Viola tricolor

Johnny Jump-Up, Heartsease
Violaceae
Annuals, Perennials

VIOLA

Botanically speaking, violas, pansies, and almost all violets are perennials belonging to the genus Viola.

However, violas and pansies are usually treated as annuals, invaluable for winter and spring bloom in mild-winter areas, for spring-through-summer color in colder climates.

Typically used for mass color in borders and edgings, as covers for spring-flowering bulbs, in containers. Violets are more often used as woodland or rock garden plants.

Violas and ­pansies take sun or partial shade; violets grow in part or full shade (except as noted), but most are natives of deciduous forests and bloom best with at least some sun during the flowering season.

Viola tricolor

Perennial grown as a cool-season annual. Spring bloomer to 6–12 in tall and broad; spreads widely by profuse self- sowing. Oval, deeply lobed leaves to 1 1/4 in. long. Pert, 1–3/4-in., velvety purple-and-yellow or blue-and- yellow flowers are the original wild pansies. Same planting and care as pansy. Crosses with closely related small-flowered species have produced forms with flowers in violet, blue, white, yellow, lavender, mauve, apricot, orange, red—with or without markings (“faces”).