This is the classic garden pansy. Like other violas, it is hardy and low-maintenance and adds cheer to your garden with its little flower faces.
Not only is Viola tricolor a beautiful ornamental, it is also a food plant and an ancient medicinal. Its flowers and leaves have a lovely mild wintergreen taste.
In their paper, “Edible flowers of Viola tricolor L. as a new functional food”, Koike and colleagues (2015) write:
V. tricolor has a refreshing taste and velvety texture which allow its use in sweets, salads, soups, vinegars, drinks, and also in the extraction of blue and yellow food colourings (Creasy, 1999; Newman & O’Conner, 2009). Heartsease flowers, apart from being used as food, have also been used as medicinal agents for thousands of years. Their biological activities (Hellinger et al., 2014), mainly antioxidant properties, are attributed to the presence of flavonoid compounds (Vukics, Kery, Bonn, & Guttman, 2008; Vukics, Ringer, Kery, Bonn, & Guttman, 2008; Piana et al., 2013), with violanthin reported as the major compound (Vukics, Kery, et al., 2008).
A bit more (or skip down to ‘How to Plant’):
In another paper, titled “Antimicrobial activity of Viola tricolor herb” the authors found that infusions (herbal teas) and decoctions (longer steeping time of herbs) of Viola tricolor displayed significant inhibitory activity against strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Candida albicans and moderate activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae.
Finally, a recent paper found that Viola tricolor shows antiviral activity via their cyclotides–antimicrobial peptides (small versions of proteins) that protect organisms from invading pathogens (Conzelmann et al 2022).
Don’t be fooled by Viola tricolor’s delicate looking appearance, this flower is a strong medicinal.
Check out our story, “Edible Ornamental Flowers and Antioxidants” in the magazine, Canada’s Local Gardener (Summer 2024). You can read the digital version HERE.
How to Use: Harvest the small flowers and leaves any time in the summer. Use fresh or dried flowers and leaves for tea. About 1 teaspoon per cup of tea. Use fresh flowers and leaves in salads
How to Plant: Ease of Germination: Easy to Moderate. Easy, because you can just sprinkle Johnny Jumpup seeds outside in your garden or container in spring (pressing seeds into the soil, lightly covering seeds with soil & placing a simple covering over them — see below– and keeping soil moist until germination). Your Johnny Jumpup seeds will know what to do!
Moderate, because you can also start them ahead of time indoors. Here is how we start violas indoors:
1. We start violas indoors 4-8 weeks before the last frost. We use 6 cell seed starting trays (each cell is about 2.5″ x 3″) and fill each with seed starting soil. We moisten the soil before we put it in the cells — simply by putting it in a bowl and pouring in water until we get a ‘moist’ (not dripping wet) soil.
2. Press seeds into the soil and cover lightly with soil. We put 2-3 seeds per cell.
3. We cover the cells with newspaper, black plastic or aluminum foil. In general, viola seeds need darkness to germinate.
4. Keep soil moist while seeds are germinating. Viola seeds usually germinate in 1-2 weeks.
5. No need for a heat mat. Viola seeds do best germinating in cooler soil.
6. Once violas are up (or most of them), remove covering and place in a sunny window or under lights.
Feel free to email us if you have questions.
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Location: Sun, Partial sun — viola does best in a semi-shady spot.
Life cycle: Annual (a short-lived perennial, so we will list it as an annual)
Usable Parts: Flowers, Leaves (dried, fresh)
Uses: Tea, Salad, Tincture
Height: 4 to 6 inches
