It finally occurred to me to check "The Sunset Western Garden Book" on Parma violet hardiness: it lists them as good in Sunset zones 4-9, 14-24. I think we fall in there somewhere. Also it says they're V. alba. Monarda, I associate violets with Colette, too; perhaps it was in part just the era and the circles she moved in, but she was also sensitive to plants, scents, and food. This is God's own violet country: we have several native species, and violets grow all over the place. I think our clay soils, mild wet winters, and dry summers all suit them perfectly. I think you may be right that they like a lot of nourishment. I was looking at some of mine this year and thinking I might have to lift them and amend their beds...though this is also due to my not having prepared the soil all that well to begin with. Our clay, well amended with compost, would be fine. I seem to remember reading that violets were grown under glass in hotbeds, that is, with an underlying layer of manure that gave off heat to warm the cold frame as it decomposed, and then fed the plants. My violets don't seem to get any pests or diseases worth noting. I do have to weed the wild violets away from them, though. I'm lucky that there are a couple of nurseries I know of that sell fragrant cultivated violets, though I don't know if 'Rosina' is one of them. I currently have six or seven kinds of cultivated sweet and Parma violets. By the way--I didn't know this until my current researches--there are double hardy forms of V. odorata as well as the mostly double Parmas: my double white 'Reine de Blanche' is a V. odorata cultivar. Lavender Lass, I wonder what your fragrant violets are? The only scented violets I've heard of are the Europeans V. odorata and V. alba. Are there scented American native violets as well, or do you have some naturalized V. odorata in your yard? Is it a typical violet (like the perfume) scent? I don't know whether the American Violet Society is still in existence, but their Internet site is, and it offers considerable information on American native violets, with a key for identification. Suzy, I'm confused too; I never had any formal training in botany (not much informal either) and so many violets are so similar to each other! I discovered the Groves site a while back and it has been piling fuel on the flames of my violet passion. And yes, they do ship to Italy. In this country the Priola nursery has a respectable and growing collection, and I want to buy from them this year. Groves is definitely a possibility for the future. Melissa

Hi! I notice most of this thread is 9 years old and i wonder if you folks are still here, reading this discussion makes me happy. I was researching if i could transplant iris, black eyed Susan, bergamot, and coneflowers into my damp sunny front yard violet patch and expect them to thrive, and I'm going to try it! @Hu of 5 months ago, that would be really pretty, columbine with violets. IDK if it would work but I will try it too after the hardy stuff establishes! My goal is to make a privacy screen so I feel less exposed in my front yard. I want it dense with always something blooming. Right now I have a big forsythia on one end, hollies on the other, and a 100yo rose bush in the middle. I want to be able to put a hammock between the apple trees without my neighbors leering at me. Zone 6 NE KY!

I hate anything with thorns and lawn violets which are taking over my flower beds (if they are native, I'm not sure). The one redeeming thing about violets is if there's a nuclear winter, I'm sure they will survive, and all parts of the violets are edible. I don't develop a rash from Phacelia, but my allergies go wild each year after seed are set and I pull up plants to scatter around the property for more flowers. I can spend about 10 minutes on the job, and then I have to go inside and wash my hands and face and change clothes to recover. There's a long list of plants that can cause contact dermatitis just like poison ivy, so not all outbreaks can be blamed on it.

Courtney, I have grown crossvine on a chain link fence, at our home in Fort Worth in the 1980s/1990s, and I have grown it here in Oklahoma on an arbor since 1999. I have never seen it sprawl on the ground as a ground cover, but it is my understanding that it is often used that way. It will make a pretty dense cover of foliage over time, but I think that if it and the shasta daisies/coneflowers were all planted at the same time (or if the daisies/coneflowers precede it), the crossvine shouldn't overwhelm them and choke them out. Another excellent native type of groundcover is Virginia Creeper. It creeps on the grounds in our woodland areas and doesn't seem to climb up into the trees too much (perhaps because the poison ivy and greenbriar have already climbed all the available trees! lol). On the east side of our house, it is climbing the wall of the 2 story house and has just about reached the roof. It has taken it several years to climb that high though. As a bonus, it attracts some kind of butterfly or moth. I don't remember which one, but I bet Susan knows. I have 'Tangerine Beauty' crossvine on an arbor with 'Flava' trumpet creeper and it is a true hummingbird magnet. I think crossvine would make a beautiful ground cover, and it is semi-evergreen so you'd still have some leaves on it for most of the winter. One of the great things about American Crossvine is that it is one of the primary flowering vines that hummingbirds rely on when migrating. So, in the springtime, when the American Crossvine and the Trumpet Creeper start blooming, the hummers are right behind them. Dawn