- Author: Betty Victor
Do you remember when you were a child and you had to help in your mother’s garden. I do and it seems she always had a plant that you loved maybe because of the color or shape of the flower and thought when I have “my own place” I will have that plant.
Sad to say I did just that, the plant I choose that my mother had growing in a container. I always wondered why when her others were growing in the soil, but as a child I never asked. But years later I found out why when mine out grew the container I had it in and violets started showing up all over my yard. Maybe the only nice thing I can say about this violet is it blooms late winter, early spring with just the flowers and no leaves when most things are still dormant. After the violet colored flowers fade, the heart-shaped leaves start to appear and stay and multiply and grow larger each day until late fall early winter when they die back, only to return the next winter with many more.
These violet are all over my yard, sun or shade-makes no difference to them they will grow and multiply. You pull them out thinking you have got all parts of the rhizome, only to turn your back and they are back again!
This plant has to be on the most invasive plant list; maybe even in the top group, if not I am going to start a campaign to have it added. Maybe the only way I can get rid of them is to move, but knowing how much of pest they are they probably will find a way to follow me.
- Author: Karen Norton
February is usually a cold wet month, but it has an especially fragrant treat, the violet. In the Sunset Western Garden Book, it is listed under Viola. Viola adunca, the California Sweet Violet or Western Dog Violet is native to coastal bluffs and Sierra foothills in central California, Pacific Northwest east to New England. That said, it is the easiest plant to grow and stands 3-6 inches high, spreading indefinitely by seeds and stolons (creeping horizontal plant stems or runners that takes root at points along its length to form new plants). I can attest to the ease of growing violets, as I took a few from my Mother’s garden and they have moved with me to four homes in Solano County. This darling little February flower has dark green heart shaped leaves with lavender blue with white petal bases and bright orange stamens. If you are extremely patient, you can enjoy their beautiful fragrance by gathering a small bouquet for your house. They bloom with at least a half-day winter sun, and summer shade. They take various soils and can be invasive or affective ground cover in a slightly shaded area of your garden. I actually like a few violets in the lawn. Often they are sold in nurseries as Viola odorata.