Viola Sorbet XP Raspberry - Horned Pansy

The Viola cornuta Sorbet XP 'Raspberry', a variety of horned violet from the excellent XP series, which produces robust and compact plants offering early and abundant flowering for long months. This lovely variety has small flowers of a shade between pink-purple and a slightly faded, faintly mauve old-fashioned pink, enhanced by a silky texture and small black blotches at the base of the petals. It combines well with spring bulbs and looks good at the base of asters later in teh season, whilst in rockeries it quickly spreads its dark, evergreen carpet. It can be used to create charming borders and sumptuous pots.  This small biennial plant should be grown in humus-rich soil, in partial shade or dappled sunlight.

Belonging to the Violaceae family, the horned violet, which grows wild in the Pyrenees, is a low perennial plant that has given rise to many hybrids. Often crossed with Viola tricolor, their most famous descendants are garden pansies. The 'Sorbet Raspberry' variety is a spreading herbaceous plant 10 to 15 cm (3.9 - 5.9 in) tall when flowering. Its dark green, oval, crenated and evergreen leaves form a spreading clump and is covered with flowers from spring to autumn. Its pink-purple flowers have a small white and bright yellow center. They resemble those of small pansies but their petals are arranged differently. The upper two are erect while the other three are inclined downwards. The plant spreads quite quickly thanks to its root system and also self-seeds very easily in the garden, not always true to type.

Horned violets are intended for low beds and borders but also pots and window boxes, where they can be used to create beautiful colour combinations either on their own, or with other spring and summer-flowering plants (forget-me-nots, dwarf daffodils, daisies, primroses, tulips, summer and autumn asters, etc.). The flowers of horned violets are edible, so do not hesitate to decorate your plates with one or two flowers, or even sprinkle some on your salads to give them a splash of colour.

Note: Please be aware that our young plant plugs are professional products reserved for experienced gardeners: upon receipt, transplant them as soon as possible, into containers, flowerpots, or directly into flowerbeds.