Heartsease

Heartsease   Silk painting by Tessa Spanton

Heartsease is also known as Viola tricolour, heart's delight,

tickle-my-fancy, Jack-jump-up-and-kiss-me, come-and-cuddle-me,

three faces in a hood, or love-in-idleness. in North America it is known as Johnny jump up.

This beautiful little flower is edible and is used in herbal remedies.

This one was grown in my garden. There can be variations in colouring and markings, often the middle petals are white.

It is the progenitor of the modern cultivated pansy and I think it's more beautiful than many modern pansy flowers.

Shakespeare mentioned a flower called Love-in-idleness in Midsummer Night’s Dream, from it was made the love potion to be placed on the slumbering eyelids of Titania by Puck as directed by Oberon. 

This flower was associated with thought in The Language of Flowers from the French "pensée" - thought