Pansy, Heartease. So many names for the simple Violet. And, despite its colorful name, the Violet also dresses in the colors of orange, yellow, and white. Sometimes, it even comes in several colors at once.
Violets didn’t figure prominently in my childhood. No, we didn’t use the V word. Instead, our Grandmother, the genteel Southern lady that she was, taught us that they were Johnny-Popups. As children, my sister and I delighted in looking for Johnny among Grandmother’s flower beds and, inevitably, found them instead in the cracks of the walk and in the carefully manicured lawn (probably where the seeds from last years had blown). Anyway, Johhny-Popups, or Violets, always remind me of Spring and my Grandmother.
All images found on the Viola page at WikiMedia.
