Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Historic Florist Mix
Does this look to you like THE classic pansy?
I've been learning a lot about pansies while trying to track down the origin of this seed mix. These came from Select Seeds and they call them Viola x williamsiana 'Historic Florist Mix'. The catalog description says "These sprightly smaller pansies with expressive whiskery faces and a light sweet fragrance are just what you are looking for if the six pack specials of huge floppy sort just don't tickle your fancy. Called tufted pansies way back in the 1800's."
I agree completely with the first sentence, but I'm not sure about the second, nor the name.
I was going to write a long discussion here on the history of the development of garden pansies, but decided that it was so specialized that nobody but a viola addict would be interested, and besides I'm no expert. There's a fairly concise version of the history here, if you'd like to know more. Pansy-growing was a competitive sport in the 1800s, and there are still published standards for judging the flowers. Mine are not going to win any prizes but one of the requirements for show pansies or fancy pansies is that the shape be nearly round, and that's what I like about the photo above. Unfortunately, that plant is the only one so far with round flowers (not all of them have bloomed yet). The others have interesting colors, but not the round shape.
Browsing through the seed catalogs last winter, I noticed that Chiltern Seeds offers something called "Historic Florist Pansies", which I assumed was probably the same seed mixture.
Further digging in the internet shows that Baker Creek and Seed Savers Exchange also offer "Historic Florist Pansies", and both of them identify the source of the seed as Kees Sahin. Now we're getting somewhere. Kees Sahin founded a seed company in the Netherlands. Look at this photo from the Sahin seeds website. Very similar to my photos. So that's where these seeds originated, apparently. And they call them Viola x williamsiana, so I guess I'll accept that as the proper name.
Sadly Mr. Sahin passed away in 2006, and his company was acquired by a Japanese seed producer, but his contributions to our gardens live on.
Labels: violas
11 Comments:
No matter the name, those are very beautiful pansies and yes, what *I* think of as your classic pansy color and design. I love pansies in the garden; their little smiling faces never fail to excite. :)
Pansies are one of my favorite flowers. They just look so bright and cheery and always happy to see you.
It's nice to get a bit of background info on pansies as they are one of my favourite flowers. I like it that yours have a scent, many of the modern varieties with humongous flowers don't. I recently found out that the yellow pansies in my windowbox are scented too, the blue ones aren't. I will try to find some pansy seeds for next year and sow some myself.
Lovely post!
I never met a pansy or a viola I didn't love, Entangled...they're just such wistful, whimsical faces that I can't help but smile when I see them. I'm glad you wrote about them.
Nancy: While researching this, I was surprised to learn that one of the goals of the viola breeders of the 1800s was to develop flowers without faces. I can't imagine why they wanted to do that!
Lisa: I think I like pansies because they're one of the first flowers I knew when very young. Even then, I always admired the ones with faces.
Yolanda: These are lightly scented, but some of the ones I bought at the garden center this spring are very strongly scented. If I ever find the labels again (and I know they're here somewhere), I'll let you know what varieties they are.
Jodi: Your comment came in while I was writing the first set of replies. I think of pansies as old-fashioned flowers, but I don't know why - new ones are released every year. But maybe that's why I was seeking out some that seemed more quaint.
Hey, did you update your image icon? I need to do that too.
Your pictures are perfect examples of the wonderful faces on pansies. They feel like our little garden friends looking at us as we work.
I don't care what colour, shape or size pansies are. I just love them and want lots of them around.
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Oh thank you for the beautiful pansy pictures! They are my favorite ( among many favorites) flower and I love the historical background you included.
[sorry to repeat the comment, but had to remove typos!]
Jane Marie, Sue and Ilona: I'm always pleased to learn that there are other pansy fans out there - thanks for stopping by!
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