The violet’s heyday was the end of the 19th century, when trains full of both cut flowers and potted plants would leave growers in Devon and Cornwall for London. It has been estimated that, in the 1890s, there were 400 violet sellers on the streets of central London. The main appeal of the flowers to the Victorians and Edwardians was, of course, their perfume, which could detract from the stench of city streets. The scent did not merely mask the smell: violet perfume contains a substance, ionone, that briefly anaesthetises the nose against other smells.
The pick of the bunch
Viola odorata ‘Diana Groves’
In 2004, an inaugural conference for violet enthusiasts was held in Toulouse, France, and this plant, a seedling with claret-coloured flowers raised at the Groves Nursery, won a gold medal. It’s a tough plant reputed to be very resistant to pests and diseases
Viola odorata ‘Mrs R Barton’
This story is from the March 02, 2022 edition of Country Life UK.
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This story is from the March 02, 2022 edition of Country Life UK.
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