Can I rescue my violas?

angeltreats

I have a big pot full of violas, and a few in flowerbeds too. I was being very good and deadheading them every day or two, but I've just had a bout of illness and spent a week or so mostly in bed. Hubby watered the garden but over the week my violas have gone very straggly, the flowers are tiny and it's started to go to seed :mad: They look a bit rubbish.

Is there anything I can to do get them back to their former glory - what if I cut them right back? Or should I just try and collect a bit of seed and start a few more?

greenval

Despite what we want them to do a plant's big ambition in life is to produce seed to continue their existence. Once they produce loads of seed it's ' job's a good 'un, now I can die down/die'.
Two pronged strategy. Keep seed in case they have totally given up. Also trim them back but make sure you keep them well FED and watered and they should colme back.

alanobrien

If the pods are there collect seed then cut them right back and sow the seed. Violas are very robust i will be greatly suprised if you didnt end up with two pots of them

Joly_Roger

Yeah, I agree violas are annuals and their raison d'être is to flower, get pollinated and then create seeds to pass on their genes to the next generation (a bit like humans). Once they have gone to seed they would feel like their work is done. So you're best off sowing the fresh seed and either composting the old violas, or cutting them back to see if you can get one more flush from them. I normally just leave the violas alone in a mixed border to self seed themselves.

dogstarheaven

that's good, then. I'll let mine self-seed. I've got some various viola varieties, but one of them is truly beautiful - Antique Shades (Sorbet series). they're quite small and they have varying shades of soft peaches, oranges, yellows, pinks in them.. all v delicate and gorgeous!

these were put in last autumn and now altho' they're flowering rather profusely (i deadhead mine daily!), i'm wondering if i could chop these back as to allow them to reinvigorate as their lower branches are looking a bit dry and raggedy.. what do you think? the others which are slightly larger are also looking the same (they've never allowed to set seed tho') so would they definitely bush out if i do the same to them too?:o

SallyForth_2

If you do collect the seed pods, don't do what I did and put them in an open tray on the windowsill to dry out. The pods sort of spring open and fling seed everywhere, and I had a right mess to clear up. I now have the pods in a paper bag, and you can hear it crackle every now then - reminds me of popping corn!

angeltreats

Sorry I'm only coming back to this thread now. Thanks for the advice everyone. I've kept quite a lot of seed (a lot of the pods had already popped open and the seeds have been spread to god knows where - the neighbours will probably end up with a plague of violas) and have cut the plants right back and fed them to see if I can get another flowering out of them. I imagine they'll start springing up in the beds anyway, in fact one has appeared in a crack in the patio. I feel quite bad now for neglecting them!

Everything in my garden seems to be having a growth spurt at the moment. I had some dwarf carnations that could no longer be called dwarf by anyone's standards, my nasturtiums are like triffids...

Joly_Roger

"a plague of violas", lol

alanobrien

I threw some seed into a pot (from a freebie viola from wyvale) about a month ago and the first flowers are coming out now so in this weather you wont have to wait long.