Violets

missourichickenmama

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Are they weeds or are they wild flowers? I think they are pretty. :rainbow-sun
 

vfem

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There are MANY types of violets. I have some in my lawn which I know are weeds... but I usually just leave them be until I mow. I bought some that are a cross with some kind of snap dragon. They have their own spot in the garden and I used to have africian violets... I kept those as house plants.

They are very pretty though! They are my daughter's favorites I think.... anything purple is her favorite!!! :gig
 

lesa

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I love them! The entire floor of my woods is covered in purple and white ones. It looks like paradise, to me. It is the spot I am going to put my beehive. They will have plenty of flowers early in the spring! Weed or wildflower- I don't care!
 

missourichickenmama

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vfem said:
There are MANY types of violets. I have some in my lawn which I know are weeds... but I usually just leave them be until I mow. I bought some that are a cross with some kind of snap dragon. They have their own spot in the garden and I used to have africian violets... I kept those as house plants.

They are very pretty though! They are my daughter's favorites I think.... anything purple is her favorite!!! :gig
the ones in my garden are white. We have purple violets, and reddish-Purple violets too.
They are the ones in the yard too I think.
 

missourichickenmama

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lesa said:
I love them! The entire floor of my woods is covered in purple and white ones. It looks like paradise, to me. It is the spot I am going to put my beehive. They will have plenty of flowers early in the spring! Weed or wildflower- I don't care!
Me too! I love Violets... I was just wondering about weather it would hurt my garden or not...
 

lesa

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They don't seem invasive to me. I think they are easy enough to dig up, if you decide you want the room for something else...I am thinking of transplanting a few into a pot, to put on my porch. We'll see how that goes.
 

Hattie the Hen

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HI there :happy_flower

We have an old saying over here that "a weed is just a plant growing in the wrong place." :gig :gig :gig Personally I'd love a garden full of violets - they are very beautiful. :love

:rose Hattie :rose
 

Sylvie

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Violas like Johnny Jump Ups can be overly self seeding and pop up everywhere. It is a cultivated variety. I know a lot of people who complain about those in particular.

We have the wild blue violets in the shadier potion of the lawn and it is a problem that I love. Violets are useful to me; I make violet jelly, put them raw on salads, candy them among other things. It's a joy to see all the purple.
 

Reinbeau

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Sylvie said:
Violas like Johnny Jump Ups can be overly self seeding and pop up everywhere. It is a cultivated variety. I know a lot of people who complain about those in particular.
Johnny Jump Ups (Viola tricolor)aren't violets, and they are far easier to get rid of than true violets. I love Johnnies, they are easily weeded out if you don't want them, but I'm not so fond of violets, because true violets really are hard to get rid of. They have a very fibrous root system that's difficult to pull, leave any little bit in there and it'll come back - in spades! The seed capsules explode, sending seeds everywhere, and those that don't fly far are spread by ants, via a process called myrmecochory (ants also spread the seeds of bloodroot, hepatica, trillium, wild ginger and others).

We have the wild blue violets in the shadier potion of the lawn and it is a problem that I love. Violets are useful to me; I make violet jelly, put them raw on salads, candy them among other things. It's a joy to see all the purple.
I've got lots of violets, way more than I' care for. I think the other reason I don't enjoy them is I can't smell them. At all. I know they've got that chemical in them that makes you able to smell them once and then not for awhile, but I can't smell them at all, ever!
 
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