The Violet Gallery is operated by Mahlen and Brenda Petry. We've been involved in violets since 1989. Brenda and I have been married since 1966 and have two daughters. Our oldest lives in North Carolina and the other about 3 miles away, in Pennsylvania. We are grandparents now 5 times over with 3 girls and 2 boys. Being grandparents gives us a good excuse for our aches and pains. Maybe I'm feeling older for a good reason! It's obvious to me why God has given babies to younger people rather than older (shall I say, more mature!) people.

We live on a 42 acre farm here in south central Pennsylvania and raise all of our violets under lights - some in the basement, but most in some remodeled out-buildings. Our "greenhouses" don't have one window in them! This year we will have around 20,000 violet starter plants. We have shelves and plants in every nook and corner.

In 2003 we each made some changes to our lives. Brenda retired from teaching (mostly 3rd grade) for over 29 years and I (Mahlen) gave up my furniture refinishing business which I had been doing for about 14 years. Before that I had taught at a technical school for 17 years. We are both devoting a lot more time to the violets and to house, farm and grounds upkeep. We thought we'd have more opportunities to take some trips and be tourists since we've semi-retired, but violets are a lot like pets - you can't go away very long and leave them unattended.

We are both active in our local church. It's a rural church of around 100 called Morning Hour Chapel. Brenda is the Director of Christian Education and Mahlen is Worship Coordinator. We both teach a Sunday School class from time to time and every once in a while Mahlen will preach the morning sermon (just to make the real preacher look good!). Mahlen is also church secretary and maintains the Morning Hour website.

Please enjoy the time with us as you browse the site.

                                       ~ Happy Growing~