October 1, 1874. 1 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



291 



PANSIES AND OTHER VIOLAS AS GAEDEN 

 PLANTS. 



OTANICALLY speating there is no distinc- 

 tion between tansies and Violas, yet by 

 custom and adaptability to a particular 

 purpose there has arisen a popular and 

 acceptable definition and designation of a 

 different class of members of the same old 

 family of plants. Violas, or what are popu- 

 larly known as such, are characterised by 

 a dense close habit, blooms below medium 

 size, very abundant, and long-lasting. They 

 ■will stand more heat and drought than the indigenous 

 English type V. tricolor, the homely Pansy, probably 

 ti'accable by an infusion of alpine blood communicated 

 in hybridising with the once-famous and still useful Viola 

 cornuta. 



Violas are a very gay, easy, and hardy class of plants, 

 at home anywhere. They have rapidly improved in 

 colour and size of bloom without deteriorating in con- 

 tinuity. Viola cornuta Perfection, Magnificent, Sensa- 

 tion, and Queen Victoria are aU examples of this. These 

 are very rich in colour, free, and telling in spring and 

 summer garden decoration, either in lines, beds, or mix- 

 ture with other flowers. They are amongst the most 

 useful plants that an amateur lacking glass convenience, 

 and not able to make large purchases, can grow to make 

 his home plot gay and interesting. 



This form of Violas as a class will prove most effective 

 in masses or unbroken lines of colour. Some of them, 

 however, are by the intrinsic merits of individual blooms 

 worthy of a place in the mixed garden, where, as a rule, 

 nothing should have a place but what is good in itself, 

 and will bear the test of scrutiny by the eye of a florist. 

 One of the most useful and generally recommendable is 

 the well-proved Viola Perfection, not that it is better 

 than some of the others, nor, indeed, so good, but because 

 it combines merit with cheapness it is worthy of the 

 attention of the gi-eat mass of garden lovers who cannot 

 appropriate a large outlay to the purchase of plants in 

 quantity. The glossy mauve blue of this, with its close 

 habit and profusion of bloom, will make a mark in any 

 garden, and being plentiful, it can be had by the dozen, 

 hundred, or tliousand at a cheap rate. It is not an early 

 spring bloomer, but is lasting. 



To get a stock easily, the best plan is to purchase plants 

 or cuttings now. They are plentiful, and in the best order 

 for striking at this season. They can, moreover, be topped 

 and struck again, and make fine blooming plants for next 

 year. Viola Magnificent is of precisely the same nature 

 as the above, but is richer in colour, and, being scarcer, is 

 dearer; withal, I do not find it quite so free as its proto- 

 type. Viola Sensation is new, earlier than the preceding, 

 and very fine. There is also Viola Queen Victoria, which 

 carries a fine, shapely, high-coloured bloom. I have seen, 

 but not grown, these, and will say no more than that they 

 should be added to every stock, and this is the beat time 

 to do it, and far preferable to waiting, as is commonly 



No. 705.— Vol. XXTU., Nkw Ssbibs. 



done, until the usual time of purchasing bedding plants 

 in May. 



Another promising and very distinct variety of Viola 

 I find in The Tory. It was clothed with bloom in AprU, 

 and so it has continued every day since. It is a fine 

 bloom, of circular outline and good substance, of a deep 

 blue colour. It emanated from Dioksons, of Edinburgh. 

 I am considering whether I dare venture to post a cutting 

 or two to Mr. Peach, but I am afraid the plant is not in 

 his line. It is good. I have yet another fine teUing 

 blue, which most people walk up to and examine. It 

 hails from the north. I have put in every sprig of a 

 cutting from the solitary plant which is called Alpha, 

 and I have hopes of extending to it the same measure of 

 respect which I bestow on Laxton's Pea of the same 

 advanced designation. 



Here I leave the blue section of Violas, one and all of 

 which are worthy of culture by all who can appreciate 

 hardy plants, and who want a colour, with habit, which 

 they cannot get in anything else to give the same effect. 



Proceeding to the yellow bedders of this class of plants 

 we find bright floriferous varieties, differing more in name 

 than character. Most or all of them are crosses with the 

 small V. lutea and some one or other of the large yellow 

 Pansies, and combine the perpetuity of the one with the 

 larger petal of the other. Sandbeck Gem and Pride of 

 Rufford carry larger blooms than the Cliveden, and are 

 very early, free, clear, and good. I can speak well also of 

 another variety not yet common, which was the first to 

 bloom, and has continued without any signs of failure 

 thi-ough the tropical term of sunny weather of the passing 

 summer — it is Dieksons' Golden Gem. It has been 

 truly a mass of gold, the brightest and freest thing in the 

 garden under either sun or rain. Its blooms are medium- 

 sized, of no particular individual excellence, but for mass- 

 ing it is one of the most telling of the many effective 

 varieties. Where Calceolarias refuse to prosper, and a 

 bright yellow is wanted, Golden Gem may be tried with a 

 fair amount of confidence. 



What may be called the Pansy proper, Viola tricolor, 

 may now have a meed of attention. It is not often it is 

 deemed worthy of public mention. It is one of the flowers 

 almost kicked-out of the garden by the tyranny of fashion. 

 But fashion cannot annihilate, and this and other garden 

 flowers have lived to be welcomed back to gardens. The 

 greatest admirers of the Pansy are found amongst old 

 people, and — has anyone ever noticed it ? — young 

 children. The aged recognise it as an old friend, loved 

 in childhood and cherished still. The young, who know 

 not what fashion is, receive the impress of its bold form 

 and rich beauty, and in their innocence and still free minds 

 admire. Turn a bevy of young children into a garden of 

 flowers, and they will, as if by instinct, pick out the 

 Pansies. Pansies and Primroses are names of plants 

 first lisped and remembered. Other names may in after 

 years be learnt and forgotten, but these old names are 

 deeply engraved on the memory, and live to the end. 

 The Pansy is a homely flower and a flower of home. It 

 is quiet yet cheerful. If it savours of humility it is not 



No. 1957.— Vol. LIL, Old Sxsixb. 



