Pansy plants are low growing (15 – 18 cm) and are often used as edges, borders or in rock gardens. It is the bright, coloured flowers that make pansies so popular. Flowers have five overlapping petals that come in a wide range of colour, patterns, and size, and are often very fragrant. When you walk into the greenhouse it is not hard to find the pansies as you only have to follow the sweet scent.

 

Pansies can be bought as seed or by bedding plants. If you want to start your own pansies from seed they should be started in January or February so that they are blooming by May. The bedding plants become available in the garden centres in April.

 

Choose healthy plants with no yellowing foliage, that are compact, with lots of flower buds, as these will give you the longest enjoyment. When planting them outside, choose an area that gets lots of light, but away from the hot summer afternoon heat as they do not like hot weather. Plant them in a well drained, moist soil. For lots of flowers, remove the finished flowers before they form seed which will make all the plants energy go towards producing new flowers. Follow a regular fertilizing schedule using a flowering plant fertilizer that has a lower first number, and a higher middle number, such as 12-36-12. Pansies are easy to grow and maintain, if you keep them watered and fed, as they are rarely bothered by pests or disease.

 

In mid summer, plants can become leggy. If this happens, simply cut them back by one-third, and they will produce a new flush of growth and flowers, adding some late summer, late fall colour to the landscape.

 

Although pansies are considered an annual they will self sow quite easily, if the old flowers are not removed and are allowed to go to seed. The young seedlings appear in early summer and are best removed as they will not have enough time to bloom, due to our short season.

 

Pansies are an old time favourite for many local gardens including ours at home. We plant them every year because of their hardiness and ability to withstand a few degrees of frost.

 

I have noticed over the past few years that pansies are finding their way into outdoor containers that are placed outdoors year round. Over the summer months the containers are filled with sun loving geraniums, petunias, etc and then in the fall/winter months the containers are used for winter displays of cut evergreen boughs and colourful branches and twigs. In early spring (April) the branches and boughs are removed and the containers are refilled using a high quality outdoor potting soil and then planted with pansies. Later when all risk of frost has passed the pansies are taken out and replaced with the geraniums etc giving the outdoor containers year round interest. The pansies that were growing in the container can be trimmed back and replanted in the flowerbed, to be enjoyed.

 

We’ve had a long winter this year, so why not add some outdoor colour to your landscape by planting a few pansies!