{"id":179,"date":"2016-07-04T10:34:12","date_gmt":"2016-07-04T09:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=179"},"modified":"2016-07-05T08:17:43","modified_gmt":"2016-07-05T07:17:43","slug":"grow-cheap-violas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/flowers\/grow-cheap-violas\/","title":{"rendered":"Grow Your Own Cheap Violas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"Viola self sown by brianpettinger, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hortoris\/4776817914\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4136\/4776817914_d6d17e59bc.jpg\" alt=\"Viola self sown\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Violas are perennial and grow best in well drained soil that has an open structure to encourage fibrous roots and promote many stems from the same root. They may get a bit leggy so cut back two or three times during the spring and summer to encourage new shoots and more flowers. Aid this by applying a liquid rose fertilizer or seaweed and keep watered.<\/p>\n<p>Violas do not have the &#8216;blotch&#8217; of the pansy but may have dark rays in the blue yellow or mauve petals. Violettas are very similar but with smaller flowers, compact habit and a good fragrance.<\/p>\n<p>Many violas self seed but I try and collect seed from plants that I like. Sow the fresh seed on the surface of the compost but exclude light until they germinate in about 2 weeks.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Propagation to get more Violas for Free<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>In the second week of June cut plants back to within 2 inches of the soil.<\/li>\n<li>When the shoots grow back to 3 inches long scatter some fine soil mixed with peat, amongst the shoots and keep well watered.<\/li>\n<li>In two or three weeks the shoots will have rooted and can be replanted in a shady spot<\/li>\n<li>Pinch out the growing tip to encourage branching<\/li>\n<li>Divide plants every two or three years in Spring as they start to grow or in Autumn but the results may not be as good as the rooted cuttings.<\/li>\n<li>Alternatively sow fresh seeds in July. Cover lightly but then exclude light for a few weeks until they have germinated. transplant in October to flower next spring.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a title=\"Violas in Rockery by brianpettinger, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hortoris\/4776184591\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4138\/4776184591_f08c8894d0.jpg\" alt=\"Violas in Rockery\" width=\"500\" height=\"386\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><!--more-->Violas are so similar to Pansies that they are often sold under both names. Below is a popular variety <strong>The Joker<\/strong> which is a viola but is sold as a Pansy.<br \/>\nViolas often have a sweet scent, the blue ones are more closely related to violets and generally smell the strongest. I am looking for some Viola biflora seeds to sow asap.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Joker pansy by brianpettinger, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hortoris\/5679784061\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5182\/5679784061_f6381b0b00.jpg\" alt=\"Joker pansy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Get more Violas from cuttings and seedlings with these tips.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-flowers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}