Sweet violet

Sweet violet (lat. Víola odoráta) — a herbaceous perennial plant of the family Violaceae (Violáceae).

General distribution — Europe (mainly in western and central regions), the Crimea, the Caucasus, the Balkans, Asia Minor and the Near East, and North Africa. It grows in broad-leaved forests, spreading on forest edges, glades and clearings, and on southern forested mountain slopes. It is cultivated as an ornamental plant and sometimes escapes cultivation. Escaped plants can be found in old parks, gardens, former estates, and near roads.

Sweet violet — a perennial terrestrial herbaceous plant without a leafy stem, up to 15 cm tall, with a thick creeping rhizome that produces numerous rosettes of basal leaves and aboveground shoots that root at the nodes (stolons). Stolons are long, thin, 1.5—2 mm in diameter and are usually well developed.

Leaves simple, all gathered in a basal rosette, with the petiole not exceeding 15 cm in length. The leaf blade is almost round, less often kidney-shaped, deeply cordate at the base and slightly shortly acuminate at the apex, with crenate-serrate margins. At the base of the leaves there are 2 stipules. Stipules are entire, ovate-lanceolate, entire-margined or very shortly glandular-fringed at the edge, with fringes without cilia. The whole plant, including petioles, flower stalks, and usually the capsules, is densely pubescent with coarse hairs.

Flowers are solitary on pedicels, developing in the axils of the basal leaves. The perianth is double, the division into corolla and calyx is quite distinct, and all petals are free. There are 5 sepals, glabrous, blunt at the tip. There are 5 petals in zygomorphic flowers, dark violet, more rarely white; the lower petal is a little wider than the others and has a spur, the lateral petals are directed downward. The flowers have a pleasant strong fragrance. It blooms in April—early May and a second time in late summer; fruits develop in June.

The fruit is a small, globular three-sided, shortly hairy, one-chambered greenish capsule 3—5 mm in diameter, with seeds arranged parietally, surrounded by the persistent calyx and opening with three valves along the lines of fusion of the carpels. Capsules lying on the ground on nodding flower stalks are often embedded in the litter. Seeds are dispersed exclusively by ants.

In European monastic gardens, of all violet species sweet violet was one of the first to be introduced into cultivation. The date of its introduction into cultivation is considered to be 1542. However, literary sources mention decorative use of sweet violet long before this date. Thus, in the «Geoponika», a Byzantine agricultural encyclopedia of the 10th century, when arranging orchards and estates the following advice is given: «the whole space between the trees should be filled with roses, lilies, violets and saffron — flowers most pleasant in appearance and scent and most profitable and useful for bees».

Many cultivated forms are known with yellow, white and pink flowers. The following cultivars of sweet violet are often grown in cultivation:

• 'Bechtles Ideal' — a large-flowered cultivar used for forcing;
• 'Konigin Charlotte' — with large flowers of a deep dark violet shade;
• 'Red Charme' — with reddish-purple flowers;
• 'Triumph' — with the largest flowers.

Used for cultivation in flower beds, borders, mixed borders, rock gardens, alpine gardens, in containers and for balcony planting. Grown for cutting. Sweet violets are especially good in small spring posies. An underrated but very useful groundcover plant, it looks good with early spring bulbous plants.

Location: they prefer sunny positions, loose, fertile soils. Sweet violet tolerates slight shading, but abundant flowering is observed in well-lit sites. In shady and damp places these plants often suffer from slugs.

Care: they react negatively to fresh organic fertilizers. Pinching off faded flowers prolongs blooming. It is also necessary to carry out periodic feedings with mineral fertilizers at a rate of 30—40g per 10l of water. In harsh winters the plants need light cover with fir branches or tree leaves.

Propagation: by sowing fresh seeds in autumn into the ground. Seedlings appear in the spring of the following year. Can be propagated by division and by cuttings. Cultivating for more than three years without division is not recommended, as the clumps become very overgrown, lose compactness, and the flower size decreases.