Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women - Wise Acres Yearbook (Ambler, PA)

Page 32 text:

WILD PANSY and CULTIVATED PANSY OF 1830 Prow “Pansies, Violas and Violets” By William Cuthbcrtson This improvement began in England and therefore this country is usually considered to be the home of the garden pansy. Two people became interested in this modest flower at about the same time, Lady Mary Bennett (later Lady Monk) and Lord Gambier, the former in 1810, the latter in 1813 or 1815. Soon their gardeners, Mr. Richardson and Mr. Thomson, respectively, became exceedingly interested, saved everything of merit from their own gardens, obtained new colors wherever they could, planted the seed of only the most beautiful and grew them in special soil. In a short time, due to this continual selection, and to the cross pollination brought about by insects, each garden contained a good collection. Others began to raise pansies. As they responded almost magically to garden treatment, they gained rapidly in favor. By 1835 there were four hundred named varieties on sale in England. In fact, so much of a favorite did the pansy become that it ranked with the rose itself, even, for popularity. Both distinguished amateurs and talented nurserymen devoted themselves to the cultivation of the pansy and gained surprising success. The English horticultural societies encouraged this competition by offering prizes for the finest flowers. Every nobleman, every owner of an estate wished to have his own special collection of pansies, and the. nurserymen, who were well rewarded, did everything they could to keep alive this interest of the public by constantly producing new varieties. In the middle of the thirties the price for new and good varieties was five shillings a plant and for especially excellent ones a much higher price was obtained. Ten pounds was offered for one seedling and refused. One of the largest private collections belonged to a Mr. W. Sydenham and contained in 1898 two million plants. This popularity increased to such an extent that several pansy, and pansy-and-viola societies were organized both in England and in Scotland. Two of these are still in existence today. The development of the flower in different countries is very inter- £f 30

Page 31 text:

School of Horticulture •♦♦a - -. .. —: whole garden full of old trees, iron gateways, balconies and fountains, which give it the atmosphere of a very old Italian garden. Each house has its own individual plot of land bordered on three sides by a low stone wall. A narrow path leads out to the center public walk, ending in a small gate. The owners have an agreement always to keep their service quarters towards the street, and the dining and living rooms at the back overlooking the gardens. Every house is unique in itself, for no two are exactly alike. Some have balconies from the second-floor windows, and others bay windows from the first floor, and an addition of two rooms on the roof. The colors of the houses vary also. One is a lovely light green, and another is the usual reddish tan, with a large ship painted on it between the first and second floor. The four end houses each have a long porch out from the second floor, overlooking the gardens, while a high wall closes in the ends of the garden from the public eye. The History of the Pansy Theresa Schindler, Ph.D. The heartsease or wild pansy was first mentioned and described by O. Brunfels (1533) and by L. Fuchs (1542), both Germans. The latter wrote that the Herba Trinitatis, the name by which the pansy was then known, was found not only wild in Germany at that time, but also as an ornamental plant. He describes the upper petals as purple, the two side petals as white and the base petal as yellow. Viola lutea also was grown in gardens at this time. The name, pansy, as far as we can learn, was used for the first time in botanical literature in 1537, by the Frenchman, Ruellius, but in its Latin form, pensea. By 1597 the heartsease, or pansy, had found its way into Gerard’s Herbal and because of its three colors, “purple, yellow, white or blew,” it was called Viola tricolor. From all records it seems certain that this dainty flower was used as a garden subject during the latter part of the sixteenth century, in the Netherlands and in France, as well as in England, while the next century found it in the gardens, also, of Denmark, Poland, Sweden and Italy. All this time, however, even into the eighteenth century, these pansies resembled both in size and coloring those growing wild, and it was not until the nineteenth century that the lovely forms which we admire today resulted from hybridization and selection.

Page 33 text:

School o] Horticulture esting. England preferred a perfectly round flat bloom, size being second in importance, and the colors clear and brilliant, either one solid color or only two. And by continual selection they did produce practically circular flowers. Fortunately for those at the present time who prefer their pansies ruffled, fluted and in all colors, the French, the Belgians and the Germans chose everything that was attractive both in color and in form. In time England and Scotland accepted these, also, for the monotony of the too symmetrically round flat pansies finally wearied the people. As a result, by the latter part of the nineteenth century there were several types and the colors were most varied, for they included the original colors, yellow, white, blue and purple as well as pink, red, rose, orange, salmon, mahogany, blended and mixed in the most beautiful and fantastic manner. Today there is scarcely any color or shade, with the exception of green, which is not represented in some variety. Some are of one solid color with only a few pencilings of a dark purple or a lighter blue, the solid color being white, yellow, red, violet, blue, brown or black while others are a combination of several colors. The colors most difficult for the pansy breeder to obtain are pure red and pure blue. There are now some fairly good blue pansies but very few clear fiery reds or blood-reds. However many do not consider the latter a disappointment for there is a decided clash between the red, henna or bronze pansies and the purple and deeper blue ones. These modern improved pansies are the result of constant selection and of the best methods of cultivation. It is not necessary to cross-polli-nate by artificial means as the bees make every cross imaginable. Therefore when new varieties are desired careful selection is made from seedlings and the plants chosen for seed breeding are isolated, in this case to prevent further crossing with other varieties. These, however, are not offered to the public until they have been subjected to rigorous testing for years in the gardens of the originator. Our pansies usually run in strains rather than in definite varieties for Americans seem to prefer a mixture. In Europe more named varieties are offered. Most of our best strains are of European origin for our breeders send abroad for everything good or new, test them out in their experimental fields and from these choose the best and develop strains of their own, selling them, then, under their own name. The chief points of merit in the modern high-bred pansy are size, brilliancy and arrangement of coloring. Seed should be bought each year from seedsmen, for in the hands of the amateur pansies quickly degenerate. The seed of the best strains is necessarily expensive for these high-bred pansies require a great deal of extra care in the growing, and the finer the strain, the fewer seed produced. The tufted pansies or violas had an entirely different origin from the ordinary garden pansy. Here the originators deliberately strove for