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What Viola is This?

7 years ago

Hi!

I posted this on the Viola page but it appears to be dead. I saw a comment that said the perennial page was active so I'm trying here too I bought this trailer last fall & the only info it had on the tag was "viola". I thought it was an annual so i wasn't too worried about it. But now I realize its a perennial, had survived the winter while being completely ignored, & is flowering again. I was wondering if someone could help me identify what type it is. The flowers are really tiny & it appears to be an evergreen. This winter it died back to a small clump but the clump stayed a beautiful Forrest green.

Thanks

Jessica

Featured Answer

floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK

7 years ago

Botanically speaking it is a member of the genus Viola, but in common parlance it would be called a Violet. No idea which species it would be. Does it have a scent? Knowing where you are located might narrow it down.

Be careful if you Google 'Violet.' Many of the images are of African Violets, a totally different genus.

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Comments (9)

uaskigyrl
Original Author
7 years ago
I'm in Baltimore, Md USA zone 7a. No scent that I can tell. I tried to Google "small perennial violet trailer" & all the images were just generic violas *sad face*
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I love the blue veronicas, I just missed out on them for this spring (they sold out early) and I now have to decide if I should order them this fall or wait til next spring at this point. What would you recommend? These are the three viola packets I bought, they are annuals: https://www.swallowtailgardenseeds.com/annuals/viola/sorbet-delft-blue-viola-seeds.html https://www.swallowtailgardenseeds.com/annuals/viola/frizzle-sizzle-mini-mixture-viola-seeds.html https://www.swallowtailgardenseeds.com/annuals/viola/endurio-sky-blue-martien-viola-seeds.html My plan was/is to mix these in throughout the hardy purple and white kind that grow everywhere here (I have a lawn I am welcome to dig as many as I want from and have already snagged quite a few that way) and some other perennial groundcovers and various pretty broadleaf weeds to add color and variety throughout the lawn. I'm pretty open to suggestions if this won't work though. Basically if it's a pretty weed growing in a lawn that I have access to, I plan to dig it up and bring it to my lawn and see if it will take over. I was hoping the ajuga would work out, but it looks kinda sad. I'm not sure if it's too much sun or just poor soil with too many rocks. I also have rockcress, two kinds of creeping thyme, snow-in-summer, and creeping phlox started in the terraces to see what is most successful surviving the winter (it's just begun to germinate). I can buy any of those seeds easily if they do well, or I can transplant chunks of them once they take off. My heart is really set on those blue veronicas, I just can't afford to buy many of them so I need things I can buy in seed form as well. I didn't want to seed the main part of the lawn with anything until I decided if I had to Round-up everything or if I could find a grass-only herbicide.
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floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
7 years ago
All violets are Violas but not all Violas are violets. So try looking for violets, not violas. And don't mention trailing. Violets aren't really trailers but some of them do produce runners.

You could check Viola sororia which I believe is a widespread common violet in the US. But I can't tell all the different species apart.
User
7 years ago
viola riviana purpurea would be my guess. There is much confusion between riviana and labradorica.
NHBabs z4b-5a NH
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
If you still have the tag you could try looking up the plant list for the company that raised it.

With the darker-backed leaves, it looks like this one, Viola walteri Silver Gem, or even the straight species; they are runners like yours. Note the warning about spreading via runners and seed on the web page linked. But as floral said, it is fairly tough to tell different violet species apart.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
7 years ago
many are invasive [???] that are intent on world domination ... and can easily take over a garden bed.. spread into the lawn.. and head down to the dairy queen for an ice cream cone ... imo .. lol.. and if you give me a nickle.. ill tell you how i really feel about them ..

some seed three times per years ... multiply underground.. and any piece broken off that falls anywhere... can root and start a new colony .. trailing my butt.. they are on the march ...

in suburbia ... i declared WWW3 on them after innocently bringing them into my yard ...

on 5 acres .. on sand.. heck.. they stay green.. unlike the grass that goes dormant in july/august ... so at 100 feet.. i have a green.. for lack of a better word.. lawn .. lol

the tag says it all .. if you read between the lines ... its probably a common violet .. not a rare tame one ... since your producer doenst even bother to invest in worthwhile tags ...

bottom line here .. enjoy the heck out of it ... but you have been warned.. about unleashing it on your garden ... you can learn like i did .. collected them for 2 years ... then spent 5 trying to kill them ..

ken

btw.. i just collected them on walks.. just getting different colored ones .. and.. scent.. once your patch is 50 feet square ... lol ... if you pick a couple hundred stems.. you can probably smell them ..
uaskigyrl thanked ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
uaskigyrl
Original Author
7 years ago
This guy is in a pot but I'm sure the seeds fly everywhere. I have a pretty harsh microenvironment in my "backyard" being that it's urban, all concrete, and basically all shade and have had a hell of a time keeping anything alive back there...so maybe this will work for me? LOL Famous last words, right?

The way you describe violas is the way i describe my clematis! hahahaha
Embothrium
7 years ago
Here this would be the aforementioned Viola riviniana 'Purpurea', still offered as the smaller growing (and perhaps not in cultivation) V. labradorica.
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
7 years ago
Ken - I asked about scent to eliminate Viola odora, Sweet Violet, which is famous for it. You don't need a hundred. There was a whole industry devoted to growing them for their perfume, both in the US and elsewhere.

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