Violas/Johnny Jump Ups

I planted these Johnny Jump-Ups from seed last year and they were cute little well behaved flowers that were growing nicely between my alpine strawberries. This year they have taken off and are dominating my garden bed. They are actually crowding out all the weeds as well as the strawberries.

They went to seed already a couple weeks ago and this is the second flush of flowers. I'm going to have seeds in this area forever!!

It's a very effective ground cover, at least the second year. I think I will need to plant them elsewhere though because they are killing my strawberries.

I know they are used medicinally as well as for culinary uses. I need to research the specifics and then try those out. The kids have been snacking on the flowers while they eat strawberries.

We have Johnny Jump-Ups growing all over the place in our garden and beds. Colourful, cheerful little dudes! The plants overwinter and seed off as well. If they get in our way we whack them, but otherwise they're just happy ground cover.