Nevertheless, Viola Persisted

Last May I planted an entire tray of purple viola plants in my Garden of Hope, around the rose bush, and along the path to the front porch. The flowers flourished until our air was filled with smoke from the fires in British Columbia, Oregon, and Montana. The smoke blocked the sun and held in the 95+ degree heat for too many weeks. My beautiful flowers were struggling.

I finally took mercy on the poor plants and cut them back to the nubs and stopped watering them. I thought I'd leave them alone because sometimes violas will reseed themselves (some from 2016 made a reappearance last summer).

But check out this little survivor! You can smoke her out. You can chop her back. You can let only the rain water her. Yet she persisted. This one little flower made an appearance this week amid all the downed pine needles, its sister flowers, and the rose that is putting out its last bloom of the season.

Way to go, Viola! And thank you for the spot of beauty you gave me on this cloudy day.