Violas, especially the Viola cornuta varieties, can be good perennials and easy to grow in the right conditions, needing a sunny or part shaded site in fertile free-draining soil, preferably enriched with garden compost or leaf mould (not manure). They dislike wet heavy soils or dry shade under trees and will not thrive in those conditions.

A good garden position at the border front or rockery is ideal.
They all benefit from cutting hard back to 2-3" in the autumn, this allows new shoots to emerge from the central clump and make neat evergreen growth over the winter. Generally they are pest free but I recommend a routine spray in late spring and early summer against aphids, which can do a lot of damage to emerging shoots at the base of the plant and are not easily spotted.