Pansies and Violas: Favourite Flowers

Anyone who has followed me for a long time here or elsewhere on social media knows how much I love pansies and violas. They have strong childhood associations for me and remind me particularly of my mom's mother who was named Viola. They are also favourite garden flowers with delicate looks yet a hardy character, perfect for a northern garden. And they are a joy to paint.

This spring I did a painting of some little yellow and white violas that I bought in a little pot to cheer up our kitchen windowsill. I've made my watercolour into prints and cards. You can see the note card in the photo at the top.

Cheering up is the key role I think of these flowers. Whether in the garden, a pot or a vase, their little faces have the ability to lift our spirits. Who doesn't need that, especially right now?

The very first print I created in my studio in 2011, when I launched my online art business, was of a watercolour painting I did of a pot of pansies in my backyard. That happy group of blue pansies was punctuated by pink nemesia, coral diascia and white euphorbia. It's still available in my shop as a print (shown below) and note cards.

This past week, I added an assortment of pansy and viola note cards to my shop. I chose five of my favourite watercolour paintings: Pansy Quartet, Pansies in a Pot, Posy of Pansies and Violas, Violas and Verbena, and Yellow and White Violas. This notecard collection is for all of the pansy and viola lovers out there like me.

When I was a little girl, I would follow my grandmother around as she fed the birds and squirrels in her backyard and tended to the annuals. One of my favourite memories is of her letting me pick pansies from the garden to put in the beautiful silver and glass posy vase she owned. The memory of gathering pansies with her was so special to me that I tracked down an almost identical vase for myself years later from an antique dealer.

If you'd like to see all of my pansy and viola art currently available, click here. There are prints, print sets, note cards, my new note card assortment, and a bookmark. I hope that they give you the same pleasure that they give me.

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Edible Flower Print Series

I am happy to announce that my edible flower watercolor series is now available as prints in my shop. I really enjoyed painting this collection of flowers. I have printed them in my studio on beautiful paper. I mean paper so nice that you will want to sit there holding it instead of putting it in a frame. Or at least I would. Because I love paper that much.

A little while ago, I wrote about how I am trying to paint more series. I did it! These six edible flower prints are compatible with my herb series. I hope by having related images available that it will be easy for people to mix and match to create a collection of prints that is just right for their wall. 

Viola + Pansy - The flowers of these charming plants are edible. They can be added to salads or crystallized and used to decorate cakes.

Crabapple - The petals of crabapple blossoms are edible (apple blossoms too). I was delighted to learn this! They can be used in small quantities to garnish a salad or try floating them in a drink.

Borage - I grow borage from seed every year. It's such a pretty addition to the garden. I love all blue flowers! The flowers are edible and can be used to garnish salads and cold soups. You can float them in beverages or freeze them in ice cubes. The young leaves are also edible but I don't really enjoy how prickly they feel so I leave them on the plants.

Chives - The stems of chives are a great, mild substitute for onion in foods. They are nice with egg and cheese dishes and are lovely baked into biscuits. I never used to think of eating the blossoms until I saw a photo on my friend Sonia's beautiful Instagram feed a couple of years ago. She was preparing toast topped with soft cheese and chive florets. I tried it and not only is it delicious but also beautiful! 

Nasturtium - This is another beautiful flower that I grow each year from seed in my garden. I line the sides of my square-foot garden with nasturtiums. The flowers have a peppery taste and are great in salads or as a garnish. The young leaves are edible too.

Violet - Wild violets are edible. I'm lucky to have some growing wild in our back lawn. Many people like to crystallize them and use them to decorate cakes and cookies. 

I really hope that like my new edible flower series. You can also find smaller versions of these images in my 2017 calendar.

I should mention that it's important to be sure that your flowers and herbs are pesticide-free. Eat in small quantities and always consult with a health professional if you have particular health issues or are serving to small children. The basic rule is, if in doubt about a plant, don't eat it. If you want to learn more about edible flowers, there are some good guides online. You can find two here and here.

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A Soft Spot for Pansies

One of the things I have been trying to do as often as possible the past couple of years is to create sets of images when I paint. It's not something that I necessarily find to be intuitive. Often I want to paint one thing and then for the next painting, do something quite different! But by trying to offer more sets of images which I think is helpful to customers, I am finding that I do enjoy painting series. This is one of my favourite sets of prints that I currently offer in my shop: my set of four pansy prints. I introduced this set a few months ago but I have pansies on my mind these days because of all of the planting I am doing in my garden!

Anyone who has known me for a while is aware of what a soft spot I have for pansies. One of my grandmothers was named Viola. Here's a photo of my recently planted herb pots on our back porch taken in the late afternoon light. Of course, I had to add a pot of sweet little violas!

You can view all of my print sets here. I hope to introduce more sets this year. I have several paintings in my studio just waiting to be converted into prints. As with all of my sets, you can also opt to buy the prints individually or to make your own grouping.

And now back to planting!

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Garden Lullaby

This week, I gave myself a gift. I took a break from my work and spent a day and a half in the garden getting it ready for winter. I often say "I need my garden and my garden needs me". It is without a doubt a reciprocal relationship. Whatever I give, I receive back in beauty, a rested mind and restored spirit.

I was lucky that the weather was unseasonably mild. It was perfect for gardening. There have been plenty of years when I have done end-of-season work while freezing. There have also been years where I have been completely surprised by early snow and have had to leave the garden in its messy state until spring.

I removed annuals from pots and flower beds. I trimmed a few perennials although I leave most of them intact until spring to serve as bird food and winter interest. I moved a few perennials to better places and cleaned up the vegetable garden. I was happy to find a small patch of violas still in bloom in the center of the veggie patch.

I always have mixed emotions at this time of year. There is sadness that the growing season has come to a close. At the same time, I feel a sense of peace with the quiet state of the garden and a sense of hope at what the next year will bring.

Some of the trees and shrubs are completely bare. Others still have bits of color.

Yesterday's sunshine provided me with a late-season encounter with a garden friend. A little ladybug took a tour around my garden-gloved hand before taking off.

Throughout, I worked under the thoughtful gaze of my garden supervisor.

I am hoping that the good weather holds out a bit longer. I have a big order of spring bulbs on its way to me. Their shipment was delayed and I won't be able to plant them until next week.  Keep your fingers crossed for me that they arrive before temperatures plunge!

Nature's Paintbox

I am constantly amazed by the beauty in nature. I love looking closely at flowers and admiring the lines, colours and textures of each bloom. Of all of the flowers I know, I think pansies remind me the most of watercolours. Don't you think Mother Nature must have her own extra special paintbox?

I have painted a lot of violas and pansies over the years. They are such happy flowers. You can click here to see a few of my prints featuring them.  If you are relatively new to my blog you won't know this special connection. One of my grandmothers was named Viola.

I planted the little beauties in these photos in my front garden this week. The traditional planting date for annuals in our region has been May 24th for many years. I tend to try to plant much earlier if overnight temperatures are forecast above frost. Pansies, however, can handle frost so they can be planted before most any other annual. One neighbour a few houses down never plants anything before May 24th. Often when I'm out planting my first annuals, he will pass by and say "Isn't it a little early to be planting those, Kathleen?" I always assure him that they will be fine. It's like an annual tradition! I was a little disappointed that he didn't walk by this year. ;)

I have been so busy this past week with the spring cleanup in my garden that I haven't had a paintbrush in my hand once! I have so many flower beds that it takes at least five full days to clean everything up. I filled 20 big garbage bags with clippings and garden waste for the municipal green pickup! You should have seen the pile at the curb. I feel like I should have got some sort of Amazon woman award for that! Once the beds are presentable again, I will move my attention to my beloved square-foot vegetable garden.

My handsome and kind-hearted garden supervisor

After the slow, cold beginning to the spring, this week has been remarkably sunny and warm. If you blink, you can miss an important change in the garden. Leaves have opened. Flowers are blooming. We have our first sparrow family too. It's a beautiful time of year.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

The wall of snow arrived this morning.  My little viola seems to be bowing down to the inevitability of it all.  I don't mind.  I found myself singing 'Let it snow' the other day when I was walking Meeko.

Someone was quite happy about this morning's condition. It's not his first winter but he looked a little surprised when we opened the back door.

Then he did what we refer to as the 'weasel run'.  This is a wild, high speed run that he does back and forth from one side of the yard to the other, running precariously close to hard, jutting objects and incorporating as many fancy airborne moves as are possible.  I caught part of it with my camera.  Thanks to Meeko, I was able to test out the action function of my new camera. :)

It's not just the furry kids who are happy today.  The snow is that lovely packable kind.  School kids will be having a ball today. My two are in high school.  They said 'Oh no' when they looked out the window, but they were in a cheerful mood this morning. I guess we are all still young kids at heart.

Have a good day.  Safe travels if you are in the States moving towards a family celebration.  I'll announce a sale in my Etsy store later today.

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The sale has begun and lasts until the end of the day Monday November 28th in my Etsy store.  Use the coupon code THANKS2011 when you check out and receive 15% off your entire order.

A Morning Walk Around My Garden

This morning was cold but beautiful. Six degrees Celsius (just under 43 Fahrenheit) at 7:00 a.m.  Brrrrrr. The chill was a reminder to cherish these last weeks of the growing season. Here are a few photos from this morning's walk around my garden.

The scene above is one of my favourite parts of my garden at the moment.  It reminds me of 'something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue'.  I planted some of the annuals this summer (the blue salvia, petunias and alyssum).  Others have grown back from seed deposited last year (the snapdragons, the coral salvia and the big vine in the background--spanish flag).  The lovely, lonely sunflower to the right was a gift from a bird.

Salvia is without a doubt one of my favourite annuals. It is both elegant and hardy. It will still look beautiful right until the end of October in my Zone 5 garden. Coral salvia (salvia coccinea 'coral nymph') is particularly stunning. I occasionally find the coral plants in garden centres here in the spring or you can order the seed online. This particular plant popped up from seed deposited in the flowerbed last year. Lucky me. I find white salvia (salvia farinacea) to be very useful in the garden. I often use it in my front yard flowerbeds as it combines beautifully with any colour. Another beautiful benefit of salvia is that hummingbirds love it.

And the final image I leave you from my walk around the garden this morning is this sweet little viola. It is so rare to find blue tones in flowers. This beauty is what I would call periwinkle or lavender-blue which happens to be my favourite colour.

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Just a brief postscript. As I've been writing my post this morning, the radio has been reminding me that this is the 10th anniversary of 9/11. My husband was scheduled to fly to New York for a business meeting on the 12th (in the financial district but not the towers), so missed being there by a day. We were lucky. I remember how very important my garden was to me in those unsettled days after that terrible event. A garden can be a source of solace, restoration and hope on the darkest days. I planted more spring bulbs that fall than I had in a very long time. Those bulbs provided work for my hands and hope for my heart. My thoughts go out to all touched by that horrendous event ten years ago today.

"The man who has planted a garden feels that he has done something for the good of the world."

Vita Sackville-West