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

Thanks to everyone who answered! Sorry it took me so long to get back to the forum. It is very sentimental to me, but I try to tell myself what I tell my kids - if you can't deal with losing a plant, you have no business gardening. There's always the hunt for that holy grail then, which can be fun in itself. It took me awhile to even figure out what it was called! Christie, I had seen that info on Forest Farm, too, a few years back, but they weren't carrying it that season. You're right that it is pretty expensive, but this made me search again, and I found a nursery called Overhill in Tennessee that carries it. I think I'll check out that event at the Spfld Nature Center, too, if I can. I took my kids a few years back to see bald eagles there, and they had a really good time. They had a neat pelt display and a hellbender in a tank! Moko, thanks for your generous offer. I just may take you up on it. When I tried to save mine that time, I had a lot of trouble figuring out how much of that runner/root to take for an adequate plant, and what environment to transplant it to. If you have any suggestions on how to do this properly, that would be great. Geogia-rose, you might want to take a look at that Forest Farm site, it has a lot of robinias that look pretty interesting. I could just kick myself that I didn't rescue one that I saw last summer growing in a construction site. I had noticed the mature ones earlier that year, before they tore up that property. They were medium sized trees, about 20 ft or so, and I never saw the flowers. It may have been one of the psuedoacacias or something, I don't know. I think I'll go back later and see if there is anything left there later this spring. I could have just asked permission. But then there would be the issue of where to put 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

Plectranthus argentatus is certainly worth growing. It is relatively large among the Plectanthri, - meaning thigh-height. Its large silvery leaves are a bit smaller than the palm of your hand. It is unusual and therefore valuable in a landscape sense in being one of the few silver-leafed plants that will grow in the shade, and therefore lighten up a gloomy corner. They also do well in full sun. The flowers are pale lavender-colour. The leaves, however, are not aromatic. P. suaveolens is the scented-leaf one that you are most likely to be able to buy, I think. Silver leaves, lavender flowers, but a smaller plants and definitely wants good drainage and not much water. Win points for growing a rare and threatened thing. Plectranthus blakei is my favourite for flowers, which are in big terminal spikes and a good strong shade of purple. The stems are red and the leaves green. A thigh-high plant, taller than it is wide, so best planted in quantity for a good show. There is an aromatic green-leafed one which grows at the Bunya Mountains. I wish I knew its name as it is very attractive dense thing with the shape of a rounded thigh-high shrub. I have another problem in being too ethical to pinch a cutting from a national park. More fool me, I suppose. P parviflorus is not worth the trouble. A scrappy-looking plant, but perhaps the commonest in the wild. Other names are: P. alloplectus, 70cm, rare and threatened, from Moreton district. violet blue flowers, no fragrance P. amoenus, dwarf, aromatic, S. Qld, hairy leaves green above and silver below, lilac-blue flowers, flowering well in light shade. P. gratus. Strongly aromatic. Can't remember which one is it in my garden, but I think the leaves are green. P. graveolens. silver leaves,with a good strong scent. 1m Violet blue flowers P. nitidus. Probably not worth the trouble, as not scented and not remarkable flowers P. spectabilis. Only lightly fragrant. Grow this one for the showy flowers in big fluffy heads. Green leaves with purple backs. P. torrenticola. Dwarf, silver leaves, fairly fragrant, light purple flowers. Am I being ambiguous here? In all cases it's the leaves, not the flowers which are fragrant. There are also a few introduced Plectranthri in Australia. One of them is an old fashioned thing which Queenslanders used to grow in their gardens to use in cooking. It was called "All-purpose herb", but I haven't seen it for years. I think it originated in Ceylon. Our gardeners are too strongly influenced in their herb-growing habits (as in so much else) by imported gardening books, I think, and this has just gone out of fashion. It has a good strong sage-and-thyme flavour, as I remember. There might be good native ones for culinary use, but I haven't heard of anyone using them, and am reluctant to experiment! But where to get all these lovely plants? I still can't do any better than suggest your local branch of the Australian Plant Society, which might put you on to people who...