Thomas Jefferson s Monticello

Typical Blooming Dates: March-June
Growth Type: Annual
Blossom Colors: Purple, Yellow, White
Location at Monticello: West Lawn Winding Walk and Oval Beds
Planting Conditions: Full and Partial Sun

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Heirloom Edible Flowers

Grandma’s Johnny Jump Ups

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Heirloom Edible Flowers

Grandma’s Johnny Jump Ups

(Viola tricolor)
Also known as Heart’s Ease, these dainty little flowers look like jaunty miniature pansies with pretty flower faces of. Read More

(Viola tricolor)
Also known as Heart’s Ease, these dainty little flowers look like jaunty miniature pansies with pretty flower faces of deep violet, mauve, yellow and white. Johnny Jump Ups are both weather tolerant and long blooming and are good container and edging plants and are lovely planted in spring bulb beds. Johnny Jump Ups blossoms are edible with a mild wintergreen flavor and make tasty garnishes and decorations. These sweet flowers self sow readily and will enhance every garden.

PERENNIAL GROWN AS ANNUAL

Spring bloom
Can handle frost

BEST TO PLANT DIRECTLY IN THE GARDEN

In Mild Winter Climates, sow seeds in fall and they will form deep roots over winter for a long spring bloom.

In Cold Winter Areas, sow in spring as soon as soil can be worked.

Violas can handle light frosts and bloom best when they get a good start in cool spring weather. Sow seeds 1 inch apart in well-drained soil in full sun. Cover 1/4 inch deep, firm soil and keep seed bed moist. Be patient; germination takes 14 to 21 days. When large enough to handle, thin or transplant seedlings to 4 to 5 inches apart.

To Start Early Indoors: Sow seeds 1 inch apart in seed starting mix, 8 to 10 weeks before last frost. Cover 1/4 inch deep, keep moist and provide a good light source until ready to plant outside when weather warms up. Transplant 4 to 5 inches apart when large enough to handle.

GROWING NOTES

These carefree plants are covered with cheerful flowers throughout spring and early summer. After initial flowering, cut plants back to several inches tall for another flush of bloom if the weather is not too hot. In milder climates, Johnny Jump Ups will self sow readily and come back each season. The dainty edible blossoms taste of wintergreen. They make great garnishes and are also perfect for candying.

Johnny-jump-ups

Thomas Jefferson recorded “Tricolor” seeds sown at Shadwell, his boyhood home, on April 2, 1767.1 The plant was grown in American gardens before 1700, although the first known documented citation is by John Lawson in his History of Carolina (1718).2

Native over large areas of Europe and western Asia, this ancestor of our modern pansy has many common names, including wild pansy, ladies’ delight, and jump-up-and-kiss-me. The name “pansy” derives from the French word pensée, an association used by Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “and there is pansies, that’s for thoughts.”3 Darker forms, including types with nearly black petals, such as “Black Violet” and “Bowle’s Black,” were selected by the late 19th century.

Viola tricolor is a hardy, spring-flowering perennial grown as an annual with charming, pansy-like flowers showing three colors in shades of purple, yellow, and white.

Check our online store for seeds and plants of Johnny-Jump-Up

Typical Blooming Dates: March-June
Growth Type: Annual
Blossom Colors: Purple, Yellow, White
Location at Monticello: West Lawn Winding Walk and Oval Beds
Planting Conditions: Full and Partial Sun

Further Sources

• Betts, Edwin M., Hazlehurst Bolton Perkins, and Peter J. Hatch. Thomas Jefferson’s Flower Garden at Monticello, 3rd ed. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1986. See especially p. 79.
• Coats, Alice M. Flowers and Their Histories. London: Black, 1968. See especially pp. 264-65.
• Dutton, Joan Parry. Plants of Colonial Williamsburg. Williamsburg: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1979.
• Leighton, Ann. American Gardens in the Eighteenth Century. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1986.
• Seeds available for purchase at Monticello Museum Shop.
• Stuart, David and James Sutherland. Plants from the Past: Old Flowers for New Gardens. London: Penguin Books, 1989.
• Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants.

Footnotes

1.Garden Book, 1766-1824, page 2, by Thomas Jefferson [electronic edition], Thomas Jefferson Papers: An Electronic Archive (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 2003). See also Betts, Garden Book, 4.

3.Hamlet, Act IV, Scene V.