A viola pops out after waiting six months

Back on the 30th of April this year (about three weeks ago), a viola plant suddenly appeared on our patch! 

viola happily grows on our plot — isn't it pretty?

This viola plant is actually growing in a location where we had tomatoes. I had just removed all the dying tomato plants a few weeks before we discovered this viola. The interesting thing is that we had tried, without success, to sprout dozens if not hundreds of viola seeds back in October or November last year, in a nearby spot about half a meter away from where we found this plant. 

put hay around your plants and hopefully
you won't accidentally step on them

We should have known that October is really not the right time to plant cold-climate flowers like pansies and violas. But I think it's amazing that one of the seeds has managed to lay dorment on our patch for about 6 months before deciding to pop up! I'm quite sure it's from our seeds, because I remember collecting seeds of this particular black / dark purple variety at Floriade, probably one year ago (around October 2010) if not last year (October 2011).

It gives me much pleasure to have an edible flower growing alongside our veggies. As you can see in the second photo, we've put some hay around it to mark it clearly as well as give it a better chance in the coming frosty days.

I want to grow some other edible flowers in future, especially nasturtiums. We haven't got seeds yet, but seeing this viola pop up has made me want to scatter more viola seeds around our patch... this is the right time to plant them.