Viola

Even with the unseasonable cold this year pansies are a harbinger of spring. I have always said you can tell is spring when the pansies are out! I love to remember when I was a little girl one of the highlights of the spring was to plant pansies. An elderly gardener, Mr. Slaughter, sold pansies and other plants. My parents would take me around the first day of spring for my birthday to choose fragrant, colorful pansies. He lived close enough to walk and I remember being pulled home in our wagon one mild year surrounded by boxes of pansies. Other times we drove and filled up the trunk with trays of colorful pansies.

I still love them and was as thrilled as ever last week when we unloaded the first of the pansies in the nursery. It looked like spring! This year was an exception because we had to cover them the nights temperatures dropped to the teens. Usually chilly temperatures or even snow will not bother pansies, but they shiver a bit with temperature in the teens. I just have to watch the weather with the cold we have been having this year.

My sister Janice who also has a spring birthday loves pansies and so does our mother. We give Mom a pansy birthday party each year for her April 8th birthday and have done so since the late 1980’s. There are pansies on the invitations, pansies at each place, pansies in the salad and on the cake .The best part is every guest receives a plant to take home and Mother gets several trays planted for her birthday.

I am glad the Pansies are finally out now! Hooray!

Their cheery little faces smile at the sun and nod at the cold. They can be planted in pots by the door, window boxes or used to carpet a dull empty spot along sidewalks, around mailboxes or next to your entrance. Plant them near other spring bloomers like crocus or snowdrops. As sweet and beautiful as they are, they are tough little plants that are not bothered at all by spring snows. They are hardy and there are few places that pansies won’t do well for the season.

Of course like most plants they prefer a good soil and adequate food and watering. Ted filled a big pot with them on our walkway from car to house. We will add more to the porch this weekend. I noticed that some lasted all winter in the herb garden and are beginning to bud.

To plant just remove them from the little six pack trays they are in and allow their eager roots to spread into some good potting soil in large patio pots or directly in the garden in the lap of mother earth. Morning sun is best, but this time of the year they will do well in any type of bright light. But later in summer hot sun all day will burn them. It is recommended that pansies be fed often with a bloom type food. I use time-release Osmocote (14-14-14) so they are fed each time we water. Every few times it is good to water with a mild blue water to supplement the time release. This, as well as an occasional dead heading or pinching will keep them blooming and looking great.

I love their smaller cousin the violet. Many of these grow wild all over and often need to be pulled out after they bloom. Violets also come with the spring. Violet blooms can be used in salads and the leaves in soups and are a source of vitamin C. There are many kinds of violets and they can be found in pink, yellow , white and shades of purple, lavender and violet. There is a fragrant variety, Viola odorata. This is one of my favorites and I have a special class about it with violets to taste and craft with.

Legend has it the violet is second only to the rose in love and popularity throughout history. Early Greeks and Persians also used viola for medicine. The Romans used them in wine, dye and medicine.
It is thought that these ancient cultures derived their knowledge about the plant from a more archaic source. Writings from these early times show that more knowledge of the violas cultivation and use came from Persia and Arabia. From Latin, Viola, is the genus to which all violets and pansies belong. Poets made them a symbol of love, humility, innocence, faithfulness & sweetness.

Some of the oldest writings from the Greeks show that violets were used to moderate anger, to procure sleep and to comfort and strengthen the heart. We also know now that used in salads and soups both the leaves and the flowers are a source of vitamin C and can also be a mild, gentle laxative.

Pansies, sometimes called heart's ease in the olden times are violas, but not all violas are pansies! The Romans used the small tri-colored variety we often call Johnny Jump ups in wine as a tonic for the heart. Some of the larger, lush ones we know now have been bred in more modern times, but many are still wonderfully fragrant.

In old Italy this plant of the Romans was later given the Christian names of Herb Trinity, three faces under one hood, and hearts ease. It was only in America that it’s known as Johnny Jump Up.

Johnny jump ups are known to reseed and many times spread into the lawn, as do violets. Let this happen, it looks pretty, gives you plants to harvest and is a healthy sign that herbicides are not used on your lawn.

So in ending, a pansy for your thoughts...