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Violas: "Weeds" for the Garden

© Keith Muraoka

What's orange all over and one of the most prolific "weeds" in my garden? Believe it or not, violas. Violas? Weeds? Have I been smelling mulch too long?

The fact of the matter is violas -- those miniature cousins of the larger-flowered pansy and closely related to violets -- make a nuisance of themselves every year in my spring garden. That's because tiny volunteer seedlings of violas pop up seemingly everywhere beginning around January. Although violas are popular bedding plants usually sold in the spring and fall locally, I have to pull and discard hundreds of the litter buggers from my vegetable and rose beds each spring.

It all started innocently enough many years ago. My job at Goldsmith Seeds -- one of the world's largest wholesale breeders of hybrid bedding plants -- has many perks. One of them involves receiving free bedding plants. "Penny" violas, a hybrid viola series developed by Goldsmith plant breeder Todd Perkins back in 1989, was a dramatic improvement over open-pollinated violas. I couldn't wait to try them, especially after Todd told me about the hybrid "vigor" from these mighty mites, blooming power and uniform growth habit. And, of course, Todd told me about "Penny Orange," the only orange-colored hybrid viola in the world.

Don't get me wrong, I love violas. The floriferous, five-petaled flowers pop up on dark green, heart-shaped leaves. They'll bloom practically year-round in sun or shade in our mild-winter climate here on the central coast of California. They're particularly suitable for containers and window boxes, but do great planted in mass in the ground as well. They make an exquisite groundcover between bushes and trees, and are perfect for planting amid the tiny crevices of rock gardens. Many violas have the added attribute of sweet fragrance, too.

Yet, now each spring, I'm faced with yanking hundreds of new seedlings from unwanted spaces by the bucketful. Oh sure, I salvage some by transplanting them into six packs, containers and hanging baskets to provide some early season color. Amazingly, no amount of damge to their roots stops their vigorous growth.

Many veteran gardeners automatically think of the common "Johnny Jump-Up" variety when thinking of violas. These tricolor violas comes in purple, yellow and white,a nd have been around for 40 years. The best features of the new breed of hybrid Viola cornutas, though, are the fantastic array of colors available. There are other tri-color combinations, as well as different shades of purple, blue, yellow, red, apricot and more.

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