Growing Pansies

Pansies are hardy, or cold-tolerant annuals.  They can survive cold snaps, even snow, with little damage except to the open blossoms.  They grow quickly in the cool weather of spring and will be in their full glory when other warm-season annuals are still in the green plant stage.  They can be planted in the fall and will winter over for excellent spring color.  Here are a few tips on gardening practices that will keep your pansies at their peak throughout the spring and fall seasons.

LIGHT Pansies prefer a sunny spot.  Shade will make them stretch and cuts down on the number of flowers produced.  They will, however, tolerate very light shade, and a couple of hours of shade in the hot afternoon is to their liking.

WATERING:  Plant pansies in moist, not wet, fertile soil.  If pansies dry out or are nutrient starved, their vigor declines very quickly.  Baskets and clay containers will probably need watering every day.

FEEDING:  Feed pansies with either  1) a granular flower food,  2) a water-soluble food like Peters or Miracle-Gro, or  3) a slow release pellet like Osmocote.  Follow instructions on fertilizer.

MAINTENANCE:  Remove the spent flower heads before they form seeds.  Energy that could be going into the production of new flowers is wasted on formation of seeds if the flowers aren’t picked off regularly.  Remove the entire flower stalk, not just the flower end.  Pinching is fine, or use scissors.

Many gardeners ask if pansies will bloom all summer.  The answer depends on  several factors - the amount of care they receive, the heat tolerance of the variety planted and summer rainfall and temperatures.  Pansies should not be thought of as a replacement for main-stream annuals like marigolds and petunias, but as a preview to them.  Many gardeners prefer to remove their pansies once the hot weather hits and replace them with heat-loving annuals.  Others will cut their pansies back in mid-July and allow them to regrow for fall blooms.  Still others grow their pansies in containers on their porches and patios so that they can have lots of color while waiting of the main-stream flowers to grow.

We  grow only the most heat-tolerant, compact varieties on the market today, and are constantly searching for new varieties to please our gardening customers.  With proper watering and fertilizing, and removal of seed heads, pansies can provide  pleasure throughout the spring and fall seasons.