I have no idea what this is, hummersteve. Hopefully, someone else does. Do you think it's a named Salvia hybrid? I'm afraid you've got only the varietal name--not the scientific name. It's as if you were looking at a hollyhock strain called "Ruby Red," but the word "hollyhock" wore off the label and all you've got for a name is "Ruby Red." If you didn't know it was a hollyhock, you'd have a hard time tracking it down. Without that scientific name or a familiar common name, I have no idea what it is. I did do a google search on "oriental violet" and nothing useful came up.

Tell you what, if I'm at Lowe's in the next few days, I'll look for it, and see. Maybe others can do the same. I don't know if your Lowe's carries what ours does, but since our climates are similar, there's a good chance it does.

Kristin

The reason it caught my eye is it had that one big flower open. That was the only name it had that I saw , maybe if I went back I detect something else. See what I can do. Only problem is they only had a few and with the weather people may be snatching them up rather quickly.