viola

pansies and violas

viola floral powers

I still find these beautiful viola Floral Powers popping up unexpectedly - one of my better results with seeds. I first planted these two years ago. I see they are described as perennial and although I have them self-seeding I wouldn't call them perennial.

I love pansies (and violas) and find them not too difficult to grow from seed BUT the colours all seem to be the same - all I seem to get are reddish and yellow. Last year I had the same and these are from packets of mixed colour "Swiss Giants". Most of my nigella flowers are boring white (pic to follow) so I'm beginning to think the seed suppliers are filling out the mixtures with the most boring colours. I'm going to try some single colour selections of pansies next time.

pansies

Some things do seem very difficult to grow from seed so I'm grateful for the odd easy packet of seeds such as these marigolds that came free with my seed order. It's reassuring I can grow *something* from seed. As usual with just about every pot in my garden, something has self-seeded itself in it, in this case aquilegia.

pansy and viola colour reversion

I'm rather surprised to see both pansy and viola flowers reverting to a similar colour and happening on existing plants rather than self-seeded ones.

These were supposed to be a black pansy, Blackjack (I actually labelled these properly when I planted them last year - sometimes I forget).

colour reversion pansies

These were Viola Floral Powers although I'm not sure if they were an existing plant or a self-seeded one that grew wholly this year.

viola colour reversion

I now know that the Chiltern Seeds pansies that I complained to them about that were not the colours they were supposed to be had all reverted to a similar colour. Surely they must have recognised that. I didn't know about colour reversion at the time.

Viola Floral Powers and Lupins

viola floral powerslupin seedlingsI had blooms from these Viola Floral Powers (left) very early last year and this year they're blooming already. I continue to be impressed by them.

I planted some lupins late last summer from seed I collected from some in my garden (grown from purchased seed) and was pleased with a good germination rate. Unfortunately the slugs decimated the seedlings. This spring I was so happy to see them coming back from that - until the squirrels got to them! No matter how many nuts I put out they still damage my plants. The middle one on the left looks dead but the other four look like they might just survive if I can keep the slugs off them after I plant them in the ground.


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