ladyblues, my violets spread like crazy--underground runners, I think. And my violas re-seed crazily! Especially the ones called 'Johnny-Jump-Up'. The seed pods explode and shoot seeds all over the place; they even come up in my gravel driveway.

I do have a lot of sun, though. Did you know the name Johnny-Jump-Up is because they jump toward the sun? Where they have no competition for sun, they stay short. Where they are somewhat sun-blocked behind other plants, they get taller to be exposed to the sunlight (they 'jump'). Cool story.

Maybe you need to plant the violas in the sunniest areas you have, maybe even as deck plants if your deck gets sun?

Thanks for the help Elvis! I will try that. Info on growing violas is really hard to find.
Cool story! I had no idea they did well in the full sun.
My violets do really well, no problem with them just the violas.
agian thanks for the help
Lady blues

I too am quite taken with the violet family. I am planning on giving my slightly shaded parkway over to violets. My intention is to seed it rather heavily with Johnny Jump-up, and then put less hardy varieties in both direct and transplanted. I am hoping to get a variety of the hardiest to naturalize or at least re-seed.
I am heartened to hear that shade isn't vital to these plants. That takes care of one of my worries.
I am hoping that the various colors will make for interesting combos in future generations. I plan on pulling up undesirable plants (bad color or no flowers) to keep them looking nice. Has anyone done this?
Does clover grow well with violets? As far as I can tell, they both like slightly acid soil and if the sun isn't bad for violets, that should work as well. Are they going to compete too much, or will they work together? The nitrogen should help the violets, right?
At worst, I can let you all know how things look in spring of '09, when they will (hopefully) be coming back for me!

I really love your enthusiasm, lilgardenjon - I can't see how you could possibly go wrong with an attitude like that. Violets and clover can make good bedfellows, although I suspect that the clover will limit the violet density for all but the most vigorous species. I'm partial to both (I assume you meant white Dutch clover) - and while there may be some species of Viola that prefer not to be crowded by anything, if you set up a diverse habitat where no one thing is permitted to grow into a total monoculture there should be plenty of spaces for all kinds of violets. You might want to try the Johnny-jump-ups on a limited basis at first, just to see if you really want them covering everything; they can be very aggressive things and you'll soon have no shortage even with a limited initial planting. Perhaps starting with plenty of space between different types is advisable, because you can always change your mind and quickly plant more of what pleases you most after that. Who knows, you might just develop a taste for something too delicate for all the competition!

I can't wait to hear how it all turns out for you.