Native Violet Viola hederacea

Native violet makes a soft low mat of kidney shaped leaves, travelling on runners that root as they go, so one plant becomes a colony rather than a clump. Small purple and white flowers are held above the foliage on thin wiry stems for most of the year, and they are edible, which is why the plant turns up beside kitchen doors and on plated desserts. Its usual job is covering shaded damp ground: under established trees, along the southern side of a house, and between pavers.

Damp shade is the whole trick

It is native to the cooler wetter parts of eastern Australia, including Tasmania, and it wants those conditions repeated. Give it shade to part shade, soil kept organic and moist with compost and mulch, and shelter from hot afternoon exposure. It takes light foot traffic across a path edge, spills nicely over a low retaining wall or the rim of a wide pot, and copes with the poor light down the side passage of a suburban block. Plant four to six to the square metre for a mat that closes in a season. The failure mode is open hot dry sun. In a full sun bed with no irrigation the leaves brown at the margins, the mat thins out to bare runners and flowering stops, and no amount of feeding brings it back while the position stays the same. The other thing to be honest about is the travelling. In a tidy collectors bed it becomes a weeding job, moving into lawn edges and up between stones, so put it where you actually want it to run.

Native violet or a jasmine carpet

For shaded damp ground it covers quickly and reads far softer than the woody groundcovers here, and it keeps flowering through spring, summer and autumn rather than giving one flush and stopping. Where the ground is dry, root filled and half sunny, Asian star jasmine is the tougher pick, holds a defined edge that violet cannot, and takes foot traffic better. Where the job is a fence, a pergola or a screen rather than the shaded ground beneath one, star jasmine trained on wire is the plant to take, since violet has no means of climbing at all. Pick native violet when the site is shaded, stays damp, and you want flowers at ground level rather than a hard wearing surface that stays exactly where you put it.

Keeping the mat fresh

There is no real pruning to do. Run a mower over the mat on its highest setting, or shear it, in late winter to clear tired old leaf and let new growth come through cleanly. Cut the runners back at any time of year where they are heading into lawn or a bed you want kept clear, and lift rooted pieces to patch thin spots rather than buying more plants. Feed lightly in spring with a slow release fertiliser or a top dress of compost, since heavy feeding gives you leaf and fewer flowers. More in flowering.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 11 sizes, from 75mm up to 4 Pack, priced from $16.95 to $149.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. The smaller pots hold younger plants that cost less each and establish quickly, which suits hedges, screens and mass planting where the plant count adds up. The larger sizes carry several more years of growth on the farm and give height and presence straight away, which is what you want for a single feature position or a screen that cannot wait. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to when to plant in Australia.