viola 2020

[Gerdk]

Gabriela, Thank you for this quick reply.
Looking at your results I guess I'll increase the amount of vermiculite in my mix.

Gerd

[Gabriela]

Gabriela, Thank you for this quick reply.
Looking at your results I guess I'll increase the amount of vermiculite in my mix.
Gerd

My pleasure to share Gerd; the forum here is one of the greatest source of info for growing plants from seeds, and not only.
For the 'quick' you have to thank Leena I had to answer a message.

I don't know how the sowing mix looks like in Germany, the problem is that here everyone is 'splurging' on peat: readily available and at low cost. All potting not just sowing mixes contain too much peat (for its low weight). It is a terrible waste.

Here's another cutie that just got pricked out - Viola orientalis (germination cold/warm, outdoors over the winter)

[Gerdk]

Gabriela,
Another example of well grown seedlings!
According sowing mix in Germany: commercially available products usually contain more or less only peat.
I use my own recipe which is a standard potting compost (70 % peat mixed with green compost) + sand, vermiculite and perlite.

Gerd

[Gabriela]

Gabriela,
Another example of well grown seedlings!
According sowing mix in Germany: commercially available products usually contain more or less only peat.
I use my own recipe which is a standard potting compost (70 % peat mixed with green compost) + sand, vermiculite and perlite.
Gerd

Thank you Gerd.
Your mix sounds very good. I never understood why use so much peat in all mixes; it either stays too wet or it dries badly and is hard to rehydrate.

[Gerdk]

This is Viola walteri - interesting leaf colour - seeds thankfully recieved from Véronique

Gerd

[Véronique Macrelle]

they are beautiful Gerd!
 I can't make them become so good, at home they always seem to be thirsty ...


 but I have a problem of watering in general on the whole garden, and even more in the pots. I have a 12 m high birch (Betula pendula) dying of thirst ... a cherry tree and an elm also in bad shape.

that also explains my silence at the moment on the forum ..
 
 on the one hand I no longer have a camera at the moment, but also I am rather demoralized with all my lost or ugly plants because they lack water.

[Gerdk]

Véronique,
I guess this viola will be more tolerant against drought when it stayed longer in the open garden.
So special care will be needed only in a younger state.
I found this in Wikipedia:
Viola walteri is found in rich calcareous forests and woodlands, often in dry rocky areas.

Gerd

[Maggi Young]

Dear Véronique, I sympathise  with  your  drought  problems - I hope   you  can soon get  some  good rain to help. Thankfully, even in dark days, there  can usually  be  found  some  little  gem that survives  and  brings  pleasure - and  hope - I wish that for  you also 
 M

[cohan]

I don't grow a huge number of Violas but have a few in the rock gardens, planted surely too near one another years back, so I've since been trying to re-isolate a few, and moving hybrids off to marginal areas where they can do their lovely thing.... a few natives around also, and a couple have happily moved into garden areas on their  own..
1- Viola adunca, locally common native, it has moved into a number of beds, looks good in rock gardens where it stays fairly tight, if in mostly sun, and flowers quite generously, though for a short time
2-Viola elegantula, Balkan species which got caught up in my hybrid mess, I think, not positive whether this one crossed with lutea, aetolica and tricolor subalpina-- which surely crossed with one another-- this one looks quite accurate for the species.
3- Viola lutea the proper species has good sized bright yellow flowers, and fairly erect dark green foliage; this is at least close, maybe not quite...
4- unconnected with the above, this is progeny of some garden centre hybrid violas grown as basket plants, years back; with mowing delayed this year, a few have appeared in 'lawn' areas
5- hybrid, probably lutea x aetolica

[Gabriela]

This is Viola walteri - interesting leaf colour - seeds thankfully recieved from Véronique
Gerd

Beautiful Gerd, maybe a cultivar though, the species had regular green leaves. But of course, much prettier with colorful foliage

[Gabriela]

I don't grow a huge number of Violas but have a few in the rock gardens, planted surely too near one another years back, so I've since been trying to re-isolate a few, and moving hybrids off to marginal areas where they can do their lovely thing.... a few natives around also, and a couple have happily moved into garden areas on their  own..

Pretty Violas Cohan; as you say, it is easy to have them mixed or hybridizing around. For some NA species the situation it is a bit unclear anyway with few hybridizing in the wild as well.

[Gerdk]

Beautiful Gerd, maybe a cultivar though, the species had regular green leaves. But of course, much prettier with colorful foliage

Thank you -Gabriela. I got seeds of the plants shown from Véronique. If I remember correctly she told me that it was a cultivar (perhaps Silver Gem).

Gerd

[cohan]

Pretty Violas Cohan; as you say, it is easy to have them mixed or hybridizing around. For some NA species the situation it is a bit unclear anyway with few hybridizing in the wild as well.

Thanks... the hybrid ones are all European; my local ones don't seem to cross, perhaps not so closely related-- I have V canadensis, adunca, renifolia and nephrophylla that I know of for sure.. adunca and renifolia have found their own way into the garden, and I have a very modest nephrophylla (probably not wet enough where I have it...) haven't moved any canadensis in yet.. I've tried seed of a couple of the native (Ontario) yellow species, but no luck..

[Véronique Macrelle]

these Viola walteri are apparently variants with silver leaves. I read that both exist in nature, green and silver.
 they therefore inherited a cultivar name 'Silver Gem'