Sweet violet - Viola odorata

Sweet violets, Viola odorata, are small and simple to grow plants.  They have a heap of common names, and there is a lot of confusion over their binomial name as they can and do hybridise with other viola species.

Sweet violet flowers come in various colours, some white, some pink, but most commonly they are a 'violet' colour.  The flowers are scented, and I think they smell nice.  

When I was younger we had a variety with a dark violet flower, and another less common one with a white flower, and they both had a strong scent.  The sweet violet we have at the moment only has a light fragrance, and it smells lovely.  

Sweet Violets Flowering

While many sources online speak of sweet violets as 'heart shaped leaves' I would not describe them this way.  To me sweet violet leaves look more 'kidney shaped' than heart shaped. 

I have several other plants that do have heart shaped leaves, including buckwheat and a succulent called variegated string of hearts.  

Sweet violet leaves - don't look heart shaped

Heart shaped leaf of golden buckwheat

Chain of hearts has heart shaped leaf

Despite having similar common names, African violets are not related to true violets.  

True violets and African violets can have similar coloured flowers, and even similar shaped flowers, but that is about where the similarity ends.  

They are different Genus and species, the leaves are different, the fruits and seeds are very different, and the plants need vastly different growing conditions.  

True violets are in the Genus Viola.  There are many Viola species, most of which hybridise readily.  Plants such as Johnny jump up/heartsease, and pansy, are species or hybrids of violets.

Violets cope with a wide range of climates and soils.  Mine survive heavy frosts, as well as scorching heat.  Once established they can survive reasonably dry conditions, but they perform far better when given ample water.

African violets - not related to true violets

The unnamed sweet violet I grow at the moment doesn't have the strongest scent, but it is a real survivor.  

Years ago I found some violets growing in a dry sclerophyll forest under a large Eucalyptus tree.  Presumably this was a garden escape, and there was a little patch of them that were surviving some rather dry conditions with a lot of competition from native grasses.  

I dug up a plant and bought it home.  A little while after I brought a plant home, the original patch was sprayed, and the patch was killed.  

Violet fruit pod

You can see the seeds in the violet fruit

I put this violet plant in a pot, where it survived and flowered.  It produced little fruits, I picked them and threw them around the yard where I thought violets may survive.  

One summer was too hot and dry, I didn't have enough water to give the garden and my potted violet plant died.  This wasn't a problem because some of the fruits that I spread around dropped seed in the right places, and a few little patches of violets grew.  

Some patches grew, then died as it was too hot and dry.  The violet patch that survived the best is on the south (shaded) side of my raised vegetable garden.  It gets some shade, as well as some water and nutrients from the raised bed.  

Sweet violets growing near vegetable garden

The violets grow in the semi-shade of my raised beds, I also gave them a little extra water from time to time.  Sometimes I mow them, or occasionally weed them, but mostly I leave them to do their thing.  

As you can see, the violets created a thick carpet.  This is mostly weed free as grass and things have trouble growing under such dense shade.  

Sweet violet leaves

Sweet violets, having 'odorata' in their binominal name, are strangely not the most fragrant species of violet.  Often the Viola alba has the strongest scent.  Alba means white, which is also rather confusing is as V alba most often has violet coloured flowers rather than white.  

Violets were used in perfumes for some time.  V alba was used to breed a few types of parma violets.  These have a strong scent, and often double flowers.  Strangely it was not the flowers that were used to make perfume, but the leaves.  The flowers were used in bouquets and things, and these did smell strongly of violets, but it is the leaves that were used to make violet scented perfume.  Don't ask me how they extracted fragrance from the leaves, I still don't know how they did that.

Violet flowers, leaves, and all other parts, are edible.  They are high in vitamin C, and from what I read they contain a lot of other vitamins as well as other healthy substances including rutin (great for your heart) and salicylic acid (similar to aspirin).

Violets have a heap of medicinal benefits, but I am not sure how violets are best prepared to get these benefits.  I have heard people make tea from the leaves, others use the leaves in salads.  I assume eating raw would give you the greatest benefit as heat sensitive compounds such as Vitamin C would not be degraded.  I have also heard of poultices and the like being made containing violet leaves, but again I don't know much about how this is done.  

When eaten raw, I find the taste of violet leaf to be unimpressive, but not horrible.  Cooking doesn't seem make it taste worse, or better.  I find the taste of violet flowers to be similar to the leaf.  Not incredible, but not dreadful.   

This year we had months of below average rainfall.  Most of our lawn died back.  The violet patch was still green and productive.  We have a few guinea pigs, I tend to feed them mostly broad leaf weeds and grass, and supplement with pellets as little as possible.  When the grass/weeds run low I have been feeding them violet leaves.  While certainly not our guinea pigs' favourite food, feeding violet leaves is better than just feeding pellets.  

I was also feeding these violet leaves to our chickens when the grass died.  They don't love it, but will eat it, and having some greens in their diet is better than nothing.  The violets are always pretty productive as I can pick these plants very hard and they bounce back quickly.

These sweet violets may not have the strongest fragrance, but they are survivors.  They are perennial, and they produce viable seed.  If you would like to grow them I sell bare rooted violets through my for sale page.