VIOLET FACTS 
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VIOLETS 
Edith W. Pawla 
Once you start a bed of violets you 
have a thrill for there are around 80 
varieties grow in Americas and over 
300 varieties over the earth. With a 
few varieties you can have blooms all 
year. Some grow nicely inpots and 
never lose their foliage. There are 
violets that like sun, shade, rocks, 
sand and clay. They grow from 
Alaska to the tropics and from the 
high mountains to the desert. 
intensely in- 
sizes and colors— 
variations in leaves and _ blossoms. 
Leaves long, broad, lanced, pointed, 
fat, jagged, saw-edged and they grow 
and multiply in many ways, such as 
by joints, runners, ,divisions, seeds, 
roots, sections and even grow from a 
leaf. 
‘here Jare.sa. many, 
teresting shapes, 
Many peopke think a violet is just 
a small purple bossom, but there are 
blue, white, pink, yellow, lavendar, 
cerise, orchid, silver, variegated and 
two tone violets with shaded petals— 
pointed, round, oval, cupped, flare, 
double, semi-double and chopped or 
fringed. 
Violets can be eaten and used in 
sO many .ways—tea, candy, salad, 
greens, and in medicine the leaves, 
blossoms and roots are used. They 
have been mentioned as_ medicinal 
herbs in old books back in the 15th 
century. 
A little spot in your garden given 
to violets pays big dividends, first 
it is fragrant, colorful with abundance 
of bloom and it takes care of itself. 
Once planted you have them for years 
without replacing. Yes, they will take 
care of themselves, but with little care 
on your part they respond at once. 
Violets love lots of water when 
blooming and if the soil is kept loose 
and plants not crowded you will see 
your. labor is returned 100 fold with 
more blossoms and big stems. 
Oak leaf mold is their natural food 
—it can’t hurt them no matter how 
much you use as it helps to keep the 
roots cool and aerated. It is well to 
dig them up every two or three years, 
pull them apart and put back the 
nicest young plants in new soil, which 
has been spaded deeply— I would 
say two spades deep—it helps them 
to winter because the roots go deep. 
The leaf mold also makes a blanket 
to keep their crown warm in winter 
and cool in summer. Wood ashes 
sprinkled around is good to help keep 
bugs and snails away. 
Violets are the expression of gentle- 
ness and love. They are properly used 
for Births, Graduations, Parties, Balls, 
Dinners, Weddings, Lovers, the bed 
of the sick, the desk of the writer, 
and the last tribute to the loved. 
Mary beautiful legends are written 
about the violet. They also rank third 
in commercial use. The Marie Louise 
and De Parme are the favorites for 
shipping, also for fragrance and endur- 
ance. 
I have over fifty varieties of violets, 
many from the remote parts of the 
world, also natives of many states. 
There are eighty varieties of violets 
in the western hemisphere, many more 
abroad. Scope for a hobby or a most 
interesting garden. 
NOW WE WISH YOU HAPPY 
GARDENING and thank you for 
inviting us into your garden and your 
heart. We will do our best to please 
you, just have a little patience at first 
because we are only babies when 
you receive us. 
DON’T WORRY if the first blos- 
soms are small, pull them off the 
second will be large, then in the fall 
little seed pods come up out of the 
ground. 
After they get established or the 
second season you really will see what 
they can do. 
In transplanting it is well to cut all 
the leaves back to three or four inches 
from the crown especially the large 
varieties, they recover much sooner. 
