I have planted v. odorata & v. cucullata in March of 02. After 2 years, I have 2 blooms on the odorata located east of a 5 foot stucco wall. A second odorata that receives sun until about 4 pm looks shaggy and beaten down. cucullata is east of the stucco wall also and has done nothing.

I do not fertilize heavily as it is my understanding that this will only cause fast and furious foliage (not flowers)?? Is that right? When I do fertilize I use granular GroPower. This summer I plan to foliar feed. I read an article in California Gardener about violets that have "stuck" in the Whalen Garden in Old Town on the East side of the house. I do not recall ever seeing the violets.

Any ideas? Or should I give up and send these violas back East to gardens of my childhood?

I used to pick them out of the grass and garden and make nosegays on Mother's Day. They were invasive and I loved it.

I too am struggling to have them flourish in my garden in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and have many die when planted in the soil. I now keep them in pots, again in a shady area but with filtered light. So far I have had one wonderfully fragrant violet thats just in the process of ending its bloom. I am about to try to find other fragrant violets - probably buy from Logees or Canyon Creek http://www.canyoncreeknursery.com/violets.html and I'll hover over them watching their growth in my clay pots here in the semi tropics!