Viola odorata 'Clive Groves'
Viola odorata 'Clive Groves'• Click here to visit our Main Plant List page for current availability of this plant
• sweet violet
• flowering season: spring and again in fall
• height: 3 to 5 inches
• Light requirements: partial shade or morning sun
• Soil requirements: average soil that doesn't dry out too much
• Water requirments: average
• Growth habit: grows as a small clump, and sends out runners a short distance
• How to propagate: dividing in early fall; it also produces lots of offspring from seed
• Leaf type: one to two inch roundish green leaves
• Ways to use it: will flower in early spring before the trees and shrubs have fully leafed out, so it makes a nice underplanting to taller plants
• Special characteristics: strongly and sweetly scented flowers that make a nice small bouquet
• Other points of interests: a favorite plant of earlier generations of gardeners
Its small, sweetly fragrant flowers bloom very early in the year. The scent is strong and you do not have to wonder if your sniffer is working with this flower. The color is a deep, rich purple. It is winter hardy to USDA Zones 3 to 9. A plant of this will send out short runners that become new plants. And within a season or two, one plant becomes a small colony. Yet it hasn't become a problem in our garden where we have had it for ten years or more. Growing easily in a garden, towards summer's end we pot up a few to carry over winter by a window in a cool garage or basement, or in a cool greenhouse. From there they can be brought into the house when you see flower buds forming. It is great having a few flowering in early spring in a pot on the kitchen windowsill. So sweet !