It's lovely looking, no? I'm sure it sprang from 'Mars' somehow, but it does have a lot more purple in the center of the leaf. Some of their new varieties probably occur from seeding plants, others are definitely mutations that happen during tissue culture (which Terra Nova uses a lot to mass-produce plants). I wonder which was the case here; I think my mother remarked that my 'Mars' has multiplied apparently from seed, even though we've never seen any flowers. Maybe they're cleistogamous only.

I don't know what happened with 'Ooh La La' and never personally saw any in local garden centers (which is usually how one experiences Terra Nova plants - they are wholesale-only company, but local nurseries buy them as plugs, grow them on, and sell them once they reach quart or gallon size). Have you tried emailing the company to ask? I'm sure they would be happy to answer... otherwise, I'll see their booth at an annual trade show next spring if I remember to ask them :)

Hi stefanb8 !

And thanks for answering :-) I was about to make that post going down !
About that strange 'Mars' let me show you a picture a friend of mine made that year:

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(c) Henri G

Isn't it disgusting ?! ;oP I'm going to try to put my 'Mars' in a full sun place so as to see what happen. I'm not sure it's in love with shade. I must work hard on trying to understand what is the matter with that one :-)
About having seeding plants...well...I'm not sure...let me tell a story. On spring I was almost fed up with 'Mars' (what is the interest to have a never flowering violet ?) so I took a knife and removed it, put it in a pot and gave it to Nathalie (hers had died). In a way I guess I was happy to say bye bye to that creature. 2 months later, 3 'mars' appeared again instead of the big one I had removed. Asian violets are really strange, I mean their roots go very deep in the grown. You can't make an odorata or a european violet make any rebirth with a piece of root, sororia can, some asian too...

You're right, I'm going to make a mail to Terre Nova; such a trill making an official mail in English !!! God !!!

All the best n kind regards :-)
Thierry.

Haha... well, that is rather a shock to see - maybe mine has done the same, but went totally unnoticed! I planted it in partial shade in my Minnesota garden, plus it gets crowded from some young trees and rhododendrons near it, but it has returned faithfully every year. I wasn't aware it was Asian (do you know what species is/are involved?), but now that I see it in flower it does look very much that way. We could use such tenacious things around here in Washington, DC - the slugs and pillbugs (which are crustaceans, I don't know if they exist in Europe) are an awful menace to tender little plants like violets!

If you like, I'd be happy to proof-read anything before you send it :) If you really hate to do it, then I can ask the question for you, of course. Just let me know.

Stefan

G'day !

It's ok Stefan, I finally made a mail by myself to Terra Nova but thanks for your helpfull proposal :-) I do wonder why I didn't think about it before ! I'm brainless sometimes.

Well, the violet American society wrote that 'mars' was V. hirtipes f. rhodovenia x V. japonica.

Sure we have that ugly thing called pillbugs here (Google's images part is better than any online translator) but not much...quite a long time I didn't see any in my parent's garden.

Finally, let's put a pic....odorata alba X sororia albiflora. I didn't have any flower yet. Among 5 seedlings, only that one is interesting and I was about to destroy it thinking nothing will never come. In a word, I have a kind of sororia making stolons :-) That's fun :-)

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As soon as blooms are coming, I'll put a pic :-)
Have a nice week :-)
Thierry.

Thierry, that's fabulous! There's no doubt it's a hybrid - I just hope it has the fragrance of its odorata parent! Otherwise the idea of a sororia that can produce runners is a little scary... considering how unbelievably prolific it was without them :) It's quite obvious from the color of the leaves that it will also be white, which should be absolutely beautiful. I do hope you will name it and release it if it turns out to be a good plant.

Thanks for the parentage of the 'Mars', by the way - I missed seeing that on the AVS site somehow. Yes, the pill bugs are nasty creatures, although the violets survive them far better than poor primroses... at least I don't have to worry about them on my window ledges, so my violets are safe :)

I hope to do some breeding of my own soon - if I can only get these *&@#%!! imported seeds to germinate! It seems some violets really don't travel abroad well in seed form, or maybe the seeds aren't too fresh :( Of course, all the good stuff is in Europe and I'm not - just my luck!

Hi !

I'll post the photos of my first blooms :-) Can't hardly wait...
Well, about seeds I just feel the same.....I bought so many and didn't sucess so many times :-/
About good stuff in Europe...I'm not sure. Do you want to try some of my seeds ? If you're interested (don't have hundred seeds to give) send me a mail thought my page.

Ci@o
Thierry.

Thierry, that's such a kind offer! I would love to, but I still feel very guilty about not being able to germinate the seeds that Nathalie sent me last year. I will keep trying these commercial seeds for a bit - it's one species in particular that I'm currently obsessed with - but maybe I can ask for your help if there is still no result after a few more months of trying? I still think Europe has better violets available, but maybe that's because I like the fragrant ones best of all :)

Thanks again!
Stefan

Hello !

Well, I'm so bad at seedlings too, and that year have been the worst 'cause of too a hot winter I think. Bad luck I guess...I'm not able to give any advice for that: germination will always stay a kind of mystery.
And what species are you obsessed with ?! C'mon man, don't be shy ;o)
In fact, we have many odorata's cultivars but you do have more wild species in north America, I do prefer them from Japanese ones 'cause they are definitively harder, so easier :-)....and many are just CRAZY !! For example, we don't have those gorgeous bicolore ones like Beckwithii or pedata at all.

Let's give a link to quite an interesting place to buy seeds. It's a german online shop...I gonna try, like many violets' fans in France those violas from Chile. I'm not sure crossed fingers will be helpful and enough but, what the hell, I'd have made a try for fun :-) Who knows ?

All the best :-)
Thierry.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rareplants !

Thierry, the species I'm so enthralled with is probably nothing special since it's all over Europe - merely Viola alba. But if you can believe it, it's impossible to find this simple species here in America. So I try for seed instead :)

I might try your source as well if mine doesn't work out, although the picture of their Viola alba looks suspiciously like a white Viola odorata to my eyes... I'm not sure if that's a reasonable fear or not. But they do have some of those über-cool rosulate violets, if I ever feel better about my seed starting abilities! Thanks for the link!

I'm going to try gibberellic acid after stratification... hopefully that will do the trick. I know that just one happy, living plant will reseed prolifically, but getting to that point seems to be the real battle :)

Stefan

I won't ask you why viola alba, I guess it has something to do with finding a secret concerning parmas ! Am I wrong ? :o)

Well, I tried some seeds from viola alba too. I don't know yet if I succeed 'cause I had put the seeds with that delicious viola incompta (I've never smelled such a delicious perfume, it's nothing compare with odorata, so smooth, GOD !!!) and I've got several seedlings, one could be alba but I'm not sure.

2007 is gonna be a gibberellic acid year LOL !!! Who won't have tried ?? Trick or treat ;o))?!

Haha, well, it's not so much a secret about Parmas - it's well-established as fact that they are derived from Viola alba. However, they are almost useless for breeding with and probably riddled with viruses built up over the years, so any attempt to breed new violets with a similar perfume will have to come from the fertile form of the species. But even that is a long road; getting V. alba to germinate is a small first step!

I've not heard of this Viola incompta before, but it comes up as a subspecies of Viola odorata when I search for it online. I've wondered about different varieties of odorata having different fragrances - you don't read about this idea much, but to my nose, they do have unique aromas. The double blue I grow at home has the sweetest, smoothest, most refined smell to my nose - very different from regular odorata which seems harsh and slightly unpleasant by comparison. It almost smells like a blend of odorata and Parma. What other differences do you notice about incompta besides its perfume?

I hope the gibberellic acid is the solution... now to get the concentration just right :) I'll post about it if I find any good recipes for violets!

Well about incompta, Nathalie could answer (she's my personnal dealer ;o) n she gave it to me :-)

About its perfume, hard to say, English is definitively not my mother tongue and I'm not a poet neither: words can be so much meaningless sometimes...what about saying it in French ;oP
"Suave, puissant et léger à la fois, pénétrant et évanescent, doux et rond !" Hard to describe feelings...
Different from parma I would say (more fragil and delicate but more powerful as well), in a word, UNIQUE (in both langagues) :-)

Of course you are to tell us about gibberellic acid ;oP Gonna try to find some news online....

All the best - Thierry :-)

Of course, the lovely thing about French is that it sounds poetic to many English ears even when it isn't. I understand a bit as I read French for some reason (never studied it, but I suppose we have enough French-derived words in our language that I can make it out) - still, your passage translates almost precisely into "Smooth, powerful and light at the same time, penetrating and evanescent, soft and round!"

I understand exactly what you mean, though I would love to experience it myself :) I do hope to learn more about this violet! Being an odorata type also means extra cold hardiness, if true. It isn't possible that it is a hybrid (of odorata and alba), is it?

Good understanding: bingo :-) French is tough and English definitively easier."suave" is such a delicious word :-) There's the same part of magic like "smooth" when you have it :-) According to me, the most beautiful language is Italian, I wish I could use it as easily as I do with French or even English. L'italiano é la lingua più bella del mondo, c'é la musica :-) Anyway, Dutch is the worst, even German is not that awfull with such sounds ;o)

About viola incompta: NATHALIE, where are U ? I'm going to ask her to answer ! Not at all an hybrid. I only remenber this violet grows in south of France. Nathalie might have a different point of view concerning its perfume...
Blooms are really unique: the edge of the petals are corrugated, there is also some blue reflections in its white color.

Let's put a pic (not a gorgeous one 'cause I'm bad at making any but it gives an idea):

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Hi folks
About viola odorata var incompta..I discovered it in south west of france when hunting for violets with the help of a specialized botanist of them..So as you read it is a variety (so from the wild). It immediately struck me among the others violet that day in the field because patches of it appeared just like if it was already a cultivar put there! Very strong developpement, long stems, petals porcelain like, and over the top to my eyes, the waved petals on the edges!
Actually I can't say about its scent...I will have to check that but to me it is not blooming now...
( If you dig an old posting in this forum named "easter eggs", seeds on the pictures come from this variety...as far as i remember! ;-) )
cheers!

Wow, now that is a stunning bloom! Adding such refined beauty to a wonderful fragrance only makes it that much harder to resist. I think that a lot could be done by concentrating on perfume in breeding these violets - although I suppose the commercial fragrance industry relies less and less on natural plant sources today, so it will be done for garden enjoyment alone. It is so easy to tell the difference between the real and the synthetic fragrance, yet most people today have no idea what a violet smells like anyway, even a lot of very dedicated gardeners I've known. They are always happily surprised, even shocked, when they are first introduced to the fragrant violets :)

I could have left the word "suave" in there of course, but it seems that in today's English the term is used much more easily in describing something like human behavior than, say, the scent of a violet. It makes perfect sense, but it doesn't sound "easy", you might say. It's a shame, because I like it, too!

Those rippled edges are lovely... I will have to look more at this variety :)