kay

Jeri

I do have them in my lawn, but, unlike so many weeds in my soil, they are easy to pull after heavy rains.

I don't get them out of the lawn, myself. I never notice them in the grass except when they bloom, and I like the flowers in the lawn :) I have Bermuda grass, though. Nothing competes with it very well, so there is no 'taking over'.

They've taken over under roses (I like that), under trees, in parts of my veggie garden if I don't use a section one year. That sort of thing.

Lux

the only thing that works is busting your a** and digging constantly. I did hear in another message board about poison ivy killer (now illegal, i think) working well on them, but other weed killers like round up do nothing ... trust me, nothing ...

Looking back, I realize that violets are just about as cute as Bambie when you are trying to grow roses.... both need to stay out of the rose beds.

Smiles,
Lyn

I did try the variety called "Queen Charlotte" that Bluestone Perennials sells in another bed, and after four years in the ground there have been no unwanted plants. I don't know if this variety is well behaved everywhere, or is just not invasive in my particular garden and climate. I like these violets so well that I have considered planting more of them in other areas of my yard. They have the fragrance I remember from when I was a child.

Florence

I remember when I was a little girl back in Pennsylvania we had wild violets growing through part of the lawn. We simply loved them. We would pick them by the fistfuls and give them to our mother. She would fill jelly jars with water and use them for violet vases -- just the right size.

Rosefolly

Rosefolly

Cath

Johnny Jump Up can refer to several violet species in the US, Viola bicolor or Viola tricolor among others. The common Viola odorata, sweet violet, is a violent spreader and I remove it in beds but leave it under trees. Dog violets are unscented but lovely in my wood. I let Viola arvensis and Viola tricolor grow only among the creeping thymes between pavers in my untidy patio. I wish my freckled violets and the Labrador violets would spread. I grow 9 named varieties of Viola cornuta, horn violets, and my favourite is Boughton Blue (aka Belmont Blue) one of the longest flowering of all my plants. It's the only one I allow near roses. It's too busy flowering to have the urge to spread. A selfseeder I don't like and pull wherever I see it, is Viola elatior, tall and dull. It's a protected species in Sweden but I don't think that applies to my plants that come from Wisley seed.

I would say that in America the average home gardener, even the more enthusiastic among us, does indeed not know species names. Very serious gardeners do; but they are the exception.

Rosefolly

Cath

Rosefolly

Now, having said that, I'm wondering if I'll be posting again in a couple of years saying I wish I'd listened and pulled them out...

Yes, we Americans don't tend to know species names but I can certainly bore everybody with the names of roses.
Anita

I agree, Anita, I could spend hours naming rose varieties too!

When it comes to my 7-year-old daughter, I've taken matters into my own hands, and she can correctly identify dozens of plants. And guess what... once she started learning about them, the subject became more interesting to her, too, and now she asks me about plants that she doesn't know, and can tell me which plants resemble it.

That said, I don't know species names for more than a handful of plants, either. It seems like most of what I grow is hybrids without a species name, anyway.

Oh well; it's not going to happen.

Rosefolly

I developed a habit of learning the Latin names of plants when I came to Italy and began talking with nurserymen. I didn't know the Italian names of plants, but the botanical names are universal, so they were a useful linguistic bridge. When it comes to identifying wild plants I find a human guide or tutor is a great help. I get quite confused about violets.

Suzy, the variety of violets you grow is amazing! I'm envious. I have several old varieties of scented violets plus the wild V. odorata, and that's it. But they're great plants.

Melissa

Cath

But then I go into a complete sulk when they rearrange my grocery store. I have been known to start shopping in a different store because I am so annoyed that I can no longer pop in and immediately find what I want.

Rosefolly

I, too, love many of the botanical names, which are sometimes very indicative of their original common uses. Lobelia siphilitica, the great blue Lobelia, is a beautiful plant which was at one time, used to treat the social disease until it was found to be so toxic, more patients were being killed by the cure than healed. Ilex vomitoria was used, you guessed it, to induce vomiting. Sometimes, a plantsman's sense of humor is to be found in the plant name. Lobelia Grape Knee-Hi is a deep purple, knee high Lobelia. I love the pun on the Nehi Grape Soda name. It just tickles me each time I encounter it.

If there is a version of the Sunset Western Garden Book appropriate to your area, get hold of one and just read it. They contain some very interesting tidbits of information which are probably not important for growing the plants, but will add to your enjoyment of them greatly. I was particularly tickled by the description of Equisetum hyemale. It was interesting learning it is a living fossil and was used throughout history to scrub cooking utensils due to the high silica content of the plant. But, it was the caution to be very careful planting it because of its being "seemingly immortal" that tickled me most. I knew it could lay dormant forever before being stimulated back into growth like asparagus. The "immortal" comment said more about how invasive it is in my climate than any other warning could. Kim

It's long ago now but I just remembered that I went on a field trip to Cherokee Marsh in Wisconsin with my son's first grade and the kids were taught about the plants there. One fluffy cotton like seedhead was used by the Native Americans as stuffing in their babies' swaddling cloths, a kind of diaper. I don't remember the name of the plant. Perhaps the now grown up children do.

It was probably milkweed, Asclepias syriaca. We used to open the pods and blow the silk like one does dandelion fluff, Taraxacum officinale, but the milkweed is much silkier - fun to touch. I am going to have to put that book on Ohio wildflowers closer to hand. I knew the genera but had to verify the spelling on both species.

Cath

The wild violets are extremely difficult to control. They grow in the lawn and do not succumb to lawn weed sprays. They throw a lot of seeds.

I also have violas growing wild. I think they are great additions to the garden with the added benefit of blooming deep into winter. There are some blooming now although the single digit temps earlier this week did set them back.

Viola blooming below orange honeysuckle:

I love your viola and orange honeysuckle combination, Harry. I used to grow Raven penstemon around the floribunda, Orangeade. The black purple penstemon growing through the dayglow orange roses was quite dramatic. Kim

Cath

Yours might be the same as mine, Viola soraria, because our states are close and that violet is widespread. But yours looks lighter in color than mine. You might try your library for a book on Michigan wildflowers just to be sure.

Cath

Rosefolly---when I was in high school I was lucky enough to have a delightful Latin teacher----she made the class very enjoyable---

Florence

If you want to identify your violas, may I suggest that you post the photos of them on the Mediterranean Gardening Society's forum?

http://www.mgsforum.org/smf/index.phphttp://www.mgsforum.org/smf/index.php

There is a regular poster on that forum who is an authority on violas. He has helped me with questions a lot.
Daisy

I'd be interested in finding the fragrant type - invasive or no...but I don't know if they'd grow in my blazing hot canyon conditions.

Cath

Cath

Thanks for that insight, Pam. I do have wild violets that are continually spreading through my garden. Some I leave because I haven't been able to figure out if they are friend or foe. I might leave them alone next year and see what happens.

We've lived here in this house in zone 7b of the Piedmont in NC for forty-some years and the wild violets haven't taken over yet, nor do they appear to be even close to taking over. We have a few nice patches where the amount of sunshine is just right, and we dig them up and try to propagate as many as we can to new spots in the yard.

In an ideal setting, one violet plant can get really large, maybe four or five times as large as you're used to seeing. (Ideal setting means that they're watered and growing in rich organically amended soil, soil close to where there are roses are growing in wonderful dirt being fertilized with bananas, etc. and watered when we haven't had enough rain.) We love our violets, and they're every bit as showy as any plant we've had to buy and pay for. They look really good when not in bloom too, with a nice contrast to the rose leaves.

Our yard is mostly woods, and our violets got started however Nature does it. I've seen the variety listed in a book on NC wildflowers but don't recall the name. Anyway, I'd guess that ours and yours are exactly the same variety: if you're still there for forty or more years, yours probably won't take over either.

Best wishes,
Mary

P.S. I have in mind asking for someone new to the Atlanta area... Do you have a favorite nursery or two there to recommend?

The wild violets in my yard are perenial and have an outrageous root system for such a small plant. You can't just yank them out if they pop up where you don't want them. It involves digging. The one nice thing about them is they will colonize under an oak tree among the roots where nothing else can grow. They are quite beautiful when in bloom.

I was glad for this posting last year as it alerted me that the innocuous-looking little blue violet that arrived with a pot of iris was probably not so innocent after all. I removed a good-sized patch that had already sprung up, finding, as Molineaux says, that its root system is scary-huge and tenacious. Another close call.

I would have included a photo of our little sweet violet, we must be in the wrong zone for them to be happy, cause years after planted she is hardly bigger than the original plant.

It is funny how one thing is a weed in one zone and a prized plant in another (not referring to wild violets)

Like vinca major.

I can certainly sympathize with folks who find them invasive - when I lived back in the midwest, they seemed to grow anywhere they wanted. By contrast, out here in my Oregon garden, I have to throw down slug bait to give the violets any chance to bloom...and even then, I'm not often successful. I'm just glad slugs don't eat the roses.

I wish I could get them to grow.
I'm going to try again, tho, with Johnny-Jump-Ups, which are a different thing, and which were always part of my grandmother's garden.

Jeri

So far, they seem qute easy to uproot, and I have not noticed the entangling root systems mentioned above. They are blue and not scented. The cold winters might be keeping them from taking over.