Is Heartsease easy to grow from seed?

Yes — it is one of the easiest things in the range and a good first packet for anyone new to growing. Surface-sow onto damp compost, keep it moist, and seedlings appear in 10-21 days. It wants no feeding, no staking and no particular skill, and it will grow in the shadier corners where most annuals refuse.

When should I sow Heartsease seeds in the UK?

There are two windows. Sow March to May for flowers the same summer, or July to September for young plants that overwinter and flower early the following spring. Autumn sowings generally give the bigger, earlier display.

Are Heartsease flowers edible?

Yes. The flowers of Viola tricolor are edible and mild, and they are one of the prettiest things you can put on a cake — whole, crystallised, or scattered through a salad. Pick them in the morning when they are freshest, and use flowers you have grown yourself rather than anything bought as an ornamental plant.

Does Heartsease come back every year?

In practice yes, though not quite in the way a perennial does. Individual plants are short-lived, but heartsease self-seeds gently and reliably, so once it is established a patch renews itself and drifts slowly around the garden. Leave a few flowers to set seed at the end of the season and you will not need to sow it again.

Do these seeds make a good gift?

Yes, and it is an unusually forgiving one to give. The sowing window is wide — March to May, or July to September — so a packet given at almost any point in the year is close to a sowing date, and it keeps perfectly well until then. On effort it looks after itself, which matters if you are giving it to someone new to growing, and because it is happy in part shade it suits a shady balcony or a north-facing step as well as a garden.

Viola Heartease Seed Packet in Violet with yellow typographjy

Viola Heartsease Seeds

Name: Viola Heartsease Seeds
SKU: HS103
Price: 4.00 GBP
Availability: InStock

Viola tricolor

Heartsease is the wild pansy — a British native, and the ancestor of every garden pansy grown since. Each flower is barely 2.5 cm across and painted in violet, lemon and cream, with fine dark whiskers running out from a bright yellow eye. Plants stay low and tidy at around 25 cm, flowering from spring right through to autumn, and once settled they self-seed gently from year to year, turning up between paving, along path edges and at the front of borders. Happy in sun or part shade, and the flowers are edible.

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Heartsease (Viola tricolor) is an easy, low-growing wild pansy with tricolour violet, yellow and cream flowers. Sow in spring for summer flowers or in late summer for the following spring, in sun or partial shade. The flowers are edible, it draws bees and hoverflies, and it self-seeds gently without ever becoming a nuisance.

Sow:Mar–May, Jul–Sep under cover or in pots; Apr–May, Sep direct outdoors
Germination:10-21 days
Grow:Sun or partial shade, moist well-drained soil, space plants 15–20 cm apart
Water:Keep soil lightly moist; they resent drying out completely
Harvest:Pick flowers in the morning for salads, cakes and cordials
Best for:Path edges, pots, front of borders and wild corners

Grow in Your Garden

Tricolour flowers in violet, lemon and cream, edible petals, pollinator-friendly, self-seeding, and happy in sun or part shade.

Calendar
How to Grow
History of Viola Heartsease
FAQs

Calendar

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Sow Under Cover / PotsDirect Sow / OutdoorsFlowers / Harvest

How to Grow

Heartsease can be sown in spring for flowers the same summer, or in late summer for a plant that overwinters small and flowers early the following year. It germinates readily in cool, moist conditions and is happy in sun or partial shade, which makes it one of the easier things to place — including the shadier corners where most annuals sulk.

Sowing
Sow thinly on the surface of firm, damp compost and cover with the barest dusting — the seed is fine and needs only to be in contact with the soil. Keep it moist and out of hot direct sun while germinating; seedlings appear in 10-21 days. Sow March to May for summer flowers, or July to September for the following spring.
Growing
Thin or plant out 15–20 cm apart. Heartsease is small enough to tuck along a path edge, into the gaps at the front of a border, or three to a 20 cm pot. It tolerates partial shade happily and in hot, dry summers will actually prefer it, flowering longer where it does not bake.
Plant care
Pick or deadhead regularly and it will keep flowering for months; let a few go to seed at the end of the season and it will sow the next generation for you. Water in dry spells — it flags quickly in drought and the flowers shrink. Plants tire after a year or two, which is what the self-sown seedlings are for. Shear back to a few centimetres mid-season if it gets straggly and it will come again.