Viola reichenbachiana

Viola reichenbachiana, the Early Dog Violet, often called Hedge Violet, is a small wild plant.  This small perennial seduces all gardeners and romantic souls with its pretty flowers of a fairly tender blue-lilac, but also with its great ease of cultivation in semi-shaded areas and under deciduous trees. It forms small clumps of evergreen foliage that multiply over time, beautifying the soil where few perennials thrive.

Viola reichenbachiana belongs to the Violaceae family, it is widespread throughout Europe, but also from Siberia to India and Japan, as well as in Algeria and the Canary Islands. It is a rhizomatous perennial plant that develops a rosette of leaves from which a stem covered with medium green, heart-shaped elongated leaves (elongated heart-shaped), with crenellated edges, rises. The plant reaches 20 to 30 cm (8 to 12in) in height when flowering. The foliage, evergreen in winter, may disappear in summer in case of drought. The flowering of this variety takes place from March to May depending on the region. Clumps of leaves emerge from peduncles each bearing a flower with a diameter of 2.5 cm (1in). Each flower is composed of five unequal petals of blue-lilac colour arranged asymmetrically around the white throat. The petal located at the bottom of the corolla extends backward with a short spur. This spur, of the same violet colour or darker than the petals, is one of the criteria that allow to identify this species, as well as the presence of a slightly hairy style (female organ in the centre of the flower) with many cylindrical protuberances at its end.

Wood violets will thrive almost anywhere as long as they are planted in a semi-shaded exposure and in slightly humus-rich soil. They are used to adorn the base of trees and shrubs, in border plantings, along pathways or in rock gardens where they often self-seed. For example, associate them with primroses, bluebells, liverworts, small ferns. They can also be cultivated in pots or containers placed on the windowsill (for fragrance), or on the patio, without forgetting to water them. Create beautiful bouquets with their flowers as well.

Violets and pansies belong to the genus Viola. How to differentiate a violet from a pansy? By the arrangement of their petals: the former has two upward-facing petals and three petals facing downward, while the latter has four upward-facing petals, with the fifth, larger than the others, drooping. Violets are almost all native to temperate regions of the world. The vast majority of them are perennials, but large-flowered hybrids are sold and used as annual plants.