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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 are scaling back a bit and growing only leaves for shipping - plants for everything, though.

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 90 - 100 called Morning Hour Chapel. Brenda is the Director of Christian Education and Mahlen is Worship Coordinator and church secretary. 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!).

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

                                       ~ Happy Growing~