Hi !

Thanks for the pic :-)
Which one is it ? Sororia ?
I guess we are all waiting for flowers to come...neverending winter :-/

All the best.
Thierry.

Hello Thierry,
I'm sorry, I forgot to label it. It is the purple Viola sororia - the most common violet growing in my area. I had potted this one up, last Fall, to try some grafting experiments on its thick rhizomes. The grafts didn't take, but I kept watering it anyway -- I couldn't let it die, even if it is "just a weed" to many people.
It won't be long before we'll all get to see lots of violets. I can hardly wait.
Take care, Tom

Sororia is becoming my favorite one with odorata: mainly 'cause they don't care about red mites, they don't care when it's very cold and their flowers are so big :-)

Some grafting experiments on its rhizomes !!! Interesting idea :-) What did you try exactely ? Don't know if grafting is possible on violets: did someone ever try or success or read something about such an expériment ?? I think I gonna try...you did prick my curiosity Tom :o)

U're right, many people consider violets as a weed: I guess they don't deserve having eyes ;-)

TschüB :-)
Thierry.

Hello again Thierry,
For quite a few years, I've concentrated on traditional hybridizing [of violets, roses, etc.], where I've transferred pollen to a prepared seed parent and grown the resulting seeds... but recently I've been experimenting with a few ideas that are not-so-conventional. For example, there is a theory, that grafting can induce changes in the offspring of the scion. Of my attempts, the experiment that is closest to seeing results is a 'Yellow Pear' tomato scion that has been totally dependant on a hot pepper rootstock (Capsicum) since being a five-day-old seedling. I've collected seeds from three of its tomato fruits now, and will be planting these soon. Hopefully, there will be some intersting variations in the offspring. Actually, the fruits themselves showed some deviation from normalcy -- they had purple speckling on their shoulders.
Along similar lines of thinking, I had tried in the Fall, to graft six or seven Viola striata stems onto a pansy; these all failed. I also tried grafting/implanting newly germinated pansy seeds into the thick rhizomes of some Viola sororia; these also failed. I'm not completely discouraged though and plan to try again as the violets all start to grow actively again, very soon.

Hi Tom!That's strange... Are your sororia blooming before your odorata? Here the sororia are much late than the others. Isn't it the case for you?

Hello Nathalie,
No, you're absolutely right. The sororia that has been blooming has been indoors [in a partially heated sunporch].

Actually though, now that you mention it, my odoratas ARE starting to bloom outdoors now. Hurray! And the outdoor sororias will be following in a little while.
Take care, Tom