Growing Pansies

GROW YOUR OWN PANSIES

Pansies are old-fashioned favorite flowers that are gaining new popularity. Improved varieties and better hardiness are why more gardeners are buying and planting these cheerful spring bloomers. Garden favorites for generations, they are widely available just about everywhere and are often the first annuals to bloom. They likewise make cute little bouquets and are a standard offering in posies. If only they were heat resistant, they would be just about the perfect annual. Instead, you have to plan carefully to get the most out of them.

Planting Pansies

• You can sow the seeds in early October for the plants to flower in the spring. See the seeds packet for details of other times of the year you can sow the seeds.
• First, sow the seeds – or leave them to germinate - in punnets, using a quality seed-raising mix. Keep the punnets in a warm and lightly shaded location. Allow roughly three to four weeks for germination before you plan on transplanting them.
• Choose a section of the garden that receives full sun to light shade (in hotter regions) and prepare the soil by digging in a general garden fertiliser. The soil will need to be free-draining with ample mulch and compost.
• Plant seeds in late winter for early spring and summer flowering, or plant seeds in the summer for winter flowering.
• Space the plants about 7 to 12 inches apart. They will spread about 9 to 12 inches and grow to be about 6 to 9 inches tall.
• If planting in containers, use potting mix with a soil-wetter, such as Saturaid, to help direct water to the plant’s roots.

Required Care

• Remember to water your pansies regularly. One of the most common reasons pansies fail is because they are not watered enough, so if your pansies are not doing well, try watering them more.
• You can use a general, all-purpose fertilizer around your pansies to help them grow.
• Remove faded/dead flowers to prolong blooming and encourage more flowers to grow.

Problems and Solutions

• Pansies are somewhat susceptible to leaf diseases.
• Choose disease-resistant strains, and rotate plantings if you notice repeated damage. Hand-pick slugs and snails if they become a problem.

Recommended Varieties

• Viola x wittrockiana, are large-flowered plants with overlapping petals are offered in an almost infinite range of colors, including a violet so deep it appears almost black. Most are bi-colored with face like markings, but some are all one color.
• Jolly Joker, which blooms in spring and summer and has orange flowers with deep purple upper petals and a purple outline.
• Princess Series, which offer a variety of colors such as blue, purple, and yellow.
• Fama Series, which flowers in winter and spring and offers a wide variety of single and mixed colored flower.

Few Tips

• It's a good idea to research your pansies prior to purchasing there are many, many varieties and you might wish to match the colours with your current garden scheme. 
• There are miniature pansies, regular pansies, and giant pansies.
• Pansies are great to eat. They are perfect for brightening up a green salad. On the sweet side, they are lovely used as cake and biscuit decorations, they can be crystallized in the same way as violets, and they can be frozen into ice cubes. It is also possible to make pansy ice cream. Experiment with different ideas.