My list of books featuring pansies, violets, or violas as part of the story now stands at... Two books. This past week I finished reading and listening to A Memory of Violets: A Novel of London's Flower Sellers by Hazel Gaynor. The story features two poor Irish girls who sell violets and other flowers on the streets of London and then one day, they get separated... Violets feature as both a flower they once sold on the streets and as a scent that weaves in and out of the story. This … [Read more...] about A Memory of Violets
violets
Books with Pansies, Violets, or Violas…
Welcome to my new rabbit hole. By the cover of the book pictured, have you guessed my new rabbit hole? I suspect you haven't, especially if you've never read that book or you focus on that rose. Oh wait, I put it in the title! Anyway... I discovered An Episode of Sparrows by Rumer Godden (1955) while reading Gardening Can Be Murder by Marta McDowell (2023). Marta included An Episode of Sparrows in one of her many lists of mysteries featuring plants and gardeners. An Episode of … [Read more...] about Books with Pansies, Violets, or Violas…
Someone Forgot to Tell the Violets…
"Someone forgot to tell the violets it's not spring." That's the text message I got from my older sister yesterday afternoon when I was out mowing the lawn, and she was out puttering in her garden. If we were living 100 years ago, she might have used it as an opportunity to send me a postcard with a message on the side by the address that said something like, "I saw a violet blooming on October 24 and thought of you." Maybe it would have been a postcard like this one from my … [Read more...] about Someone Forgot to Tell the Violets…
The Genus Viola: A Presentation
Last week, my garden club's speaker "ghosted" us, as the kids says. We attempted to contact the person, we did online searches for the person, and we came up with nothing. A no-show. It happens. So when the vice-president of the club asked me for ideas on what we could do instead, I suggested that if she thought others would like it, I could present a short program on the genus Viola. Well, long story longer, she loved the idea of a progam on the genus Viola, who wouldn't? And so I was … [Read more...] about The Genus Viola: A Presentation
A collection of plants in the genus Viola is called…
I read recently that a collection of pine trees and other evergreens is called a pinetum. A new term to me. I already knew that an arboretum is a collection of trees and a herbarium is a collection of dried plant material. I did some online searching to find out if there were any other -tums or -ums for different types of plant collections and couldn't find any. Then I remembered rosariums which are gardens of roses. And terrariums, which are gardens in glass containers, not to be confused … [Read more...] about A collection of plants in the genus Viola is called…
