Sweet Violets

Every summer I plan to thin the violets and every summer I change my mind at the last minute, and this picture is the reason why. How can I pull these delicate flowers that cover the earth in spring in every shade of blue between aqua and indigo?

Sweet violets are to the flower bed what Pac-Man is to the dots in the maze: they consume all the space available to them and then fly out to greener pastures in search for more. Their rapacious spreading habits are fed by two biological advantages: they are irrepressible seeders and they also spread by runners. I guess I have to add reason number three: who can look at their innocent heart shaped leaves and their equally heart melting flowers and pull them?

Come summer, however, they act tougher than bar bouncers, no plant can intrude upon their territory. I’ve seen them win in battle against day lilies and hostas, and those are tough cookies.

Don’t judge a flower by its suave blossoms. No matter how determined you are to get rid of violets they will come back until you give up and let them run the show. I spread a few seeds a few years back on a bare patch of dirt in the shade. Nothing came out, so I forgot all about it, but a couple of years later they started sprouting stealthily here and there and now I have them in every corner of my yard.

There is one month of the year, the month of April, when none of this matters because then the world is covered in violets and you can only be happy about that.