A Passion for Purple

Although the weather outside is still cold and frosty,  the later winter and spring flowers are defiantly blossoming in all their glory.  Purple seems to be the color of choice at the moment around Violet Hill Farm - most appropriately of course, given the farms namesake!

My all time favorite flower - the sweet violet (Viola odorata) is forming a profuse carpet of bright green and purple in the shady bed under the elderberry trees.  It has taken me quite some time to get a full carpet, but it was worth the wait as it has become the perfect spot for these tiny late winter and early spring jewels.

The Australian climber Hardenbergia is a cloud of starry purple pin-pricks - it's almost over-whelming...

...and the rosemary is making it's contribution to keeping the bees fed over winter with it's pale violet flowers.

But, still - there is no beating the beauty and scent of the wee sweet violet.  Diane Ackerman has written a beautiful book on scent and her description of the scent of violets is delightful "Violets smell like burnt sugar cubes that have been dipped in lemon and velvet".  She also explains why the scent of violets is so difficult for perfumers to capture; "Violets contain ion one, which short-circuits our sense of smell.  The flower continues to exude its fragrance, but we lose the ability to smell it.  Wait a minute or two, and the smell will blare again.  Then it will fade again, and so on."  - but despite it's flirtation with our senses it evokes such memories (in my case of visits to Mrs Hart's magical garden where I always went home from my fortnightly visits with a bundle of seasonal flowers, a few bantam eggs a tummy full of lemonade and dreams of secret gardens and the beauty and delight of plants), as Helen Keller wrote "Smell is a potent wizard that transports us across thousands of miles and all the years we have lived."  My garden is full of plants that evoke particular memories and I love the depth of sensory experience that provides as I wander the garden.  

I have a lovely old book of English wildflowers which contains a gorgeous description and illustration of the violet and I still adore the Shakespeare quote from Midsummer Night's Dream "I know a bank whereon the wild thyme grows.  Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows".  

Now, the only problem is that one bed of violets is never enough - so the hunt is on for another secret shady spot to expand the territory of this purple sensation!

A belated documentation of work carried out on Sunday 8th July.  I was spoilt with a range of new plants for the garden from my favorite garden centre Wairere in Gordonton as a mid-winter birthday gift.  So, finally after a two week wait in their pots - on a glorious sunny winters day I spent an afternoon planting my new additions to the garden.  Two roses to frame an archway which will lead up into an extended area of garden in the current paddock (yes, the time has finally come when I can no longer restrain myself from digging up the grass and planting more trees)!  I wanted something of a similar nature to my all time favorite rose Madame Alfred Carriere.  She is such a gentle creature, with very few thorns and flowers profusely - even in the middle of winter!   So, I have chosen Crepuscule - a soft apricot yellow which will complement the soft blue of the archway posts.  Crepuscule is a noisette climber which is supposed to be very long flowering and (most importantly) fragrant, and by all accounts with few thorns.  I can only dream of one day having an archway swathed in green and gold (like this photo below).

 - and just so I remember the magic of plant growth - here's a photo of the two plants on day 1 - for future comparison. 

Other activities on the day included planting three new fig trees (we are totally in love with figs at Violet Hill Farm).  Fig Brunoro Black, Fig Omapere (both red fleshed - cause figs just look all the more delectable with the succulent red flesh beneath either the black or green skin), and Fig 'Panache' - which is an amazing striped fig (again with strawberry red flesh) - I just couldn't resist its melon-like disguise.  They are also known as 'tiger figs' - how fabulous is that - tigers in the garden!

And then a final pergola extravaganza - two seedless table grapes, one red and one green either side of the burnt crimson pergola - I have visions of plucking grapes while walking under the pergola to the glasshouse.