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Updated Jan 21st, 2010
By Robin Corwin - LCF Outlook
A Violet Surprise
in Dead of Winter
Working in the garden is,
well ... work, but it does have
its perks.
While clearing out dead
leaves and winter debris last
week, I noticed the sweet perfume
of blooming violets.
Numerous plants have all
spread from a single division
my mom shared with me years
ago.
These tenants of the shade
have chosen the unlikeliest of
homes in my garden. One fat
clump has lodged itself in a
tiny crack in the rose bed’s
short brick wall. Others peep
out from under ferns in the
fernery and have colonized the
edges of the patio along the
hillside retaining wall.
They’ve migrated so far from
where I originally planted
them years ago that I suspect
the wind must have aided their
travels.
The species I have is either
viola odorata or the North
American native often confused
with it, v. adunca.
Though the blossoms are tiny,
at less than an inch in diameter,
their fragrance is expansive
and delectably sweet.
Holding the diminutive flowers
up to my nose, I’m amply
rewarded for all the garden
work I’ve done. I pick some to
enjoy close up in one of those
stick-to-the-fridge vases kept
at nose level, so I can sniff
their ambrosial scent each
time I open the refrigerator
door ... which is often.
Known as sweet violet,
viola odorata is native to
Europe, but it thrives anywhere
there’s a bit of shade and moist
soil. Since the middle of the
19th century, sweet violets
were grown extensively for the
cut-flower market, as it became
fashionable for both men and
women to sport bunches in
their buttonholes or pinned to
their coats. Are you old enough
to remember Frank Sinatra
singing, “I bought you violets
for your furs”?
The arrival in England of
the Russian species v. suavis
promoted large-scale breeding
efforts, and the industry flourished
right up until World War
II put a damper on non-essentials.
During the war years,
horticultural fields were
plowed under and converted to
the production of foodstuffs or
turned into airfields.
Hailing from the Middle
East and North Africa and with
a complex ancestry, parma violets
have larger, glossier leaves
than v. odorata, and sport
sweet-smelling, usually double
flowers. Violet relatives easier
to grow here than the parmas
or sweet violets, but sadly
unscented, are Johnny jumpups,
(v. tricolor), violas (v. cornuta
hybrids) and pansies (v. x
wittrockiana hybrids).
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