I agree with Nottle’s observation about water and cool roots. My Reine des Violettes is in a west-facing position and has the full afternoon summer sun to cope with, so it responds well to being heavily mulched..
Scrape in a handful of blood fish and bone in early spring as the plant comes into growth and again after the first flush go flowers in late summer. Work in carefully avoiding damage to the surface roots
Prune when dormant.
Reine des Violettes can have lax growth, that catches the wind. This can be sorted by training as a climber or pegging stems down. Try driving in four stakes about 50 cm from the centre of the plant and looping the long stems onto the stakes. This has the added effect of breaking the buds along the stems and produces many more flowers
Dead head frequently to promote new buds
Not usually grown from seed but grafted to a root stock. Also can strike from semi ripe cuttings with a heel in mid summer or hard wood cuttings taken in the autumn
Take 30 to 40 cm hard wood cuttings and strip off all but the top two leaves. Dip into rooting hormone and insert into a trench with added grit prepared in less sunny part of the garden. The cuttings will be ready for individual planting the following autumn
Roses can be grown from seed but it usually to investigate potential new varieties, as roses are hybrids, they do not come true to the parents plants
By our calculations, you should look at sowing Reine des Violettes about 35 days before your last frost date.
Plant out the bare rooted stock in the dormant season. Dig a hole wide enough to take to roots and deep enough to cover the crown by about 5cm. Back fill with the addition of well rotted manure or blood fish and bone. Firm in and water. Choose a sunny situation, fine on clay
Container grown plants can be planted at any time of year, provided the watering is attended to
Bare root roses establish more quickly and grow more strongly than container grown roses
Good for cutting for the home, wait until the bud is partly open.
This variety tends to mature and be ready for harvest in mid summer.A seedling of ‘Pope Pius IX’
Translation of name: Queen of the Violets.
Trevor Nottle points out that "as the name suggests [they] should be perpetually in flower. . . The truth is that they flower in bursts, some varieties repeating their season of bloom three or four times in one summer. . . To the French gardeners of the last century [1800s] they were known as hybrides remontants; a more accurate way of describing their ‘on again, off again’ habit of flowering.
Grown by Millet-Malet of France in 1860
Queen of the Violets, Violet Queen