Tangled Branches: Cultivated

happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia

Friday, March 27, 2009

Violas and Alliums: Wild and Cultivated

Yikes, I started this post last Sunday and here it is Friday and I haven't finished it. Seems most of the week was taken up by weeding and that's part of the subject matter here, so it's still current. But let's look at something nice first. Here's the first bloom on a self-sown viola. One of the children of last spring's planting of Historic Florist Mix violas.

Now for it's weedy cousin. Even though it's a weed and even though it's threatening to take over the vegetable garden, I love this tiny little Johnny-Jump-Up-like flower. If it's growing where it isn't in the way, I just leave it. I'll probably kick myself someday.

Its Latin name is Viola arvensis, meaning Viola of the fields, and is native to Europe. Apparently it was once considered a subspecies of Viola tricolor, the ancestor of our Johnny-Jump-Ups. You can see the resemblance.

If Viola arvensis is my favorite weed at the moment, then Allium vineale is my most hated. This wild Allium, aka Wild Garlic, is another European import. Sources disagree on whether it's edible but if it is, I'd have plenty of Alliums to eat even if I never planted another one. This stuff is coming up everywhere and it has to be dug out to get the bulb and the roots. If you just pull on it, you only get the top. Here's a picture of it infesting a clump of thyme.

But there's good Allium news in the garden too. The garlic I planted last fall is growing vigorously now.

This is 'Red Toch'. Never grown that variety before, so I can't say much about it yet, except that it's the largest so far.

The Evergreen Bunching Onions planted last fall are growing very well also, and I've been sampling them over the last few weeks. I think I'm supposed to leave them alone to make bigger clumps, but so far I've been digging up clumps, peeling off the largest stalk from the clump and replanting the rest. I have more bunching onion seedlings coming along so I should have enough even if I get too impatient and eat these before they multiply. The other multiplier onions I planted last fall (Egyptian Top Set and Yellow Potato Onion) are sprouting sporadically.

Is anybody interested in a short tutorial on growing and using green garlic? Or...? I have several blog posts in draft form and need help deciding what to post next.

Labels: garlic, violas, weeds

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

Friday, March 28, 2008

Too Cute To Be a Weed

Just yesterday I planted some HUGE pansies, and then I find these blooming in the vegetable garden. I'm going to let them stay (for now) because I think they're adorable.
Viola arvensis

The flowers are tiny, smaller than my fingernails and I have small hands.

A couple of small patches of Bluets are now in bloom, but no sign of Spring Beauties yet.
Bluets (Houstonia sp.)

Yesterday turned out to be a good day for gardening, but we could use some rain. The basil post I had planned will have to wait, but here's a preview - I sowed seeds of a dozen or so different varieties this week.

Labels: bluets, violas, wildflowers

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Late March Flowers and Mysteries

March is turning out to be a busy month here. I've written blog posts in my head, but as far as I know there's no way to upload those. Speech-to-text maybe? Until I get that figured out, how about some pictures?

It's the beginning of daffodil-and-little-blue-flower season here. I have mystery plants of both kinds - products of long ago planting and ~~sloppy~~ no recordkeeping.

Chionodoxa sardensis. Looks like a huge plant here, but really isn't.

Mystery Chionodoxa. Flowers are one to a stem.

Scilla siberica and Sedum rupestre 'Angelina'.
This was a happy accident.
I forgot all about the Scillas when I planted the Sedum last summer.

The violets seem especially floriferous this year.

Narcissus 'Lemon Glow'.
Still don't know if I like this one.
The flowers are huge and the stems seem way too short for them.

Mystery Narcissus.
One of my favorites.
It came from Costco in a bag of mixed bulbs, many years ago.

Narcissus 'Ice Follies' and associates.
They were all supposed to be Ice Follies.

Mystery seed pod.
Found while working in the vegetable garden a couple weeks ago.
It's large - about 1 1/2 to 2 inches long.

If it rains today, look for a post about basil and tomato soup tomorrow. If no rain, I'll be composing in my head again while in the garden. Which reminds me - does anybody else remember Herman's Head, the TV show? I always liked that show...