SC - Saxon Violets

[lilinah@earthlink.net]

In two different messages 'Lainie wrote:
>  Where are you? I'm in Western Oregon, and they're all over.

Not to quibble, but Lainie are you sure what are growing where you 
are are true violets? I know that in California some people call 
another plant, that is absolutely definitely not a viola family 
member and lacks violet scent a "violet" because it's small and 
purple (i don't know what it is, but it's a common ground cover, 
though).

If anyone is planning to try this, make sure you are getting true 
violets. They are edible, as are their cousins the pansies, the 
johnnie-jump-ups, the good king henrys, etc. although these lack 
violet scent.

If you get the wrong plants you could do some harm to your diners.

>Probably too dry then, and maybe with too long a winter [re: 
>Montana]. 55 and raining
>is pretty standard through our fall/winter/spring.

I grew up in the Chicago area. DEFINITELY LONG WINTERS and pretty 
arfing cold (many days at  minus 20 degrees Farenheit, not counting 
wind chill factor, and boy did we have chilly wind) and we had plenty 
of violets every spring - in March and April. So long winters aren't 
a big problem - ground frozen solid by Thanksgiving, often snow, and 
didn't really start to melt off until March and still had some piles 
of hard pack hanging around in early April, although it was "warm" 
(in the 40's) by then.

Now i live in California. To the best of my knowledge, it's hard to 
get *true* violets to grow in California. Not impossible, just 
difficult. In the '70's i lived in LA in a 2-bedroom bungalow and my 
roomie was from Tennessee. We had a big tree (can't remember what, 
maybe elm) shading most of our backyard (except where the giant 
zucchinis grew), and she planted violets under it, as they don't like 
the intense sun that is a California specialty. They did grow, but 
only where it was nearly constantly shady (i think that helped keep 
the humidity up, too)

Anahita al-shazhiyya