Flower · Violaceae
When to sow violas
Smaller-flowered and much tougher than the pansy it is related to, flowering longer, self-seeding into paving and coming back for several years. The flowers are edible and candy well.
Start seed indoors
12 weeks before
Counted from your last spring frost.
Plant out
4 weeks before
Counted from your last spring frost.
Days to maturity
85-110
From planting out to a first picking.
Those weeks become real dates once you name a place.
Timing, in frost-relative terms
Seed packets rarely give calendar dates, because a date that suits one latitude is wrong at another. They give offsets from the last spring frost instead, and those offsets are what make violas plantable anywhere.
- Start seed indoors 12 weeks before the last frost.
- Plant out 4 weeks before the last frost.
- Expect 85–110 days to maturity, counted from planting out.
- Hardy in USDA zones 4a–10a.
Getting the timing right
Start indoors twelve weeks before the last frost and plant out four weeks before it, or sow in midsummer for autumn planting and winter flowers. Shear back by half in midsummer if it looks exhausted and it will recover for autumn.
Frost tolerance
Hardy to about -18C, more so than the pansy, and flowers through mild winters. Handles summer heat slightly better too, though it still pauses in the hottest weeks.
Classified as very-hardy, with damage expected below -18°C (-0.4°F)-0.4°F (-18°C).