Viola sororia Freckles Seeds - Common blue violet

Viola sororia 'Freckles' is a ravishing variety of a robust North American violet with purple speckled flowers, that performs well in most climates. It is very much a perennial and forms beautiful mats of small, clean-cut, juxtaposed clumps over time. In spring, this carpet of dark green, glossy leaves is animated by a multitude of small white flowers, randomly splashed with purple, which are very luminous in the shady areas where it likes to bloom. Fully hardy, very long-lived and undemanding, it is able to grow anywhere, even in the dry soil at the foot of trees. Create beautiful, maintenance-free borders with this violet!

Viola sororia of the family Violaceae, is native to the Northeast of the United States and to Canada, where it is found in forests, but also in meadows, on slopes and along roadsides. It also bears the names common blue violet, Viola cucullata, North American woolly violet, wood violet, meadow violet, purple violet, hooded violet... It is the North American equivalent of our pale wood violet and differs in its larger clumps whose large branched rhizomes do not produce runners.

The cultivar 'Freckles' differs from the type species in the colour of its flowers. It is a perennial plant that colonizes and spreads out over the soil with large, fleshy rhizomes that run along on the surface of the ground, quickly forming big, dense mats reaching 10 to 15 cm high. The leaves and flowers emerge directly from the rhizomes and form a basal rosette. The beautiful, shiny, dark green leaves are 7 cm long and 7 cm wide and are often heart-shaped with toothed edges. It blooms for 4 to 6 weeks, from mid-March to June, depending on the region and climate. Each flower is 1.5 cm in diameter, consists of 5 petals and is equipped with a lower petal that forms a spur. The flowers are nectar-rich, but not fragrant. This violet self-seeds quite readily in the garden and can be divided just as easily by separating the small clumps. The deciduous foliage disappears in winter.

Viola sororia Freckles adapts to both heavy and light soils and grows preferably in shade or partial shade, even under tall trees or at the foot of hedges, where it can withstand the competition from neighbouring roots. It is a carefree plant that will thrive from the north to the south of our country: it resists harsh winters and tolerates dry soils in summer, in the shade, by going dormant and losing all its foliage. It is suitable for use on the edges of undergrowth or groves, as well as in partially shaded borders. Combine it with the white Cyclamen coum, primrose, liverworts or Brunnera macrophylla 'Looking Glass', for example. It can also be planted in a lawn (it sometimes self-seeds spontaneously), as long as it is not mowed too often or mowed too short in the spring.

Violets and pansies are part of the genus Viola. How to differentiate a violet from a pansy? By the arrangement of their petals: the first has two upright petals and three petals facing downwards, the second has four upright petals, the fifth is larger than the others and points downward. Violets are almost all native to the temperate regions of the globe. The vast majority of them are perennials, but large-flowered hybrids are sold and used as annuals.