Annual / color · North Texas care guide
Viola cornuta
Nursery Pro tip: Smaller flowers than pansies but twice as many, and tougher in a freeze.
Miniature pansies — smaller flowers, but many more of them, and noticeably tougher in cold and more persistent into late spring. Johnny-jump-ups and the mixed-color violas are the ones that keep going when the big pansies have given up.
Full sun to part shade, well-drained bed with compost. Space 6–8 in apart; they knit together into a solid sheet.
October through November, the same window as pansies. Amend, plant at the same depth, Root Stimulator, light mulch.
Weekly through the cool season, especially in a dry, windy January.
Every three or four weeks all winter with a water-soluble fertilizer — cold-weather color runs on regular feeding.
They're self-cleaning enough that deadheading is optional, though shearing lightly in March gives a fresh flush. Pull them when the heat arrives in May or June.
Freeze flop (temporary). Slugs and pill bugs. They reseed politely, and volunteers the next fall are a bonus.
Edging a winter bed, tucked into pots with kale and snapdragons, or drifted under pansies for two flower sizes at once.
Written for Rockwall's black clay, heat and winters by the Landscape Source team. Every yard is different — bring a photo by, or ask LS-Ai, and we'll tailor it to your spot.