News Letter 
October, 1951 
Dear Friends: 
Hope you all haven’t looked askance at the 
whimsical working of the classified ads we’ve had 
in the Flower Grower and Popular Gardening 
Magazines. We were looking through the classi- 
fied ads last summer and decided they were dry- 
as-dust generally and wouldn’t it be fun to do 
somethiag about it? So we did. 
Q. Have a dark blue violet which used to 
have a white edge but now is plain blue. Can 
you explain why? R.R.. Mich. 
A. This is the variety Lady Geneva with the 
hocus-pocus white edge. Now you see it; now 
you don’t. This came up in the letter several 
months ago, and a dozen or so people wrote to 
make suggestions about it. General concensus: 
fertilize! 
Q. Within the last month my darker varieties 
have acquired a streak of white on the petals. 
The streak is right down the center of the petals. 
Mrs. J.B., Colorado. 
A. This is due to wide fluctuations of temp- 
erature, usually present late in the season when 
it’s autumn at night, but the days are still summer- 
time. Violets can take a range of about ten de- 
grees without acting up. They will grow success- 
fully between 65 and 75 degrees, or even between 
90 and 100 degrees. If you live in a semi-tropical 
climate, let’s say, and the daytime temperature 
hovers around 100, you'll get along all right un- 
less your nighttime temperature drops below 90. 
If it does, you can expect certain irregularities such 
as the marked petals described above, or extra 
petals, or no anthers, or three or four anthers. 
Usually the trouble can be corrected merely by 
remembering to lower the windows in front of the 
plants at night. 
Q. Have trouble with the leaves turning 
brown. Some in spots and one plant nearly brown 
all over. Leaves stand up erect and looks very 
healthy except for that. Mrs. F.B., Illinois. 
A. Sounds like too much sunlight. This is 
a rare affliction unless you have a greenhouse. 
Over-exposure to sun will 1) make the foliage turn 
pale, after which it 2) turns a washed-out bronzy 
color, and if the exposure to sun continues it will 
3) become nearly brown. If over-exposure occurs 
suddenly,—that is to say, if the plants have been 
Copyright, October, 1951, Russell Gray 
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