Re: Johnny Jump-ups

> Johnny Jump-ups are a type of viola that have a very small (1" or so) 
> pansy like flower.  They come in shades of yellow blue and purple and all 
> sorts of combinations of the three colors.  

Here is the difficulty of being a zone 8b gardener.  Many perennials
that are grown in the more temperate northern part of the US and the UK
will simply cook like wilted spinach here in the summer, even in the
shade -- they can't keep up that metabolic rate, they need more constant
moisture, etc.  We cannot grow poppies, delphiniums, violas, primulas, etc. 
as perennials.  They are expensive annuals.  We also have great
difficulty with hostas, can only grow the tall bearded iris but not the
more dwarf type, cannot perennialize many of the spring bulbs like
tulips and daffodils (the latter exception being the tazetta and
jonquilla families), etc.

BUT we can perennialize cannas, amaryllis, and many other tropical
plants.  Most of our perennials are bulbous or have some other kind of
storage mechanism -- often senescing several times in the course of a
season.  The true herbaceous perennials just don't make it here.  I am
going to TRY peonies but they are planted where they will get a LOT of
shade once the deciduous trees leaf out, in very amended soil, raised
somewhat to expose them to the winter chill while hoping that that won't
fry them in the summer (I'll have to mulch more then).

We are in a zone where we really value our woodyplants and annuals
because they are our mainstays.  If we have too warm a winter or summer,
there go one group of perennials.  A bad winter or even a single freeze?
There goes another set.  So we have to constantly keep replacing
perennials, with the higher cost and slower maturity of same.

*I LOVE* Johnny Jump Ups!  They are called Viola tricolor around here,
and are known as heartease in Britain, where they are wildflowers.  They
*do* reseed much better than any of the other violas, but like their
cousins they will fade out in our spring heat and most seedlings cannot
survive our summers.  The temperatures are warm enough to keep them
germinating and then dying until the seed is exhausted.  Thus we tend to
buy them as annuals and plant.  Growing them from seed has been more
difficult for me than growing pansies -- the plants are smaller and more
prone to injury and predation by PILLBUGS.

Sometimes I long for the herbaceous borders I see in magazines and read
about here!

-- 
Amy Moseley Rupp (amyr@austx.tandem.com)  Austin, TX, USDA z8b, Sunset z30
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