Viola odorata 'Alba Plena'

A Parma violet with strongly fragrant, double flowers of white, this plant sometimes has a small blush of a pale violet color at its center. Another name for it is 'Swanley White'. Its flowers have relatively long stems of five or six inches, and are especially nice in a small bouquet. Outdoors it will begin to flower in late winter and continue into spring, with a second, lighter rebloom at the end of summer as the weather cools off. A plant of this can be dug from the garden in midwinter and put into a pot, and then brought indoors to begin flowering earlier than it would outdoors. 'Alba Plena' is not as cold hardy as other violets, surviving to about +20°F, or slightly colder with the cover of snow or mulch. Give it a protected location outdoors such as beneath shrubbery or on the shady side of your home. Rarely setting seeds, its produces new plants by sending out runners a short distance. These can be snipped from the mother plant once they begin to root in, and transplanted elsewhere in your garden.

For us the Parma violets take extra effort to keep healthy and to keep growing well from year to year. If you don't go to the trouble of weeding, feeding and bringing on a new crop of younger plants every year or two, you may lose this plant before you know it!