Hardy and Half-hardy Plants 117 



Christmas to March and April, British growers are able to secure a fairly 

 good price for their produce, and that for bunches only about half the 

 size of those from the Continent. The flowers are usually bunched with 

 stalks as long as possible, and are surrounded with their own foliage. 

 Indeed there are no Violets in the British, markets to equal those from 

 Devonshire, Cornwall, and the south of Ireland for fragrance or size. 

 Of late years, in the neighbourhood of Skibbereen, County Cork, the 

 Violet industry has been revived on a fairly large scale, and one grower, 

 Mr. W. Miles, of Ballydehob, is proving that the culture on a commercial 

 basis is quite possible. He grows his plants in well-raised beds, each 

 about 3 ft. wide, placing the Violets 14 in. apart. He gets the soil as 

 rich as possible, and gives forty loads of good stable manure to the acre. 

 Heavy soil is opened up with sea sand, grit, or ashes. As a rule rooted 

 runners are planted, but unrooted ones give excellent results with such 

 varieties as " Princess of Wales " and " Luxonne ". The latter variety 

 is particularly fine, and flowers from the middle of October to the middle 

 of April, and will stand 12 degrees of frost with impunity. Princess of 

 Wales, however, is much more tender, and must be grown in warmer and 

 more sheltered spots. " Admiral Avellan " is a fine purple-flowered Violet 

 from October till March, and has leaves that are particularly valuable 

 for bunching purposes. The blue variety, " Californian ", flowers from 

 mid-November to the end of the season. To give some idea of the free- 

 dom of the variety " Luxonne ", it may be mentioned that Mr. Miles picked 

 7000 blooms in one week from J ac. of ground one winter when 14 degrees 

 of frost were registered one night and 7 degrees the following one. 



To secure the best Violets the soil should be rich and well drained 

 and of a sandy loam. Large quantities of well-decayed manure should 

 be worked in each year, and if the soil is trenched about every fourth or 

 fifth year the tilth and temperature will be greatly improved. Cuttings 

 or runners should be taken early in spring from the best and most free- 

 flowering plants. Rooted cuttings or runners, if planted at 14 in. apart, 

 will give about 30,000 plants to the acre, and under favourable conditions 

 from 20,000 to 30,000 blooms may be picked weekly from such an area. 

 The size of the bunches will depend, of course, upon the number of flowers 

 put in them. Early in the season, perhaps, there will be only a dozen 

 flowers to a bunch, and they may realize from Is. to Is. Qd., or even 

 more, per dozen bunches. After Christmas, however, it may be necessary 

 to put two dozen, or even three dozen, blooms in a bunch, and perhaps 

 the price then will be as low as 6d. to 9d. per dozen bunches. Assuming 

 that 30,000 Violet plants to the acre will each produce three dozen flowers 

 during the season, a total of 1,080,000 (or 90,000 dozen) blooms will repre- 

 sent the crop. Taking two dozen flowers to a bunch, we have 45,000 

 bunches of Violets to the acre; and taking an average price of \d. per 

 bunch (or 6d. per dozen bunches), the gross receipts come to about 94. 

 From this, however, must be deducted: rent and rates, say 4; manure, 

 5; digging and planting, 4; hoeing, 3; picking, bunching, and packing. 



