Wild violets — friend or foe? Beauty or beast?

By Barb Delisio

OSU Extension master gardener volunteer

Do you think of them as beautiful, purply wild violets or those darn purple weeds you just can’t get rid of? People either love them or hate them.

Their purple color is so intense against the bright green grass. By definition, blue violets (viola sororia) are persistent, difficult to control broadleaf weeds that are cool-season perennials. They’re usually found in shady, moist areas. Violets have dark green, waxy, heart-shaped leaves, pointed at the tip with round teeth on its margins. They spread two ways — by seed or rhizomes (thick clumps of underground stems) and once established need no help from us to multiply.

Violets have two kinds of flowers — the pretty purple ones that reach up to the sky, and the plain, unopened ones that hide their heads beneath their leaves.

The top purple flowers may be sterile, but the tight, closed flower heads appearing beneath the leaves are not only fertile, but also self-fertilizing. These under- flowers don’t need to bloom to produce seed. The seed pods disperse by gravity, spreading the hard, small, dark-colored seeds into the lawn for next year’s violets.

If you despise violets in your lawn, the treatment for controlling the wild violets is best applied in the fall.

Organic herbicides are available, but all are non-selective. This means if you spray any plant, it will die.

There are many broadleaf weed killers that selectively kill the violets without damaging the grass, but are not always effective.

Because violets have such a waxy leaf surface, adding a spreader-sticker product will make the herbicide adhere to the leaf surface.

The main problem in eliminating wild violets is that one treatment won’t do it. You will need to apply multiple treatments.

When buying a broadleaf herbicide, be sure to check the label to make sure wild violets are listed as weeds controlled.

The best method of wild violet control is a thick and healthy lawn. The dense roots of the grass will help prevent those seeds from ever sprouting the next spring.