Violets / Violas

[Gerdk]

Violets in different colours are at their best now

Gerd

1.Viola reichenbachiana - Viola canina x V. uliginosa from Sweden
Viola jaubertiana - originally from Mallorca
3. Viola sororia Rubra - North America
4. Viola canadensis - North America
5. Viola canina alba - from Sweden

[Gerdk]

the rest

Gerd

1. Viola chelmea - the dark flowering variant from Taygetos/(Greece
2. Viola pachyrhiza - from Iran
3. Viola palmensis - a pansy type from La Palma/Canary Islands
4. Viola rubella - a shrubby violet from Chile
5. Viola xanthopetala - from the Ussuri Region/Russian Far East

[David Nicholson]

You have a lovely collection Gerd. Apart from hundreds of hybrids they do not seem to be freely available in the UK, did you grow many of yours from seed?

[Tim Ingram]

Beautiful range of plants Gerd - what a wonderful genus Viola is and it is so nice to see the species compared from across the world. Having got so excited by the extraordinary rosulate species in S. America (and failed completely in growing them), I am now fascinated by V. rubella which I haven't heard of before. The Iranian V. pachyrhiza is also intriguing; Martin and Anna Liisa Sheader showed V. spathulata at the Exeter AGS Show recently, which looks like a more condensed version of this.

[Hoy]

Very nice, Gerd!

How big is your collection?

The rubella, is it difficult to grow?

[Robert]

Gerd,

Very beautiful violets.    !

Thank you so much for sharing the photographs.

Do the dryland Western U.S. violets do as well for you?

[Gerdk]

Thank you alltogether for kind replies!

You have a lovely collection Gerd. Apart from hundreds of hybrids they do not seem to be freely available in the UK, did you grow many of yours from seed?

David, you are welcome. If possible I collect seeds from my own plants and distribute them - not as much as I would like to do because of a lack of time.
According their exploding capsules seed gathering from violets is a tricky business.

Beautiful range of plants Gerd - what a wonderful genus Viola is and it is so nice to see the species compared from across the world. Having got so excited by the extraordinary rosulate species in S. America (and failed completely in growing them), I am now fascinated by V. rubella which I haven't heard of before. The Iranian V. pachyrhiza is also intriguing; Martin and Anna Liisa Sheader showed V. spathulata at the Exeter AGS Show recently, which looks like a more condensed version of this.

Tim, I gave up (and failed also) to cultivate the rosulate S. American species - the shrubby violets of the section Leptidium
- Viola rubella and V. portalesia are much easier to handle although need the protection of an alpine house in our climate.

Very nice, Gerd!

How big is your collection?

The rubella, is it difficult to grow?

-  difficult to tell - maybe medium sized (?). According Viola rubella please see above!

Gerd,

Very beautiful violets.    !

Thank you so much for sharing the photographs.

Do the dryland Western U.S. violets do as well for you?

Robert, you are welcome.
The Western U.S. species do well under cover but always elongate too much because of a lack of sunshine
during my recent conditions - some years ago when my greenhouse was situated in a better situation they
look better. Outside cultivation without protection against excess moisture failed several times.

Gerd

[Anne Repnow]

Beautiful violets, Gerd!
In my garden Viola sororia 'Priceana' and 'Immaculata' increase so enormously that I have to treat them as a weed...

[Hoy]

Lacking flowering violets worth a picture in my garden at the moment, I'll show some from Argentina Nov. 2013.

Starting with an ordinary looking one; this is probably Viola maculata. We did see many yellow ones like this but I am not sure they were all the same species or not.

[Hoy]

A few more of the yellow one - or maybe some are another species like V. magellanica or reichii. They look very similar but are found in different habitats.

[Gerdk]

Hoy,
Thank you for the pics of violets of my favoured South  American section (Chilenium).
All of them are not too difficult in cultivation - but in the greenhouse here.

Was your botanical guide able to differentiate the species found? - I'am not!

Gerd

[Hoy]

A pleasure, Gerd!

Some clones of these yellow violets should be possible to grow outside. I found plants high up in the mountain with snow in winter  and summer rain. Should have been there in the right time to collect some seeds!

Here is one flowering in my garden now. I bought it as V. labradorica purpurea but read that it is a form of canina. Do you know anything about that?

[Robert]

Here is one flowering in my garden now. I bought it as V. labradorica purpurea but read that it is a form of canina. Do you know anything about that?

Trond,

I do not know much about Viola labradorica purpurea other than it seeds and spreads prolifically here in our California garden. It is quite beautiful, however it can be a problem weed in seed pans. In some cases, I do not mind having it fill in until other plants get established. In other cases, it can crowd-out small plants that are trying to get established.

[Hoy]

Thanks Robert - it does indeed spread around by seed here too. Most of the seeds are produced in cleistogamous (and not showy) flowers later in the summer.

A new round with Argentinian species. This time Viola sacculus a representative of the rosulated ones.

You get an idea of the habitat from the first picture.

[Hoy]

A few other plants from the same general area. Some are rather fit for a rockery!

Adesmia parvifolia
Chlorea cylindrostachys
Gamocarpa selliana
Haplopappus prunelloides
Junellia toninii