fter nature’s winter palette of grey and
brown, I crave the first signs of life, colour, anything that gives me a hint
spring is on its way. The tiny flowers of the sweet violet (Viola
odorata), one of the earliest of our native plants to bloom, do just that.
They’re not showy blooms; you’ll have to be sharp-eyed to spot them, hunkered
down among the leaf litter of a deciduous woodland or tucked away at the base of
a stout ancient hedge. Getting a whiff of their sweet perfume is trickier,
requiring crouching down on all fours. Their diminutive size and delicacy belies
the fact that these brave blooms appear when our weather is at its most fickle,
from late winter through to May (we’re more likely to experience snow at Easter
than at Christmas, according to the Met Office).
Sweet violets are steeped in history and folklore, prized for their fragrance
and medicinal uses. Lauded by the ancient Greeks and adored by Napoleon and the
Empress Joséphine, their popularity, particularly as a cut flower, reached a
height in Victorian and Edwardian times. Dorset, Devon and Cornwall were centres
of sweet violet growing and production peaked in the 1930s. You can still see
the remains of walled flower fields, known as quillets, on the western tip of
Cornwall, where violets were cultivated to send to Covent Garden market. In
France, the quest for new varieties with strong perfume, long stems and large
flowers led to a craze in plant breeding.
Catching a glimpse of them in the wild is rarer today due to habitat loss.
Grow them alongside snowdrops, wood anemones, primroses and lily of the valley
to create a piece of spring woodland of your own. And, if you fancy something
that packs more punch, or like to grow cut flowers for your home (the best and
easiest way to appreciate their perfume), there are a host of stunning
cultivars, with larger flowers held on longer stems in a variety of colours.
How to grow violets
Recreate the conditions they love in the wild. They need winter and spring
sunshine but summer shade, so the ideal spots are under deciduous trees and
shrubs. They used to be grown commercially in orchards, providing fruit growers
with a spring crop of blooms to sell before the autumn harvest of apples and
pears. As long as the ground doesn’t dry out, grow among herbaceous perennials,
since any summer planting will provide sufficient shade.
Sweet violets thrive in moist but well-drained soils. Incorporate plenty of
leaf mould into your soil, and where drainage is a problem add a little grit to
the planting hole. A sprinkling of mycorrhizal fungi on the roots can help them
settle in. As they become established, they’ll form clumps, providing useful
ground cover with their pretty heart-shaped leaves.
They spread, using runners, in the same way as strawberries. They can be
propagated easily from these, as they’ll form roots where they come into contact
with the soil. Remove these runners in spring, as they divert energy from
blooming. Deadheading prolongs the flowering season as long as possible.
Violets will self-sow, but growing your own from seed can be tricky as the
seed needs to be fresh. Specialist growers gather seed in the summer and send it
out immediately. Sow these seeds into trays filled with a free-draining seed
compost as soon as you receive them. A spell of cold weather is needed to break
the dormancy, so leave the trays in a cool greenhouse or cold frame over winter.
Seedlings should start to emerge in February or March.
What to grow: heritage violets
Where to buy
For the true species of V. odorata and its white version, try nurseries that
specialise in wild flowers, such as Herefordshire-based PlantWild. Groves
Nurseries, who hold National Collection status for sweet violets, keep many
heritage varieties alive and breed new violets. Also try Devon Violet Nursery
and Plants For Shade.
