Plant Pick: Viola 'Etain' (Etain pansy)

Spring showers may bow down jumbo pansy flowers, but the small-flowered pansies and violas hold their heads up and bloom profusely.

'Etain' is a perfect example. Its light, lemon-yellow flowers are edged in violet, as if someone took a watercolor pencil and outlined the petals. Several plants clustered together in one shallow pot make a fine impression.

If you see that the plants are pot-bound when you take them out of the nursery pots, rip off the bottom inch or two of congested roots; the plant will soon grow new ones.

Feed lightly, and when the plants begin to get leggy in midspring, cut them back hard, fertilize with an all-purpose, organic dry fertilizer and water well. The plants will send up a new flush of leaves and flowers.

-- Marty Wingate