(Picture from Webshots, click picture for more)

This pretty little flower has somehow found enough soil in a tree to take root and grow. It is this flower that grows wild in the woodlands and along the roadsides of New Jersey. I have some that come up in my garden each year, and though I have to pull some of them, do leave a little patch of them because they are so pretty. Even the heart-shaped leaves are attractive.It took a little doing to get the legislature proclaiming this as New Jersey’s State flower to pass. The first attempt goes as far back as 1913, which passed, but was a designation that would only last a year. Then in 1963 another attempt was made, to no avail. Finally, as recently as 1971, a year after I graduated from high school (“recent” to me anyway) those wonderful garden clubs that are all over our state and others were persistent enough in their requests that the common violet, viola sororia, became the State flower.