Larry's Perennial Violet Tour
is a tiny white violet. It's looks alot like Viola striata but is in fact much smaller. These occur in out of the way places in forests, often at the edges of elevated bogs in conjuction with mosses and small sedge grasses. Being very common in B.C.'s interior and all along the rockies, these are very hardy. They are sometimes grown as water-plants, as bog-violet, but it is not that well-known outside of western Canada yet.
Viola septentrionalis
Confederate Violet
Common in Ontario and south to Connecticut and North Pennsylvania. It grows in moist woods inhabited by deciduous trees. These of course keep the organic matter high and also the acidity in most cases, so this is what these will need in the garden. As far as appearance goes, the faces of these violets is quite large and wide, almost like a nasturtium, and the scent is very fine.
Viola striata
Striped Violet
Growing to 1 foot (30 cm) tall with small, fragrant flowers with prominent stripes for pollen guides. The scented flowers are ivory and the stripes are a brown/purple. These like a moist but well-drained spot in the garden.
Viola tricolor
Johnny-jump-up
These proliic self-seeders come in a very wide range of colours and forms, and by starting with just a few plants one year you can find you have a wide array of colours and forms within 5. They can be found growing in a wide range of areas, from sand-dunes to moist arable feilds, and are very adapatable.
Viola x wittrockiana
Finally, these are the common cultivated pansy, of which there are thousands of varieties, but all of which are in some way a combination of the above violas. Most pansies are planted for cool-season colour and many are ripped out as soon as they are through, and this species of pansy is considered biennial at best.
Great Violet Links
Dear, Sweet Violets
Weeds and Wild Things' Barbara Hall waxes poetic about all the clever and interesting things to do with sweet violet flowers and leaves.
Vascular Plant Image Gallery - Violaceae
A large list of images on file, with many not mentioned in this article.
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