I have violet odorata in the front garden. They do spread in little clumps but I just pull them up if they are in a place I don't want them. The front garden is quite open and sunny so they tend to hide behind the wall in the shade.
I have them self-seeded all over the place, and I love them. I pull up anything that's in the wrong place, and pop them into a spare piece of garden, and this can sometimes bring its own surprise.
We have a leat at the end of the garden, and I put a lot of seedlings on the bank - perfect. And then I forgot about them. The other day, working at the end of the garden, a sweet violet scent made me stop what I was doing and hunt around for the source - and lo and behold, the forgotten seedlings had clumped up and were in flower, perfuming the air. What a lovely moment!
And yes, I do remember the florist selling bunches of violets. They were 6d a bunch, and on my limited pocket money, I could only afford 3d. The florist would kindly sell me half a bunch for my mum - and I was so proud to give them to her. Ah, such simple times. And the scent of violets brings back happy memories of her.
here in the states violets are pretty generally considered a vile and unprincipled weed. i rather like them and weed out the plain violet ones and encourage the reds, creams and wine.
I tried to get a close up, sorry it is not that good a photo. They are mainly facing the wrong way. The sweet white violets seem to be a bit behind this year..
I have a new clump of violets coming up that are much larger in leaf and flower and the colour is different as well. Can anyone tell me what sort I've got please? Unable to load pictures as I usually do. First ones are tiny dark purple, common in woodlands etc. Second ones have a pinky magenta colour.
Posts
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I have one little patch that dosent seem to spread but I guard them well as they are just so beautiful
does anyone else remember buying a bunch of violets or snowdrops in flower shops?
sadly not seen anymore
A A Milne
I have violet odorata in the front garden. They do spread in little clumps but I just pull them up if they are in a place I don't want them. The front garden is quite open and sunny so they tend to hide behind the wall in the shade.
I have them self-seeded all over the place, and I love them. I pull up anything that's in the wrong place, and pop them into a spare piece of garden, and this can sometimes bring its own surprise.
We have a leat at the end of the garden, and I put a lot of seedlings on the bank - perfect. And then I forgot about them. The other day, working at the end of the garden, a sweet violet scent made me stop what I was doing and hunt around for the source - and lo and behold, the forgotten seedlings had clumped up and were in flower, perfuming the air. What a lovely moment!
And yes, I do remember the florist selling bunches of violets. They were 6d a bunch, and on my limited pocket money, I could only afford 3d. The florist would kindly sell me half a bunch for my mum - and I was so proud to give them to her. Ah, such simple times. And the scent of violets brings back happy memories of her.
here in the states violets are pretty generally considered a vile and unprincipled weed. i rather like them and weed out the plain violet ones and encourage the reds, creams and wine.
I tried to get a close up, sorry it is not that good a photo. They are mainly facing the wrong way. The sweet white violets seem to be a bit behind this year..
I have a new clump of violets coming up that are much larger in leaf and flower and the colour is different as well. Can anyone tell me what sort I've got please? Unable to load pictures as I usually do. First ones are tiny dark purple, common in woodlands etc. Second ones have a pinky magenta colour.
I think we do need a photo to ID these. Try making your photo smaller, this site doesn't seem to accept high resolution pics.
Thanks I'll try to do that. Though I've never had a problem before.
As usual, the troops rally round and sort things out, so with help from my photo problem thread I'll send the photos I took earlier.