I've already started my pansies and violas. They like cool and dark, so I always put my flat on my north porch in the shade and they germinated in something under two weeks this year. They've been moved to the south porch to get more light, but they are staying outside. I'm pulling them closer to the house tonight in case it gets way too cold. I've been warned that they get leggy if they get too warm.

Thanks for the response cnetter. I may need to move mine to the other side of the house. They are in pots in a bed along the side of the house facing south east and get quite a bit of sun during the morning. This area also seems to stay warmer with heat reflecting off the house so that may not help when it warms up again. Today they are under a few inches of snow. :)

Hi Steph,

Welcome to RMG! Glad you found us!

If you had violas growing somewhere around your house last year, youÂll probably have seedlings coming up all over wherever they wereÂand even in places where they werenÂt! Keep an eye out where they were growing last year, and watch any seedlings coming up until they have a couple true leaves so you can identify what they are, and if theyÂre violas, itÂs real easy to dig them up and transplant them wherever you want them. Then, next spring, youÂll also have them coming up in all the areas you moved them to this spring. The first year I had a veggie garden here (3 years ago) I had an all deep purple viola come up in the garden area, and I absolutely loved it, so I left it grow and now I have seedlings coming up all over. When I was turning the veggie garden over a couple weeks ago I wanted to "save" the violas, so I just transplanted them here and there all around the yard, and theyÂre happily blooming away. And I still have a few left in the veggie garden where theyÂll live happily around the bottom of the peas and a few other things. By the time they all reseed this year, next spring my whole yard is going to be PURPLE! And on the other end of the house I have some of the standard little purple and yellow violas/johnny-jump-ups that come up, bloom, reseed every year. I always just let them grow here and there among whatever else might be there, and when they get mildew or start looking bad, I pull them out. By then theyÂve reseeded, and the next batch starts. ItÂs a song that never ends! ;-) (Unfortunately the full size pansies donÂt do the same thing.)

Happy spring,
Skybird

Thanks for the welcome Skybird. I'm glad I found this forum as well. It's nice to be able to "talk" to people who live in the same area I do. Most of my violas were in pots last year, although I've had some that have hopped out of the pots before so I'll keep an eye out for the volunteers. I'm planning to scatter these in some of my beds to fill in some bare spots and get some more color in them. I love my perennials, but it's hard to beat annuals for color all summer. My mom planted some johnny-jump-ups when I was little not knowing how much they scatter seed all over. We had them coming up all over the yard! Thanks again for the welcome, I'm sure I'll be around with more questions. Seems like the more you learn about anything the more you find out you don't know. :)

Steph