LIST OF FLOWERS 



flower and variegated foliage. V. acuiiloba is a distinct variety 

 blooming in late autumn and producing flowers of delicate mauve. 



VIOLET. The Sweet Violet (Viola odorata) thrives in any 

 ordinary garden soil, and in ground that is very richly manured it is 

 apt to produce more leaves than flowers> though in light sandy soil 

 a liberal amount of decayed cow manure and leaf mould is desirable 

 to keep the ground moist, for moisture and moderate shade are 

 essential for successful cultivation of the Violet. For outdoor 

 culture of Violets a sunny aspect, well shaded by deciduous trees, 

 is excellent, the object being to gain shade for the plants during 

 summer and as much sun as possible during the winter and early 

 spring. Violets increase rapidly by means of runners, and a limited 

 number of plants should be allowed thus to propagate themselves 

 for future stock; but with the remainder the runners should be 

 nipped off during the summer, so as to produce strong individual 

 clrunps giving abundant flowers on long stems. The plants which 

 have been allowed to make runners should be lifted and divided in 

 September, rejecting hard and wiry runners and retaining only 

 those which are well fibred, the plants thus formed being transplanted 

 into a properly-prepared bed. They should not be permitted to 

 flower in the following spring (any buds showing should be pinched 

 out) and during the summer leaf-growth should be encouraged by 

 a slight mulching of manure. By the following spring, if the runners 

 are duly picked off and the ground kept free from weeds, the plants 

 will scarcely fail to yield a good crop of bloom. To secure the winter 

 flowering of Violets is not difficult. The plants should be removed 

 early in September to a frame placed in a sunny position, giving 

 them plenty of air but guarding them from frost — ^heat is unneces- 

 sary — and thus treated bloom may be obtained in November and 

 onwards throughout the winter by a succession of different varieties. 

 The single kinds are generally considered the best for outdoor culti- 

 vation, though the double Marie Louise and the late-flowering 

 Lady Hume Campbell will both be found useful, together with 

 Princess of Wales, ^Victoria Regina, The Czar and La France. For 

 frame culture the Neapolitan kind are still much used, though there 

 are some better newer sorts, such, for instance, as Marie Louise, 

 already mentioned, while the old Double Blue is beautiful with its 

 fine full flowers, even if its stems are rather short. Some forms of 

 the Violet are well adapted for the Rock Garden, such as Viola 

 pedata, the Bird^s-foot Violet, of compact growth and with large 

 handsome flowers of lilac, purple or blue; and Viola biflora, the two- 



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