Last year I grew in my sink garden the miniature viola Molly Sanderson, a small purple viola unnamed, and some bedding violas from the local supermarket. In the autumn I saved seed from them all, and sowed them in the spring. Meanwhile I discovered that Molly Sanderson had died. Among around a hundred seedlings, about twenty resembled the supermarket bedding violas from last year, and all the rest but three were purple, teeny purple-flowered plants and medium-sized purple-flowered plants. The three exceptions were a tiny purple edged with silver, a medium-sized totally black viola, and a tall, vigorous one with midnight purple wings, a blue and yellow eye, and the rest of the flower totally black. It was an interesting experiment and one I would recommend for the thrill of seeing what the seedlings look like. Although there were three types of viola involved, it is clear that the two black ones at least were parented by Molly Sanderson before her untimely death.