Friend or foe - whose are these eggs?
fizzwhizz
Posts: 94
Hi I have just found these little brown eggs on this long-neglected pot of violets - whatever has done it has laid them in the shells of the petals I think? Please could someone tell me if they think I should throw them over the wall to nice wildlifey path behind my house or leave them alone? Pot of violets was put under cherry tree as sacrificial plant which suffered big aphid attack earlier this year (trying to avoid chemicals). Since then I have seen yellow ladybirds and red ones around plus hoverflies and the aphids have vanished :-) so i don't want to get rid of friendly bug-babies! Thanks in advance! P.S. I also have a ton of caterpillars (as you can tell by the violet leaves!) could they be caterpillar eggs? 
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i mean butterfly eggs - i am a newbie, but not that much of a newbie!
Those are the seeds of those little violas - Violet, viola and pansy seed pods split open into three sections when the seeds are ripe,
You can sow them and get more plants
Last edited: 11 June 2017 15:28:12
oh no i am so embarrassed!!! thank you!
No need to be embarrassed ... you don't know what you don't know
Never be afraid to ask ... we won't laugh at you (we may smile a little to ourselves, but only because we remember what it was like when we hardly knew anything) and no one knows everything and we all carry on blithely making mistakes and learning more as we go along
Join the club 
ha ha oh dear, thank you :-)
And why not try sowing them ... growing something from seeds you've gathered and sown yourself is such a buzz! And free
Just get a pot of compost, sprinkle the seeds on the surface ... sprinkle a very fine layer of compost over the top ... put in a shady corner and keep damp (not wet) and wait ........ if you've got slugs and snails in the garden it might be an idea to stand the pot on a tray of gravel to discourage them.
Or yes, do it Nature's way, just as Muddle up says
Ah thanks everyone, I will definitely give it a try - I have grown a couple of things from bought seeds this year (sweetpeas and cosmos) but growing from seedpods will take it to the next level :-) with the viola seeds should i do anything with them first like dry them out / soak them (can you tell google is my gardening mentor?!) Also does anyone know where cosmos seeds come from (I know about sweetpea seedpods!) - do they have seed pods or something else? now i have started the silly questions I am going to continue!!
Many plants just form a seedhead after the flowers finish, but it varies from plant to plant. Cosmos, just literally - go to seed! The flower changes from an obvious petal into the seeds you sowed earlier in the year. The only problem is, that if you leave every flower to do that, you'll get less flowers on the existing plant, as it will put it's energy into reproducing rather than making more flowers
Many plants have beautiful seedheads - pasqueflowers for example. The seedheads are almost as nice as the flowers themselves.