Daily details from the garden to bring you inspiration throughout the year
When is a pansy not a pansy? When it’s a viola, of course. Or something like that – truth is, all pansies are violas, though not vice versa, and there’s some waffle about pansies having one downward facing petal and four upward, and violas having two downward facing... actually, I’m not sure I can bring myself to care. When a genus has been so widely hybridising as this, it doesn’t seem hugely to matter, though as a general note pansies will have larger flowers, whilst violas will bloom slightly more prolifically, and also being to trail a little, which can be used to advantage in a container. With all the breeding for colour, you’re not guaranteed to get that wonderful violet scent, though since it doesn’t travel far and few people will bother grubbing about on the floor during the soggier months in order to stick their nose into a flower, perhaps that’s not a deal breaker. With the ones in the photo, I was lucky.
(It’s worth noting that trade labelling for such volume bedding plants isn’t terribly reliable. These were sold as ‘Viola Yellow Blotch’, but look to me much more like Viola cornuta ‘Sorbet Honeybee’.)
Garden coaching with Andrew O’Brien
Just to let you know, I’ll shortly be opening up a few spaces for one-to-one online garden coaching. The final details are still being tweaked, but if this sounds like something you’d be interested in, let me know on this page so I can tell you as soon as booking opens.
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Hello! I’m Andrew, gardener, blogger, podcaster, and owner of a too-loud laugh, and I’m so pleased you’ve found your way to Gardens, weeds & words. You can read a more in-depth profile of me on the About page, or by clicking the image above.
