Viola sororia

Viola sororia: Blue Violets You'll Happily Let Run Wild

Common blue violet is the neighbourhood's favourite gossip. Purple-blue flowers, heart-shaped leaves, and somehow it knows everybody, from fritillary caterpillars to the first bees of spring. NATIVE AND ALWAYS IN THE LOOP.

Plant Characteristics:

• Botanical Name: Viola sororia
• Common Name: Common Blue Violet
• Height: 15–25 cm (6–10 in)
• Spread: 30–75 cm (1–2.5 ft), spreading by rhizomes and seed
• Flowers: Purple-blue to violet with a pale throat, sometimes white with purple veins
• Bloom Time: Spring (April to June), with occasional flowers later in the season
• Foliage: Green, heart-shaped leaves with scalloped edges
• Features: Larval host for fritillary butterflies, edible leaves and flowers

Where to Plant: Use it as a groundcover under trees and shrubs, at a woodland edge, in a native or pollinator garden, or in a "bee lawn" where a little wildness is welcome. It's good for filling ground where nothing else wants to grow, so plant it where it can roam rather than in a tidy rock garden. It self-seeds freely and spreads into a patch, so expect it to show up nearby.

Companion Plants: Plant common blue violet in a sunny or part-shade native bed with strawberries, columbines and asters. Fragaria virginiana (9cm) carpets the ground at 10 to 23 cm with white flowers and small red berries. Aquilegia canadensis adds nodding red and yellow columbines at 30 to 75 cm in May and June. Symphyotrichum novae-angliae brings purple New England asters at 90 to 180 cm in August and September. Deschampsia cespitosa adds fine blades and airy flower clouds at 60 to 90 cm.

Plant Care: Plant in average to moist soil in sun or part shade. It grows in clay and handles almost any soil that isn't bone dry. Water in its first season. After that it largely looks after itself. It spreads by short rhizomes and by seed, including seed from small hidden flowers that never open. Deadheading won't stop those, so plan to pull extra seedlings where you don't want them. No cutting back is needed. Divide or move clumps in spring or fall.

History: The common blue violet is native across eastern and central North America, including southern Canada, and it's a host plant for fritillary butterflies, whose caterpillars feed on its leaves. Its leaves and flowers have long been eaten in salads or turned into candied flowers and jellies.

Final Thoughts: Edible flowers and leaves, deer resistant and happy in sun or light shade. Toss a few in the salad. FANCY BRUNCH, BACKYARD PRICES.