Wild Violet “Johnny Jump-Up”

I grew these from seeds sold as Wild Violet “Johnny Jump-Up”. They’re fast growing, with small purple and yellow flowers and no strong taste when eaten straight off the plant.

They grow easily indoors with no special care.

Using it

They can be used as a simple garnish to add some colour, or turned into a syrup or infused vinegar. Their main purpose seems to be about adding colour, the flavour is really mild.

Growing notes

These were the first edible flower I tried indoors under grow lights, and it turns out they’re really easy to grow.

I sowed into a seed tray, thinned out a little once they started to grow, once they were big enough to handle, I transplanted 3-4 plants into each 10cm pot. For the substrate, they were sown into standard seedling potting soil, and transplanted into a mix I use for most of my indoor short term plants, which is compost mixed with a lot of sand and grit. I always try to increase drainage as much as possible as water logged soil leads to algae under the grow lights.

My lights run for 16 hours a day and they’re kept around 5cm from the lights the entire time, and started flowering after 5 weeks and still flowering 2 weeks after that.