VIOLETS, THEIR CULTURE AND PROPERTIES. 
' 7 
VIOLETS, 
THEIR CULTURE AND PROPERTIES. 
There is scarcely any soil in which this 
pretty and fragrant flower will not grow ; but 
it flourishes most in rich loam, or loam of a 
poorer sort with a mixture of leaf mould ; but 
in every kind of garden mould the violet will 
grow and flower. Situation has more to do 
with the growth of the violet than soil ; for 
although it will thrive on a sunny bank or 
bed, it will grow much faster and remain in 
bloom much longer in the shade. The chosen 
situations for the violet are the foot of shady 
banks, fences, or walls, round the stumps of 
trees, and in shady nooks. Of the sorts worth 
cultivating, we may mention as the chief — 
Viola odorata, purple. 
Viola odorata alba, white. 
Viola odorata cosrulea, blue. 
Viola odorata alba plena, double white. 
Viola odorata coerulea plena, double blue. 
Viola odorata pallida plena, double pale blue. 
Viola odorata purpurea, purple. 
Viola odorata purpurea plena, double purple. 
All these are indigenous to our own soil, and 
are sold under many different names. They 
are all hardy, in every sense of the word ; for, 
besides being indifferent to the weather, they 
will bear a good deal of ill usage and neglect. 
They may be grown in several ways: in beds, 
borders, and clumps; in pots, in hot beds, and 
in conservatories. 
m BEDS. 
Although by a visit to nurseries where these 
subjects are grown for stock they may be seen 
in beds in the most open part of the ground, 
it is far better to have the beds in some situa- 
tion which is shaded in part by lofty trees or 
buildings, or high walls. The principal object 
of the violet is its flowers, and therefore what- 
ever jirolongs the period of flowering is an 
50. 
advantage ; and this is the chief difference 
between an open situation, with all the sun 
upon them, and a shady spot in which tliey 
are free from it. In the sun the blooms all 
come forward together, and all are soon off ; in 
the shade the plant is longer growing : as it 
progresses, blooms come forward ; and though 
there are never so many out at one time, they 
may be gathered for weeks. Choose there- 
fore for your beds a shady situation. Let 
them be dug one spit deep, and mix with the 
top spit a liberal dressing of leaf mould, or 
cow-dung, perfectly decomposed; level the 
surface, and between every four-foot wide bed 
let there be an eighteen-inch alley undisturbed. 
As soon as the plants have done growing, after 
they have flowered, take them up, and divide 
them into as many pieces as there are with 
roots to them, and plant these pieces out, six 
inches apart, all over the beds, watering them 
liberally as soon as they are planted. Here they 
will require no other attention than watering 
once or twice after planting, or more if the 
weather prove hot, until they have fairly taken 
root ; they may then be left to themselves ; 
they will grow, and spread, and bloom, and the 
second season they will eomjfletely cover the 
bed. This is perhaps thebest way to grow them 
for their blooms, which may during the season 
of bloom be gathered daily in fine weather. 
Cold days, of course, throw them back, and 
perhaps very few flowers may be obtained for 
days together; but this protracts the whole 
bloom ; the plant's growth is altogether de- 
layed ; it is not merely a delay of bloom, and 
three or four days' flowers coming in together; it 
is a complete check to the whole; and when the 
weather becomes warm again, the whole plant 
goes on again, somewhat the faster for the 
check, perhaps, but not so as to greatly hasten 
the decline of the flowering. TThen the plants 
