Common blue violets are named that way for a reason. They pop up naturally in gardens all over Missouri and the central and eastern parts of the U.S. “You probably have it in your backyard just like I ...

Even if you’ve never seen violets growing wild, you probably have a mental image of them. Low-growing plants with heart-shaped leaves and pretty dark blue flowers, right? Well, that’s true for a ...

Roses are red. Violets are blue. But sometimes they can be yellow, too. Or even white. Roughly 20 species of violets grow in Illinois, and many have heart-shaped leaves with five petals on blooms ...

The other day, I was photographing a large clump of common blue violets on a neighbor’s lawn when she remarked that they were pretty, but “mostly weeds.” I said I know that violets can be banes of ...