I've got blue and white all over the borders and in the pots. Also primroses, forget-me- nots and a tiny spiky blue flower as well. I'm happy for them to appear wherever they want to and fill any gaps. Most came from a friend's garden in Devon. And they are all easy to remove if they get over ambitious. I don't encourage bluebells though as they really do like the chalk and we have woods full of them anyway. We also have woods full of snowdrops but I'm having difficulty in persuading them to thrive in my garden
I have the wild ones. They spring up in different places in the front and back garden. I'd never seen them before until I moved into the house I live in now. I also bought 6 different violets, white, magenta, purple, pale lilac, pink about 5 years ago, they were all odorata plants. and they spread. The place I bought them from have never had them since.
Fishy, alkaline indeed it is, I'm just writing a paper on ancient and modern excavations in the chalk which is the major geological unit in this part of Dorset. The soil in my garden is what I have added over the years. There have been plenty of holes in the chalk from the Romans onward. They built a dam and an aqueduct all the way to Dorchester. Biggest hole though was Isambard Kingdom Brunel's railway to Weymouth about 100m uphill from my road. We have cob cottages, flint cottages and walls, chalk block and flint houses and the materials came from the hillsides and fields here. And I have boxfuls of chalk and flint fossils mostly picked up off the fields as I walked the dogs. A few miles westward and you're into clay vales and fertile greensand and a few miles east and you're into Hardy's heaths where rhodies grow in profusion and both are quite different geology and gardening to the chalk. Dorset is an interesting and sometimes confusing county if you're interested in the soil and it's potential.
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Lovely plants. I noticed I'd got some in flower under the weeds
In the sticks near Peterborough
My mum used to love her violets, was thinking about them recently and that I haven't seen any for years and years. Must get some seeds!
I've got blue and white all over the borders and in the pots. Also primroses, forget-me- nots and a tiny spiky blue flower as well. I'm happy for them to appear wherever they want to and fill any gaps. Most came from a friend's garden in Devon. And they are all easy to remove if they get over ambitious. I don't encourage bluebells though as they really do like the chalk and we have woods full of them anyway. We also have woods full of snowdrops but I'm having difficulty in persuading them to thrive in my garden
Its ironic nut that violets would be called weeds in some quarters, but as you know I'm all for wildflowers
Gemma - my violets appeared of their own accord and its been since the shrubs and trees have matured, they tend to occur on woodland edges etc.
Dorset - I've got some primrose seedlings on the go and forget-me-nots have been established for a while now. Your soil must be very alkaline?
The violets are raising their heads again!!
I have the wild ones. They spring up in different places in the front and back garden. I'd never seen them before until I moved into the house I live in now. I also bought 6 different violets, white, magenta, purple, pale lilac, pink about 5 years ago, they were all odorata plants. and they spread. The place I bought them from have never had them since.
Fishy, alkaline indeed it is, I'm just writing a paper on ancient and modern excavations in the chalk which is the major geological unit in this part of Dorset. The soil in my garden is what I have added over the years. There have been plenty of holes in the chalk from the Romans onward. They built a dam and an aqueduct all the way to Dorchester. Biggest hole though was Isambard Kingdom Brunel's railway to Weymouth about 100m uphill from my road. We have cob cottages, flint cottages and walls, chalk block and flint houses and the materials came from the hillsides and fields here. And I have boxfuls of chalk and flint fossils mostly picked up off the fields as I walked the dogs. A few miles westward and you're into clay vales and fertile greensand and a few miles east and you're into Hardy's heaths where rhodies grow in profusion and both are quite different geology and gardening to the chalk. Dorset is an interesting and sometimes confusing county if you're interested in the soil and it's potential.
I just thought I'd post some pics of my self seeded violets...
Lovely Fishy
I've got a large clump making itself at home in the Wilderness - absolutely covered with flowers at the moment. I love them 
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Me too Dove - isn't it great when flowers 'move in' on their own
It means we must be doing something right?