this year a bunch of tiny purple flowers popped up in my garden... I've lived here 3 years and they never bloomed before...i've attached a picture- sorry, it's from my cell phone... can you tell me what it is?
Thanks Margaret! They're really pretty and growing in a place nothing's ever grown before! So it's a good thing.
yes, violets. very, very pretty flower - and they're one of the first to bloom in the spring. yes, some consider them invasive. i like them and i encourage them (and the wild strawberry) to grow in my flowerbeds...nothing like using nature, itself, to provide :) they make great ground cover and really do keep the weeds down and it saves on the cost of mulch.
Yes, they transplant very well and they usually also produce lots of seeds. Personally I use them in areas such as under the fig tree where bluebells, considered by some gardeners to be a weed, also grow. I really enjoy the colours and perfume after the winter and find that mowing the area in late spring allows the roses and lavender to strut their stuff and gives me easier access to the figs. One of the things I take pleasure in on this site are reading about all the gardening styles of contributors. Margaret
This flower in your post looks the closest to the one I have in mind. It grows like clover in the grass and I think I may have thought it to be a different variety than the hairy clumpy lavender clover flower that I am now thinking of...so... My question is: is a Violet a flower of a variety of clover or just another plant altogether as I now suspect? I may have to change that line in my poem... (Thanks in advance for any info...I just wrote my Mom a poem for her 75th bday and Mother's Day invloving many flowers and want to get them right...) ~Poem shared below if anyone is interested~ Gifts Orchids display their beauty and offer their heart in the open air Blooming, the iris shows you things that are not always there Lilacs present perfume, reminiscent of a day when lady slippers flourished as their children ran to play… Crocuses push forth the birth again of spring Violets~ the surprise that clover loves to bring ……Tulips open gently to kiss the springtime dew Freesia breezes joyfully to search the world anew… I want to thank you for the flowers that you’ve often shared with me So here’s a birthday harvest for you… all your loving family! @ Susan Beth Burke April 27, 2008
I was afraid of that. Thanks so much for the info. As you can see, I am more of a poet than a botanist!
OK, here's the corrected version. And from now on I will limit my posts to botanical questions :) Gifts Orchids display their beauty and offer their heart in the open air Blooming, the iris shows you things that are not always there Lilacs present perfume, reminiscent of a day when lady slippers flourished as their children ran to play… Crocuses push forth the birth again of spring Violets~ the surprise that small leaves in grasses bring ……Tulips open gently to kiss the springtime dew Freesia breezes joyfully to search the world anew… I want to thank you for the flowers that you’ve often shared with me So here’s a birthday harvest for you… all your loving family! @ Susan Beth Burke April 27, 2008
