a queue at the doctor's.  Both books are readily available on Amazon and no doubt on many other bookselling sites, and are a delight for anyone into violas.

I suppose some people might be wondering by now about the difference between the viola and the violetta.  Basically it is a question of origin, both having been hybridised in the 1800s by different growers, and although they are said to be different in appearance, personally I find no difference except that which exists between viola varieties in general. The violetta is reputed to be smaller, with the flowers always scented and having absolutely no rays or whiskers on their faces.  However, that description also fits many violas, and I am sure that they interbreed, so the giving of separate names to them is a little of a puzzle.  Violettas 'Rebecca' and 'Zoe' are very unalike to me, for instance, and both much more resemble other viola cultivars than each other.  Perhaps in time it will become clearer.  I really think of them all as violas, to be honest.

Gnat Attack

Viola 'Ivory Queen'

The rain went away and the sun came back - it is still very warm, around 18 degrees celsius today;  the rain brought with it a plague of compost gnats - which I have only had on houseplants before.  I am treating the ones in the tubs in the same way as I would on houseplants;  I take away the top of the soil - difficult where I have cuttings in the same tub as the mother plant - this is to get rid of any eggs - and then I boil up some decorative stone, wait for it to cool and pour it gently into the tubs.  This work will be done tomorrow if it stays fine, and that should be an end to troublesome gnats.  The gnats got going when I appeared - it is amazing how 'with it' they seemed to be, and recognised the tub owner immediately, but there were little white larvae investigating the air also, and no doubt they will have donned their shiny black mini-jackets by the morning.  They can create havoc with the roots of my violas, though, so I await the morning impatiently.  Meanwhile my naturalist son wants to take a look and make a firm identification ( www.gardenofireland.com), and then gardening son will do the necessary work.  The only drawback is the smiling TV weather forecaster, who said that rain would spread from the west countrywide overnight (it is, after all, damp old Ireland), so we may have to wait a few hours before we can wave goodbye to our unwelcome guests.  The cure should, however, be instantaneous.

Viola 'Irish Molly'

Viola 'Glenholme'

Violas 'Maggie Mott' and 'Helen Dillon' are the worst affected.  Viola 'Glenholme', very close to these two, gleams serenely, and 'Irish Molly', another near neighbour, has also escaped.  'Glenholme' is a wonderful little viola, which holds itself very upright over low-growing foliage; neither wind nor rain seem to affect it.  This viola is supposed to be a seedling from Viola 'Ivory White', and indeed I see the similarity myself in the shape of the flowers, as well as in the sturdy constitution of both.

Two Catalogues from Rodney Fuller

Years ago in Garden News, a British garden paper still going strong, I found an advertisement for a little viola nursery in the UK, owned by Rodney Fuller.  Rodney issued lovely little homemade catalogues, with pressed violas from his stock adhered to the front; here are pictures of a couple of them, from 1983 and 1984.  Those were the days when the European Union was only at an early stage, and you still couldn't bring plants from the UK into Ireland unless the nursery provided a phytosanitary certificate proving the cleanliness and freedom from disease of the plants.  I had a correspondence with Rodney which I treasure to this day, in which he explained how uneconomic his business would be if he had to pay for the inspections necessary to get these certificates.  He joked that one day he would arrive on my doorstep with a bundle of violas for me, but we both knew we were not into lawbreaking.  I recently purchased Rodney's wonderful book on pansies, violas and violettas - of all my viola books I think it is the best.  I will take a picture of it for you for the next blog.  I was very sad to hear some time ago of  Rodney's death - he seemed a gentle soul, and certainly loved his violas.

I will let you know in a few days how it went with the compost gnats.  I just thought of something else - for readers in the U.S., I know it's hard to find named violas, or so I have been told.  Last night I came across a website called Sequim.com, which has quite a nice selection of them for sale - they say they are just putting together their 2014 list at the moment.  2014 !  Spring !  Now that is something to look forward to  :)