How to Grow Viola
Viola At a Glance
Difficulty
Easy
Category
Flower
Sun Exposure
Partial Sun, Partial Shade
Frost Tolerance
Frost Hardy
Cold Hardiness
Survives to -18°C
Plant Family
Violaceae
Growing Season
Cool Season
Plant Lifecycle
Annual
How to Start It
★ Recommended for beginners
Violas love cool weather and handle frost, so sow them outdoors about 4 weeks before your last frost, or in late summer for flowers next spring. Sow the seeds 0.5 cm deep and cover them well, since they sprout best in the dark, then keep the soil damp: they come up in 10 to 14 days. Thin them (pull the extras) so each plant has 15 cm. After that, they often seed themselves and come back on their own.
Violas are smaller, tougher cousins of pansies: they flower longer, handle both cold and heat better, and often seed themselves so they pop up year after year. The flowers are edible and look pretty on salads and cakes.
When To Start
First chance to plant
30 Days Before Last Frost
Last chance to plant
30 Days Before First Frost
When should you plant Viola?
Your planting dates depend on your local climate. Sign up and add your location to unlock personalized dates.
Your Viola Planting Window
Start planting
May 15, 2026
Last chance
Sep 10, 2026
Your Viola Calendar
Set your location to turn these into exact dates and reminders.
Sow violas outdoors now, they love cool weather
30 days before your last frost· every year
Optional: plant young violas out, they handle light frost
2 weeks before your last frost· every year· optional
Pick viola flowers to eat and pinch off faded ones
2 weeks after your last frost· every year· optional
Did you water your viola seedlings today? Keep the top of the soil damp until they are up and growing.
About 1 days after you plant it
Time to thin the viola seedlings: snip the extras at soil level so each one has room to grow.
About 24 days after you plant it
Your violas are growing! Keep the soil moist and give them some sun.
About 37 days after you plant it
Hi there! Pick viola blooms often and the plants keep making more.
About 61 days after you plant it
Picking time may be here: check your viola.
About 70 days after you plant it
The Journey Ahead
Viola's Lifecycle
Seedling
Mature Plant
Seed Production
Step 2
Planting & Sprouting
Expect sprouts in 10–14 days
Growing Tips
- 1Grow violas in full sun in spring and fall, with some afternoon shade in summer to keep them flowering.
- 2Give them moist, well-drained soil with compost mixed in.
- 3Water whenever the top 2 to 3 cm of soil are dry, since they slow down in dry soil.
- 4Feed with compost tea every 3 to 4 weeks while they flower.
- 5Pinch off faded flowers to keep new ones coming.
- 6Pick slugs off at dusk, and wash aphids off with a spray of water.
Seedling Phase
Step 3
Growth & Maturity
~70
Days to Maturity
20 cm
Mature Height
30 cm
Mature Width
Pests to Watch For
Diseases to Watch For
Mature Plant
Step 4
Harvesting
Harvest Window
30 days
When to Pick
Pick blooms at full color
How to Harvest
- 1Pick viola flowers to eat when they are fully open, in the morning once the dew has dried.
- 2Pinch or snip each flower off with its short stem.
- 3Use them fresh on salads, cakes and drinks, or press them between book pages to dry.
- 4Keep picking flowers or pinching off faded ones, which keeps the plant flowering for months.
- 5If plants get long and straggly in midsummer heat, cut them back by half, and they often flower again in the cool of fall.
Step 5
Saving Seeds
How to Save Seeds
Violas cross easily with each other and with pansies, so expect new colour mixes, and hybrid F1 seeds will not grow true. The seed pods point upward when they are nearly ripe, then split and fling the seeds away, so pick them as soon as they turn pale tan and point up. Put them in a paper bag, where they pop open as they dry. Store the seeds labelled somewhere cool, dark and dry, where they keep about 2 years.
Seed Production
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