Violets Archives

Posted on March 5, 2021March 29, 2023 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge: Violets Nature Study for Your Homeschool

In this violets nature study, learn how to identify violets plus enjoy suggestions for your outdoor homeschool nature study. Follow up activities include nature journaling pages for labeling flower parts and resources for how to grow violets.

fragrant violet - In this violets nature study, learn how to identify violets plus enjoy suggestions for your outdoor homeschool nature study. Follow up activities include nature journaling pages for labeling flower parts and resources for how to grow violets.

Outdoor Hour Challenge Violets Nature Study

I love violets! In the summer, we have thousands of them that come up all over the yard. They are in the flower beds, in the lawn, and even between the pavers of our walkway! I love their happy colors and I’m anxious to see them again once the season changes.

Most of our violets are transplants from a friend that have gone wild and reseeded themselves. But, we do have one native violet that grows as a wildflower along the edges of our property. It is the goosefoot violet and it’s yellow.

goosefoot violet - In this violets nature study, learn how to identify violets plus enjoy suggestions for your outdoor homeschool nature study. Follow up activities include nature journaling pages for labeling flower parts and resources for how to grow violets.

I need to be careful when I’m weeding along the fence because I could easily weed them right out of the flower bed. Learning their leaf shape, a distinctive “goose print” shape, has helped me to let them be when I’m cleaning out the weeds. Plus, it helps me remember its name! The goosefoot violet is one of our spring ephemerals and signals us that spring is on its way, making it a very welcome flower when we see it starting to bloom.

I think Anna Botsford Comstock had a love for violets as well. When you read the violets nature study lesson in the Handbook of Nature Study you can hear her appreciation for their form and beauty. She does mention the fact that not all violets are fragrant. This was a surprise to me because our violets in California all had that distinctive violet perfume fragrance. The goosefoot violet has no fragrance at all. Turns out, Anna was helpful in giving us some valuable information in order to correctly identify the wild violets.

Violet Nature Study @handbookofnaturestudy
In this violets nature study, learn how to identify violets plus enjoy suggestions for your outdoor homeschool nature study. Follow up activities include nature journaling pages for labeling flower parts and resources for how to grow violets.

Homeschool Nature Study Members: View the original challenge in Homeschool Nature Study membership in the Winter Course.

Learn about violets in the Winter Continues course in Homeschool Nature Study membership.

Make sure to check your local field guide to see which violets are native and then be on the lookout for some to observe in your nature study. As suggested in the challenge, look for “johnny jump ups” in your garden nursery as a substitute for wild violets.

In this violets nature study, learn how to identify violets plus enjoy suggestions for your outdoor homeschool nature study. Follow up activities include nature journaling pages for labeling flower parts and resources for how to grow violets.

Learn About Wildflowers in Homeschool Nature Study Membership

Annual members can download and use any of the wildflower challenges from the three sets of Wildflower curriculum available in the Member’s Library.

You will find hundreds of homeschool nature studies plus all the Outdoor Hour Challenges in our Homeschool Nature Study membership. There are 25+ continuing courses with matching Outdoor Hour curriculum that will bring the Handbook of Nature Study to life in your homeschool! In addition, there is an interactive monthly calendar with daily nature study prompt – all at your fingertips!

Learn More About Homeschool Nature Study Membership Today!

by Barbara McCoy, Outdoor Hour Challenges founder

Posted on February 18, 2010 by Barb — 9 Comments

The Daffodils and Violets are Starting to Bloom!

“When the flowerstalk first appears, it comes up like a sheathed sword, pointing toward the zenith, green, veined lengthwise, and with a noticeable thickening at each edge. As the petals grow, the sheath begins to round out; the stiff stem at the base of the sheath bends at right angles.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 550-551

We have daffodils. They started blooming yesterday on the sunny, warm south side of our house. I planted a new bed of daffodils in the fall but they are still just all greenness…..there is the promise of bright yellow blooms soon.

“It is interesting to note the flowers which have impinged upon the imagination of the poets; the violet more than most flowers has been loved by them, and they have sung in varied strains of its fragrance and loveliness.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 476

We also have a bed of violets blooming and when the sun hits the blossoms it smells so sweet and good.

I brought in a handful and decided that the stems are just too short for any vases I could find so I thought this glass butterfly dish would cradle the blossoms just so.

Lovely indeed.

Posted on March 18, 2009 by Barb — 8 Comments

Violets are Blue? How about Purple?

We began our study by reading the pages in the Handbook of Nature Study. Wow! If you are the least bit interested in violets and you get the chance, you must read the information in the Handbook of Nature Study, pages 476-479. This section is jam-packed with information about violets but also about more general ideas for a nature portfolio (we would call it a nature journal).

“To make this work of the greatest use and interest, each pupil should make a portfolio of the violets of the locality. This may be in the form of pressed and mounted specimens, or of water-color drawings. In either case, the leaf, leafstalk, flower, flower stalk, and rootstock should be shown, and each blossom should be neatly labeled with name, locality, and date. From the nature-study standpoint, a portfolio of drawings is the more desirable, since from making the drawings the pupils become more observant of the differences in structure and color which distinguish the species. Such a portfolio may be a beautiful object…..Each drawing may be followed by a page containing notes by the pupil and some appropriate quotation from botany, poetry, or other literature.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 478

The variety of violets that grow in our yard is extremely fragrant. It is hard to imagine that such a sweet, strong smell comes from such a delicate little bloom.

Our violets grow in a shady, moist area of our yard, mostly around the edges of our deck. They spread easily to other shady areas as well and it is always a joy to see them sprout up in new places.

We carefully observed whether our violets had the leaf stalks come directly from the underground rootstocks or if they came from a common stem as suggested in the Handbook. We observed that the leaves were smooth and glossy. We looked at the sepals and petals.

We looked into the opening that leads to the nectar-spur. We found the tiny undevelped flowers that will produce seeds down near the rootstalk that are meant for self-pollination. So many things we would have never thought to look for all on our own.

As I suspected, I was the only one who wanted to actually watercolor in their nature journal. I allow the boys the freedom to choose how to follow up their nature study.

We pressed a leaf and a flower for my son’s nature journal binder.

I love working with watercolor pencils….such an easy way to get a great effect in your nature journal.

It felt so good to be out in the garden this morning. The sun was warm and it was great to spend time with the boys. Our hands got a little dirty in the soil and that is oh, so good after a long winter. I look forward to seeing what you come up with for your Wednesday Flower Study.

Posted on January 30, 2008 by Barb — 8 Comments

Winter Wildflowers: Violets

This week as part of the Winter Wildflower blog-a-thon at Wildflower Morning, we were asked to come up with some literary connection to wildflowers. I remembered that I had just the thing for this entry.

I recently read a really interesting book about flowers. 100 Flowers and How They Got Their Names by Diana Wells was a quick, fun read and was packed full of interesting tidbits about how both garden and wildflowers got their names.

According to the author about the violet:
Common Names: Violet, pansy, heart’s-ease, Johnny-jump-up, love in idleness
Botanical Name: Viola

She also relates the story of how violets became associated with love. Let’s just say it has something to do with the Greek gods Zeus, Hera, and a heifer.

She includes literary connections to violets by referring to works that violets play a part in like Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She also relates a story about violets that has to do with Napoleon.

“When Napoleon was banished to Elba, he said he would ‘return with the violets.’ When he did return, Josephine was dead, and he picked violets from her grave before being exiled again to St. Helena. They were found in a locket, along with a lock of hair, when he died.”

We are going to keep this little book handy as we enter the spring term and our study of garden flowers. Each flower has a small illustration at the beginning of the chapter. I highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in short accounts for many common flowers. I got my book on bookmooch.com but you can find it used on amazon.com for less than a dollar.

Some other flowers included in the book: dahlia, daffodil, daylily

Tag: Violets