Growing Johnny Jump Up: A Complete Profile
By Growing Home Greens Team · August 19, 2026
Johnny jump up is Viola tricolor, the wild species that garden pansies were bred from. It is grown much the same way and behaves differently once it is in the ground.
Smaller flowers, more of them, and it comes back
Compared with our pansy entry, Viola x wittrockiana, the flowers here are a fraction of the size and there are many more of them per plant. NC State Extension lists it as annual, perennial and short-lived herbaceous perennial all at once, which is a fair description of a plant that dies out after a season or two and freely reseeds itself in the meantime.
That self-sowing is the practical difference. A pansy is finished when it is finished. Johnny jump up turns up next spring in the path, the neighbouring square, and the gap in the paving. Most people count this as a feature. If you do not, deadhead before the seed sets.
Start it indoors, plant it out early
Sowing follows the same pattern as pansy: about ten weeks indoors before your last frost, seed an eighth of an inch deep and covered, because it needs darkness to germinate. It goes outside roughly two weeks before the last frost, being tolerant of cold that would set back a warm-season flower.
A cool-season plant that sulks in July
It flowers best at the two cool ends of the season and slows through high summer, which is why our calendar marks it heat sensitive. In mild-winter zones it is often treated as a fall-planted flower that carries through winter and finishes in late spring.
The flowers are edible
Unlike most of the flower list here, the blooms are edible and commonly used on salads and cakes. Only eat flowers you grew yourself and did not spray.
Source: NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox, Viola tricolor.
Companion planting guide for Johnny Jump Up · Find your planting dates
Typically viable in USDA zones 2-9. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.
Method: Start indoors: Start indoors from seed, then transplant outside. Johnny Jump Up needs a head start most zones can't give it by direct-sowing alone.
See exact start-indoors, direct-sow, and harvest dates for your zone →
How many Johnny Jump Up plants fit per square foot?
Spacing: 4 per square foot (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 3-10 in.
Where to buy johnny jump up seeds
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See it growing
Search YouTube for "growing johnny jump up" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
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Growing Johnny Jump Up: The wild viola behind the garden pansy: smaller flowers, far more of them, edible, and it self-sows.
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