Sweet Violets

by Phelicity

I've seen lotsa flowers, and most are real purrty. Some are big and tall and showy, but I like little ones better. My favorite color is blue, so I like blue lobelias with delicate, curled petals, velvety blue bright-faced pansies, and little blue forget-me-nots. But my furry favorites are violets. I know most violets are more purpley than blue, and come in many other colors, but I love the old fashioned blue ones best. There's a bright blue kind of African violet with white edges on the petals, called Seadrift. That's the purrtiest flowers ever!

There used to be wild violets growing in woods in some places, but I don't know if there are any more. Violets are mostly grown indoors in little pots, because they're delicate. They like warm temperatures, even warmer than a house usually is. If they are grown under lights, they will bloom nearly all the time, even in winter! But they need to be kept out of harsh, direct sun. About once a year they need to be pruned and scraped and repotted in a nice, clean, new pot. They like to be pampered, same as me.

Violets smell sweet, too. I love the scent. My mom even has some violet perfume that I like to smell, since we don't have any violets in the house. The perfume is colored green, though. I don't know how that happened. Maybe some leaves got in there. Violet leaves are furry dark green, and I do mean furry- like hairy and fuzzy. So violets are not simple little old flowers, like forget-me-nots. They are furry special!