Hi Rob !

Glad to hear from U again :-) Sometimes I feel there's no one alive here ;-)
GOD, she's deadly gorgeous !!!! U're lucky man :-)
THANKS a lot for the pic :-)Is she "steady" (right word ?) ?
Take care :-)
Thierry.

hi, thierry...

steady? perhaps stable? yes, and it grows easily like the others. it makes plenty of seed. all this comes up like the parent. i'll save some for you....no problem! (you're saving v. hispida for me, no? :)

rob...

Ha!! At least that one is pure white! A true 'immaculata'!
I brought one under the name Viola sororia 'albiflora' but all the same it as few blue ray in the lower petal...I just checked now! :-)

Hispida....didn't find it :-(
Just wonder why you care so much for that hairy pansy !

thanks, nathalie.
do you think i'm 'on the right track' with the names?
i'll make sure i collect plenty of seed this year.

thierry, hispida is a viola of open places and a perennial in a region of hot dry summers. my main reason was to try such a plant in my climate. mike hardman saved seed for me, but the resulting plants were hybrids of hispida and corscica. these have made stunning little plants around my garden. some have 'fuzzy' foliage, but none are truely hispid. some of the flowers appear close to hispida, others more like corsica...
rob...

Hi Rob et all folks,
Viola hispida is endangered in France.
An other name is Viola rothomagensis.
It's a small pansy growing on open areas around Rouen ( a town in Normandy ), called " violette de Rouen" in French ( "Rouen pansy" in English )
Below a copy and past from this link ( .pdf )
http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/biodiversity/un_cop7/pdf/threat_en.pdf
" Small perennial herb with violet flowers tinted of yellow.
This Viola is a narrow endemic of the
low basin of the Seine above Rouen.
It grows on shingles of calcareous
rocks.
It was known from 7 localities, but
now, it is limited to 4 populations, 3
of them very small and unstable (less
than 50 individuals)."

Please do not try to purchase it.

Denis

thanks for that alert, denis.
the source i know is from the viola collection at 'planta vera'. this material was collected with permission and by invitation many years ago as part of the preservation progam for this viola. one means of protecting wild populations is to reduce 'collection pressure' by making available legal commercial sources. in australia, we have a newly discovered conifer. it was known only from fossil records, but amazingly, a live population was discovered less that 10 years ago. the exact location is kept secret but the plants have been propagated by cuttings and seeds. these plants will be made availabe internationally in the near future. (see www.wollemipine.com )
rob...

Sorry for taking part of that discusion...
Tu as raison Denis mais...
I do think australian people have a better management of endangered species (maybe 'cause many desapeared in a short time)
In France we know how to protect them thanks many laws but what are we doing to SAVE them ?! I don't think we care so much about plants...protection is not enought !

I saw a report on TV about that aussie conifer some years ago. Even if the only small place where 's growing stay secret, it could desapear (sometimes that's the way nature's going). Not only legal commercial sources can reduce "collection pressure" but it can save it :-)

It won't change my mind Rob, that "pensée de Rouen" is definitively ugly, a gross pansy ;-)p

(( and me I was lucky enough to see that wollemi pine!! In a metal cage!! ))

Cheers folks! xxxx

I must confess I've not yet seen that type here, but it does seem likely that it must exist as a mutation somewhere... and sororia is so completely weedy that it's probably an acre-wide mat of the stuff, too :-)

I saw the Wollemi pine they have down at the U.S. Botanical Gardens adjacent to the Capitol building... completely caged in plexiglass like the Pope in his Popemobile! It was a slightly absurd setting and I got a chuckle out of it, but I also thought it was quite a remarkable little specimen.

Truly, gardeners distributing responsibly collected material can make all the difference in preventing species extinction. I hope you can find your hispida, and I'll keep my eyes peeled if it ever shows up on our shores.

Stefan

perhaps the climate helps restrain the spread of the sororia types here. i have read they can be a terrible lawn pest in the eastern u.s. states. they're manageable enough here.
it was interesting that after mentioning that pine tree here, it featured on the national gardening show last weekend! this is a build up to the international release, i guess...

thanks, stefan (etienne)

rob...:)

Very nice form of V. sororia, Rob.
(And a good photo, too - good enough for me to be sure it is not V. cucullata.)

Interesting to hear the seed V. hispida I sent you turned out to be hybrid - sorry about that. My original, which I got from Morris May, ie. Planta Vera, died some while ago. My existing V. hispida plants look true to form, and they are all self sown from the original, or descendants thereof - curious.