My first project, of course, was to identify and save, and clone, the old roses we inherited when we moved into our house. All of those roses had been planted by my DH's father, grandparents, and great grandfather (who bought the house when it was brand new, and had only minimal brand new landscaping). That project has kept me happy for over 30 years - it turned out that at least one of the roses was "lost in commerce" in North America, and now it (the correct version of the tea Anna Olivier) is back in commerce - from my garden. It took decades, but all of the old roses which were here when we moved in have been identified and I have planted more bushes of them by rooting cuttings, because all of them survived in our climate without any care whatever for over 25 years, when the house was a rental after my DH's grandparents moved out, until we moved in. So, I knew they loved it here, and I wanted to keep them.

As I got braver, and started learning more about plants other than roses, I discovered hellebores. That was because our 1/3rd acre lot has many trees and a 3 story house, so also a lot of shade. At first I bought hellebores for $25 each, and thought it would take forever to get enough of them to do anything with. However, low and behold, they started seeding babies all over, and now I have 3 hellebore beds with wall to wall hellebores, all in partial to dark shade. Haven't purchased one in ages. Giving away baby plants to my neighbors.

My next project was to look around our old (for here - the oldest homes were built in the late 19th century, and there are many many houses built in the first quarter of the 20th century) neighborhood, looking for old roses which had survived nearby. I found what turned out to be old old cultivars of Belle Portugaise, Madame Caroline Testout, Niles Cochet, Cl Crimson Glory, Lamarque, and a yellow polyantha whose ID is currently thought to be George Elger, which appears to be "lost" everywhere except for one plant in Austrailia. I have all of these growing now in my garden. I do like the idea that those, like the rooted cuttings I have planted from the old roses from my garden, are one or two clones away from very old cultivars.

Jackie

Your rose projects are certainly marvelous, Jackie: not only for you, but for a myriad of old rose lovers. I haven't propagated roses to speak of for some years, and hope to get back to them in time.

I like hellebores, too, and, like you, most of my garden kinds are volunteers, descendents of volunteers from another garden. They're good and pretty plants, very satisfying.

We have two wild hellebore species locally: H. foetidus, the common one at our elevation, an attractive plant which grows in our woods; and H. viridis, more common at higher elevations, an elegant, spring-fresh creature. DH and I transplanted four plants of H. viridis on two occasions (two each time) some years ago, and after some hesitation they've begun to prosper and seed around a little. New native plants for the woods, they make me happy.

P.S. Jackie, do you grow cyclamen? I suspect they would like your condtions. Also my beloved sweet violets.

I have some cyclamen plants, but they are all in pots on our front (covered) porch. It never occurred to me that they might do well in the ground here - good idea, I will try it.

Violets - unfortunately, one thing we did inherit was some sort of spreading, invasive sickly violet. I have been trying to get rid of them for 30 years - they come up with their leaves all curled, up and never ever bloom at all. in all of that time I have never seen a bloom on even one of them. So, I think I have been sort of leery of violets.

Jackie

I love hearing about your projects, Melissa. It's so satisfying to look back after a few years have passed to see how things are coming along, isn't it?

You are lucky to be able to grow peonies. My area is too warm for the herbaceous ones, which is one reason that I love the roses that look like peonies so much. I bought a species one online called Paeonia cambessedesii 'Majorcan Peony' from Annie's Annuals. I think it was $35 - so a rather spendy experiment. I kept it in the 4" plastic pot it came in for a year and then transferred it to a slightly bigger clay pot. It is doing well - I think this is it's third year. It's not very big yet and hasn't bloomed, but it seems to be thriving. It lost it's leaves (deciduous) the first year and I was so afraid that it wouldn't come back - but it did. Deciduous things always scare me. But this winter it din't lose it's leaves - they are big and healthy looking. I wonder why? They say it's native to Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearic Islands - sort of near Italy, I think. Here's a link for more info:

https://www.anniesannuals.com/plants/view/?id=4085

I am also going to try another type of peony this year called Itoh Peony which is bred specifically for warmer areas with no winter chill.

I am trying to create a Hellebore garden also. I am not to the stage where they are self seeding and may never get there, but I love having them bloom every winter.

Your Sulfurea violet sounds like such an interesting color. I am intrigued - maybe I can find something like it online.

Jackie - I never thought Cyclamen would do well in the ground, either. I always bought them every year for Christmas and then got rid of them in the spring. I used to love going into the nurseries when they got the cyclamens in because they were so fragrant. I loved the cool, fresh scent - but they don't seem to have that scent anymore. I wonder if breeding for the flowers has gotten rid of the scent. I did come across a named variety called "Victoria" I think, that did have the scent I remembered. The one I had might have just died - I think I over-watered it. I'll leave it alone and see if it comes back.

Interesting that you mention the "spreading, invasive, sickly violets. I have those, too! They have fat, hard curled up leaves. Not all of them, though. Some of them have normal leaves and they do bloom - dark purple, not overly fragrant flowers on very short stems. When I first saw the deformed leaves I thought they might be attacked by a fungus or something, so I dug out all the ones that were deformed. Soon after, the normal looking ones kept spreading and then started getting the deformed leaves. I have dug out more over the years, but never all of them. I started thinking maybe it was due to something other than a fungus, but I don't know what. I wish I knew if it was just this particular type of violet that I have, or if all violets would do this in my soil. I love violets - maybe I should experiment with giving them different nutrients and/or more water, etc. There's a project for me!

Jackie and BirdsLoveRoses, cyclamen are classed as "florist's"--tender varieties bred from C. persicum--and "hardy" kinds. The ones you buy in pots for winter display are the non-hardy kind. Specialist bulb suppliers often offer hardy cyclamen corms. The hardiest and commonest is C. hederifolium, alias C. napolitanum. This is a great cyclamen, though scentless, handsome, vigorous, and seeds generously. After it, in hardiness, come varieties like C. cilicium, similar to C. hederifolium, C. coum (blooms later winter to spring), C. repandum, which I don't have, but is naturalized in parts of Great Britain, and our native Italian C. purpurascens, fragrant, reputed to be fussier than these others, and which I don't have. I may try it one day. By the way, I've had some limited success in carrying florist's cyclamen through to the next winter. I believe I killed one last year by over-watering in during its summer rest--probably best to let them dry out--but have had another for several years. This winter it didn't bloom for the first time, and I suspect I need to repot it entirely, rather than just topping up the compost. I've heard about fragrant florist's cyclamen, but apprently scent is rather hit-and-miss, and generally hasn't been bred for. Thanks for the mention of 'Victoria'. Breeders of florist's cyclamen may be discovering an interest in fragrance.

About violets, there are American species, too, though I don't know much about them, or whether your violet might be a western species. One small, dark, scentless as I recall, American violet is V. labradorica, which I remember seeing naturalized in western Washington. I just checked the Wikipedia entry, and it says V. riviniana, a European species, is often sold as V. labradorica. Oh, the confusion. I recall V. labradorica as lower-growing than most violets, with dark blooms and foliage flushed violet, and a great spreader.

My violets occasionally get disease, too, including the curled thick leaves, but they outgrow it. And they bloom like mad. The only scented violet I know of is the sweet violet, V. odorata, common here and wonderfully variable, though we have other wild species locally. I had a named sweet violet in my garden in Olympia, probably 'Blue Czar' or 'Royal Robe'. It lasted for years, bloomed regularly, and smelled really great (the whole plants smells like violets, not just the flowers), but I don't recall it seeding, as my sweet violets here do. It might be worth trying sweet violets, which ought to be available from specialist nurseries. BirdsLoveRoses, 'Sulphurea' is a classic variety: you should be able to find it. Ooooh, interesting: while browsing about looking into buying oppportunities for 'Sulphurea', I noticed that it evidently is not a single clone, but a seed-grown type. So my "Daughters of 'Sulphurea'" fall right into gardening tradition.

This entry is getting really long, so I'll stop, though I would like to take up peonies later.

Two last notes, though: while browsing around double-checking my facts while writing this, I found a blog called LaidbackGardener, which had an excellent article on keeping florist's cyclamen for years. Also, the violet disease question. This wouldn't apply to native American violets which are adapted to local weather patterns, but violets native to Italy, like Viola odorata, are used to wet cool winters and hot dry summers. They might object to regular summer water. I never water any of mine except for a while after transplanting. Actually, so might western native violets, which would likewise be adapted to summer drought.

Melissa - thanks for your information and observations. I searched for Viola Sulphurea and couldn't find it anywhere in stock. I'll search more and also search for seeds.

I'm still wondering what would cause the violet leaves to curl up and get hard. You can't pull apart the curl - it's like it fuses together. Yet they don't all do it even on the same plant. It's a mystery that needs solving...

Thanks Melissa, I am very tempted to try some more violets now after hearing of your lovely yellow ones. At the moment I've got some Parma violets struggling away in my tiny scrap of a yard in a probably-too-shady spot. I've been told that in my zone Parma violets do best in pots, so maybe I'll dig those up and try some Viola odorata...

I really love your garden writing, Melissa. Thank you for sharing the joy.

Yes, Melissa, I love your garden writings, too! Sorry you've been sick - hope you're on the mend. Please write about peonies - I, for one, am very interested!

I would like to try Marie Louise -- at the moment I have Duchesse de Parme and the double white Comte de Brazza, the latter of which is not doing well and hasn't spread at all in the two years I have had it. Duchesse de Parme has spread quite a bit, but looks like it is struggling in its location (I think it is spreading in the vain effort to get away from the conditions where I placed it). Annie's was offering them, which is how I came across them. Of course I had visions of making violet-laced jams and cocktails with them by now, but that has not come to pass. Maybe I'll have a better harvest of Viola odorata if I can just decide on a variety (or two, or three...) for my little yard. I like the suggestion that having two varieties might increase their tendency to seed -- not that I am sure that it is the case, but rather because it gives me an excuse to grow more than one kind. :)

P.S. I hope you feel better now and am sure that we all would love to hear more about peonies!