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stefanb8

American Violet Society

stefanb8
16 years ago

Does anyone know if this society is still functioning? Their website is frozen in time, certain parts having been last updated perhaps in 2004, and yet someone obviously keeps paying the bill for the site to be hosted.

Is there still a paper Violet Gazette being published? Are they even performing duties as the official international registration authority for violet cultivars any longer? I have considered trying to join, but I'm more than a little concerned that anything I do will simply vanish into the aether. It's understandable that there is a general lack of interest and funds in the world of violets, but it feels as though there may be no bona fide home for violet lovers now, especially since the IVS isn't even able to publish a periodical. While a journal is probably unnecessary, an internet presence where people can still post articles and exchange ideas is vital to any sort of community, and the AVS website is completely (and regrettably, and, I think, needlessly) useless in that regard.

What gives?

Stefan

Comments (28)

  • membertom
    16 years ago

    Hello Stefan,
    Thank you very much for your inquiry - your interest is very encouraging. The American Violet Society is still in existence. However, for several years now, it has been a mere skeleton of what weÂd like it to be. During this time, the AVS has been completely reliant on the donations of funding and services from a very small handful of active members. Thankfully, Gary Sherwin has maintained the AVS website, with his own time and money, for years. Without his efforts, all of the information that you can still access now, would have disappeared. Very soon we will be making public an on-line registration form for new cultivars. Like you, I would love to have an active AVS forum for discussion, but I wouldnÂt even know where to begin to make that happen. So, I usually dump requests like that on Gary. I also very much appreciated the IVS Violet Journal and am sad to see that it is being discontinued due to lack of support. IÂll contact Gary and forward his e-mail address to you. Hopefully, youÂll be willing to join us and put some of those ideas and your enthusiam to work?? ;0)
    Thanks again for your interest in advancing our community of violet enthusiasts.
    Take care, Tom

    I've heard back from Gary since writing this...
    He specifically mentioned the need for new content for the site. He said that he "would be happy to publish any appropriate new material!" and "would also be happy to set up a new forum."
    You can contact him by way of e-mail at:

    president@americanvioletsociety.org

    to get to work on materializing your ideas. And for that matter, anyone else who has any desire to participate/contribute, on any level, please join in. Don't hesitate -- the AVS needs you!
    Thanks again Stefan, for opening the discussion.
    Take care, Tom

    P.S. Gary might not be able to respond right away, due to work demands during the next two weeks. Thanks in advance for your patience.

  • stefanb8
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Hi Tom,

    Your response is so uplifting and energizing - thank you for getting my imagination moving! I'm very interested in helping out however I can, and I can't wait to talk to Gary. This is a group of plants I really cherish. Sounds like it's time to start something! I hope there will be others, too. I know they're out there - violets are flowers for a life-long romance.

    Stefan

  • rosie
    16 years ago

    I cruise by here once every few months and seeing this thread have a suggestion. As one aspiring to a romance, I've discovered there are extremely few places to obtain violets in this country, and I suspect an in-society plant and seed exchange would help generate and hold membership. I know I'd join for that reason, just as I joined the New England Rock Garden Society, when I lived on a tenth acre in Los Angeles with no interest in rock gardens, and the Species Iris Group of North America specifically so I could participate in their seed exchanges. I'm on four acres in Georgia now and have lots of romantic little nooks and dells to develop. Best wishes.

  • membertom
    16 years ago

    rosie,
    That's a great suggestion!
    It IS very difficult to locate sources for most violets. What's common in one person's part of the world is often a rarity in another's. And I just know that there would be generous people, who would be willing to share seeds for an exchange.
    Like you, I joined SIGNA (Species Iris Group of North America) primarily for the seed exchange.
    Thanks for that suggestion, and I hope we'll be hearing more from you, as you transform your new place.
    Take care, Tom

  • blueridgemtngrl
    16 years ago

    Just curious what ever happened with this? While I haven't participated on this forum, violets are one of my favorite plants. I have found 5 different varieties growing in my yard so far.

    Jeanne

  • brandymulvaine
    16 years ago

    I am also interested in violets, but because of what eats them! Fritillary butterflies use violets almost exclusively. Birdsfoot(viola pedata)is used by the Regal Fritillary. This butterfly is listed as endangered by the Michigan Dept. of Natural Resources. Other violets used by Frits are downey violets(viola fimbrialula) and lance leafed violets(viola lanceolata). Your right in saying that its very hard to find different varieties. I would join and be willing to help start a seed exchange. I live in Traverse City MI. and have Labrador violets and some wild thing I stole from a previous landlord (about a bazillion of those guys!) All plants-no seeds yet but alot of the wild ones are in 4" pots and ready to go in the spring. Any takers? brandymulvaine@yahoo.com I would be looking for above mentioned violets or anything different. Thanks Brandy

  • membertom
    16 years ago

    Hello Jeanne and Brandy,
    Thanks for posting. It's always nice to see new interest. I REALLY do believe that a seed exchange would be great for stirring up interest and getting violet enthusiasts connected. [I know that there are even more of us out there] So, now that I've got registration matters pretty much current (or at least more current than they've been for a long while), a seed exchange is next on my list to work on. And thanks for the offer to help; we need all the help we can get.

    As for violets as caterpillar food... I've found our local Fritillary caterpillars eating the common weedy Viola sororia and even my pansies (and Viola arvensis X pansy hybrids). This is the first year that I've been able to keep a Viola pedata alive, so if it continues maybe I'll eventually be able to supply seeds of that one.

    Stay tuned, and thanks for your patience.
    Tom

  • brandymulvaine
    16 years ago

    Tom, I'll bet the violets I have are viola sororia. They grow all over in the yard and just bloom in the spring. I'm cheating by ordering birdsfoot violet plants from Prairie Nursery this spring I hope I don't kill them they're pricey little things. The spot I want to put them in is sandy, sunny, and dry. I've heard thats more to their liking than the common violet habitat.
    Jeanne, Do you save the seeds of your violets? I haven't tried seed saving yet I just pot up plants I find growing out of place. I don't even remember seeing seed pods on them-though they must have for they're everywhere! Some were even growing in a potted jasmine tree I bring in every winter. But that silly thing did make seed and threw it all over my livingroom. I'd be sitting at the computer and all of the sudden hear something like pins dropping next to me-took about a week to find the culprit-thought I was going nuts! Brandy

  • membertom
    16 years ago

    Brandy,
    I just read somewhere recently that Viola pedata appreciates "chelated trace elements" (kind of like a fertilizer but it just has iron and some other metals). I haven't confirmed this with anyone, but if I get the nerve, I have some that I might try on mine.
    And I had to laugh about that pinging. I know exactly what you mean, I usually keep my harvested violet pods in plastic drinking cups with a tissue, rubber-banded over the top. So, I've heard lots of that random pinging. I can imagine that would almost make you crazy, if you didn't know where it was coming from.
    Tom

  • stefanb8
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Tom, I just wanted to say how impressed I am with your publication of new violet registrations - it's beautiful, and they're beautiful! Thank you for your hard work, it certainly inspires me to want to do more.

  • membertom
    16 years ago

    Thank you Stefan. I hope to soon have a web version ready for Gary to add to the AVS site. And I agree, those hybridizers have introduced some really beautiful violets. Although, I think that these beautiful violets are only the tip of a modest iceberg. As you may have noticed, all of those new violets were ones that were exhibited in the most recent two international meetings (2004 in Toulouse France, and 2007 in Beja Portugal). I know of at least a few other new violets that haven't been entered in those meetings and so haven't been documented yet. I'll be working on getting those ones into the registry too. By the way, anyone who is growing a new violet, can enter it in the next competition/meeting -- even by way of photographs. I'm hoping to have one or two entries of my own ready (photographed) for the 2009 meeting (in Italy).

    And I'm so glad to hear that you've been inspired -- I was hoping that we could stir some of that up. So, please don't lose that inspiration! Put on your thinking cap and see if there's something you'd enjoy contributing... anything... an article maybe... do you have any unusual violets at the National Aboretum?
    Thanks again, Tom

  • stefanb8
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    It would be wonderful to have something to submit to the 2009 meeting, but I'm fairly certain I won't be raising anything interesting enough by then! I do have a hardy, double blue violet I've wondered about registering - it may be an older variety, but as far as I can tell it appears to be different from any others grown in the United States at present. Maybe I'll start with an article about it, especially if I can find a picture good enough to include, and perhaps see what you think after that.

    As for unusual violets at the Arboretum, I haven't seen any yet. I always keep my eyes open for them, though!

  • nathalie
    16 years ago

    yes! I agree! Tom's publication is very beautifull and helpfull.It is a good cooperation between the organisers " les amis de la violette" in France and the american violet society which manage the registrar!
    About the " others" new varieties exhibited but not entered in the registrars..this is due to the stricts rules!;-) ( but beleive me we have fun too!!) Cultivars have to be fixed so they have to be grown for at least two years before entering the category of the "new"..if not they can compete in the category " specimen" where actually everything interesting can be shown. Stefan, I think you double violet is outstanding and the violet community will enjoy to meet it during next contest in Italy...A picture and an article is ok! :-)
    Your hybrid Tom too is welcome! ( sorry can't remember the name right now ! )
    I will post informations as soon as possible about next edition :-)
    cheers
    PS: for those interested here is a link of the complete report of the 1rst contest. Not all in french! english rules slightly changed since then and good pictures ! Don't hesitate to ask me for more!

    Here is a link that might be useful: Report of the 1rst international violet contest

  • stefanb8
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Thanks for the encouragement, Nathalie. The more I think about it and look at pictures, the more I doubt it is anything other than the old, plain, double Viola odorata that has been cultivated for many centuries - only, it is hard to know for sure, because that is so seldom photographed in Europe and is never sold in America. I would hate to write about something that mundane as if it were major news, however beautiful it may be to me.

    I do have one question that needs to be answered, however: what is the most correct way to write the cultivar name for that oldest double form of the species? There is no taxonomic standing for a name like Viola odorata flore-pleno as the RHS Plant Finder lists it, nor is that technically a cultivar name as written; the 'Double Blue' and 'Double Purple' of Roy Coombs' book seem quite unsure and potentially confused with more modern cultivars from his descriptions; the epithet 'Plena' is seldom used and seldom referenced in books but seems to me to be the best way to write it, and the oldest references to this plant obviously Latinized it to ridiculous lengths ("Viola martia purpurea multiplici flore").

  • nathalie
    16 years ago

    Well Stefan...your violet has at least its own story. Isn't it enough outstanding that it passes the centuries and reached us!? I only know 3 origins of old double blue violets: the one from canada called since that ' legresley violet' which came from europe first and was brought to canada by immigrants..( Clive wrote an article about it somewhere). The one I grow which comes from a garden around my place and is at least 100 years old and... yours! the legresley and mine are slightly differents...it is important to know about yours....We've been thinking for a long time that those kinds of violets where extinct..until one or 2 surface!

    You've pointed out the big problem of naming old varieties..i don't know exactely when the official nomenclature became the rule but those plants are obviously older...growers named them - as it seems - as simply as possible!!! lol
    I have no idea if there is a way to change those commons names into an official one...
    There are probably more names than violets..but who kows..perhaps are there more violets after all! :o)

  • stefanb8
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Nathalie, that is wonderful to hear you say - I will definitely not stop considering writing just yet! The pictures I was looking at are on a Danish web site, and I don't know where they got theirs from. The same plant seems to be sold by Jürgen Peters in Germany (the picture looks very much the same). Here are the addresses of the two so you can see what I mean:

    http://www.lyng.dk/planteriget/staudesider/stauder.asp?latinsk=Viola+odorata+Plena

    http://www.alpine-peters.de/sortimente/viola/galerie.asp

    and also their catalog:
    http://alpine-peters.de/katalog/pdf/Katalog-Viola06.pdf

    I really wish there were more pictures showing the whole plant and leaves in addition to the flowers - then I could be so much more certain if they were different from my plant.

    Stefan

  • blueridgemtngrl
    16 years ago

    Hi,

    I don't have any seeds from my violets. I would be happy to collect them if there are any takers. I have some pics that I don't have IDed, so perhaps someone here could help me with that.

    Jeanne

  • brandymulvaine
    16 years ago

    Jeanne I would love some of your violet seeds! I've heard they're hard to start from seed. Is that true? What kind do you have? I think you said once but I forgot. Have you checked out the wintersowing forum? I wonder if violets can be wintersown? Let me know when the seed is ready and I'll see if I have anything you'd like to trade. Thanks!! B

  • membertom
    16 years ago

    Jeanne,
    I couldn't find an e-mail link for you but...
    If you'd be interested in receiving a copy of the American Violet Society 2007 Announcement of New Registrations, just e-mail me your postal address [you can just use the link on this post where it says Posted by membertom]

    It's a small booklet that gives the details of 18 newly registered violets.
    Thanks, Tom

  • sherwingws
    15 years ago

    Hello Violet Lovers:

    As President and Webmaster of The American Violet Society
    http://americanvioletsociety.org, I have been supporting the
    continued existence of our society's website, largely at my
    own expense, over the past several years. Not a big deal,
    as the site gets a free ride on my personally contracted
    web server. The site has been stale over the last couple of
    years, prior to Tom's efforts in providing the material for
    New Cultivars. That can be seen at the link below.

    We are in the need of self starting and finishing people,
    to take responsible positions in the society. I am
    competent as an organizer and organizational lead, but I am
    totally incompetent in almost any area of responsibility.
    In particular, I am not a treasurer nor do I consider myself
    an extensive violet expert, beyond some level of expertise in
    rudimentary taxonomy. As a result, we are currently in
    a situation, where even when we receive donations, we have
    no way to accept them or process them. We don't even have
    a bank account! Even more important than money,
    WE NEED NEW MATERIAL for the web site.

    That brings me to another issue. I have noticed that not
    only is The American Violet Society largely dormant, but
    that it appears that "the other society" The Violet Society at:

    http://www.sweetviolets.com/SWEETVIOLETS/index.html

    is in an even more comatose state. In particular, it appears
    that their entire, very valuable Violet Journal, is
    no longer on the web. That is very sad. Over the years, I
    have approached members of The Violet Society, to try to
    get them to collaborate and pool resources, to extend the
    reach of both societies, but alas, I was continually rebuffed.
    Now, upon discovering the loss of their journal,
    I have tried every email address listed in their remaining
    site, but received error messages back from all of them.
    If anyone knows how to contact any of their remaining
    administration, please let me know.

    For those of you wishing to contact me, the addresses shown
    elsewhere in this forum are all out of date, due to excessive pornographic spam.
    You can reach me at:

    presidentXXXXXXX@amerianvioletsociety.org

    where the Xs should be replaced with the letters of my family's name.
    Alternately, continue to exchange with Tom,
    as most of you "know" him already.

    I am hoping to hold another Violet Field Event in the
    spring of 2009. If we find enough interest.

    That's all for now. I will try to stay more in touch

    Sweet Violets To All

    Gary W. Sherwin, President, Webmaster
    The American Violet Society
    http://americanvioletsociety.org

    Here is a link that might be useful: New Viola Cultivars

  • yang_yang
    15 years ago

    Hello violet folks! Long time no see:) The double odoratas are lovely (so are the single ones:) How I wish I could smell them... Thanks very much for sharing the pictures and web links Stefan! I am glad to see auspicious signs for the revival of AVS:)

    As to violet seed resources in the US, I trust you folks know about Canyon Creek Nursery in CA, the owner of which was the first president of the Violet Society.

    Here is the link just in case you do not know about it already:
    http://www.canyoncreeknursery.com/violets.html

  • mtngrl821
    8 years ago

    Where can I buy super-fragrant violets / parmas? I've "googled" and have checked every website I could find (including Canyon Creek Nurseries) with no luck. I am most interested in the Marie Louise Parma. Seeds or plants. I live in CA. Please email me at: mtngrl821@yahoo.com Thanks for your help! ~Carol

  • mtngrl821
    8 years ago

    Thank you Stefan - I'll check them out!

  • scott_madison Zone 5a- Madison, WI
    8 years ago

    Wow...violet lovers unite! So delighted to actually see people are interested in these utterly romantic and historic plants. I have been enamoured with fragrant violets ever since reading 'The Age of Innocence' by Edith Wharton, so many years ago. When I discovered violets were one of the top three cut flowers at the turn of the century... Next to roses and carnations... I knew I had to grow some. Then I did some research into violets as cut flowers... And discovered upstate New York was the "Violet Capitol" of the country in the late 1800's and early 1900's... Growing literally millions of stems per year shipped across the country... But virtually nonexistent today. I'm sure my grandmother enjoyed bouquets of fresh cut violets as a young girl... Lucky her!! I have, in the past several years, begun to populate my gardens with Violet odorata 'Queen Charlotte'... Adding a few more plants each year... And enjoying the fragrant bounty each April. I also have several pots of Parma violets that flower from October through early spring. They summer outdoors and spend the winter on my glassed in porch... Blooming happily in the chilly temperatures for several months. They provide me with quite a few small bouquets for my nose to revel in!! I get my Parmas from Select Seeds... 'Duchesse de Parme', 'Marie Louise' and 'Comte de Brazza'. I'm guessing they are the true and correctly named varieties as mine are three distinct colors... Pale lavender, blue and a pure white... And all deliciously fragrant!! Here is a small bouquet of my Parmas from right before Christmas. These are 'Marie Louise' and 'Comte de Brazza'

  • Mike Hardman
    8 years ago

    Scott,

    Us violet lovers are here, just shy and retiring as one might expect!

    Thanks for your enthusiastic posting and sumptuous vase of Parmas.

    Mike

  • Peggy Thompson
    7 years ago

    Hello fellow violet lovers, I also am always on the hunt for reputable nurseries that sell viola odorata cultivars. Here are some that you might check out: Sequim Rare Plants; Goodwin Creek Gardens; Gardens in the Wood of Grassy Creek; Select Seeds; Well-Sweep Herb Farm; Sandy Mush Herb Nursery.

  • Amynoacids (z6 MI)
    7 years ago

    Erthgoddess, thank you for that list! Just what I was looking for!

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