Irritating plant of the month January 2020 - hanging violas

I try not to think too hard to choose an irritating plant each month.  I tell myself not to force a decision and indeed, if nothing springs easily to mind to let a month skip.  I was on the verge of the skip button.  Nothing in the garden or the house plants was particularly causing me ire.  It is a cold time of year and it seems churlish to criticise any plant for just trying to survive......

and yet.....

Dear reader, I present to you a hanging basket of violas.

I love a good cheeky viola this time of year.  There is something about them and what I would usually term their indomitableness (don't tell me that isn't a word, I'm not listening....). Their unwavering spirit to get through Winter gives me heart.

I have already written that I am a hanging basket convert.  That switch that lurks hidden until the time is right has been switched and now I look at hanging baskets and think of possibilities.  This basket of violas was always a stop gap; a basket to take me from late Summer into the Spring.  Whilst it was always going to be an inbetween basket, I had high hopes for it.  I have tending to it lovingly; keeping it deadheaded and making sure it was not getting too dry.  Getting too dry has not really been a concern as we have had lots of rain; it has been in more danger of drowning.  It grew well at first  but seems to have become a bit scrappy and I realised I had started frowning at it.

I am not a quick discarder though and where there is life there is hope.   There is still a chance it will pull itself together.  I will give it a bit of a cutting back and a feed or three and see if that perks it up.  Time will tell.