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Planting, Growing, and Caring for Pansies
Pansies are the cheerful flowers with upturned 鈥渇aces.鈥 They love cool weather and are popular for growing in spring and fall. They鈥檙e also edible, adding color to salads, drinks, and cakes. Here鈥檚 how to plant pansies and keep them growing and blooming for bright, happy gardens and containers.
About Pansies
Pansies are a type of Viola (Viola 脳 wittrockiana) with large heart-shaped, overlapping petals and one of the widest ranges of bright, pretty colors and patterns.
Suitable for containers and borders and as ground cover, they are a go-to flower for reliable color almost year-round in some places. Pansies look pretty in a monochrome scheme or mixed colors; they also look pretty when planted with other cool-season flowers such as primroses, trailing lobelia, and sweet alyssum.
Are Pansies Annual or Perennial Flowers?
Most gardeners treat pansies (and all violas) as an annual, but they鈥檙e actually hardy in USDA Hardiness Zones 3-8. They tend to get too leggy in the heat of summer. There hasn鈥檛 been much success in producing heat-tolerant pansies that can adequately survive hot weather.
Pansies are surprisingly hearty in cold weather, though. They鈥檒l survive a frost, bouncing back from even single-digit temperatures. If the blooms wither in the cold, the plants will often stay alive to bloom again, which makes them a great flowering plant for fall and early winter color.
Growing
How to Care for Pansies
- Remember to water pansies regularly. One of the most common reasons pansies fail is that they are not watered enough, so if they are not doing well, try watering them more.
- You can use a general, all-purpose fertilizer around your pansies to help them grow. Be wary of using a nitrogen-heavy fertilizer, as this can result in more foliage than flowers.
- Remove faded/dead flowers to encourage the plants to produce more blooms and prolong the blooming season. You can either pinch off the flower bud or cut it off just below the faded bud.
Catherine Boeckmann
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I live in zone 6b in Arizona and plant pansies every spring from the local nursery. I do not germinate seeds. They always take off well but as the summer heat arrives they die off. They are planted in pots and get afternoon sun. They are also on a drip system that waters every other day. Should I put them in the shade so its cooler? Can you also recommend a more heat tolerant flower that can take full AZ sun?
Pansies do well with lots of sun in spring and early summer but the heat of high summer can be too much. Ideally, you would situate them such that they get full sun until that time and dappled light thereafter. A few ideas for heat-tolerant annuals include: portulaca, petunia, and nicotiana.
Where exactly do I pinch or cut off dead blooms of the pansies?
Hi, Jack, You want to deadhead/pinch/cut back right above (just above) where the flower stalk (or stem) meets the first set of leaves. So, remove all of the flower head plus a portion of stem. Just trying to be exact!
We hope this helps!
I live in zone 5. I plan to plant tulip bulbs in containers and leave them in my unheated garage over the winter. I want to have pansies in the same container to flower in the spring. Should I put established plants in the container or can I sow seeds along with the tulip bulbs? If sowing seeds, do I water and fertilize when sown and then just leave over the winter, or do I water more often? When can I take the container from the garage?
Pansies germinate in 7 to 15 days in complete darkness at between 65 and 70 degrees F. I started mine this year (2016) on August 22 (zone 7a--northern Virginia) indoors and cranked down the thermostat on the AC for two weeks. I use a Metro wire shelving system with six, 48"x18" shelves, which support 20, 10"x20" flats that have 15, 4" pots in each flat. I reuse the pots, and soak them in bleach solution between uses. My growing medium is Miracle Grow house plant mix with moisture control. I've tried soil-less mixes before, and they tend to harbor molds. I have not ever sterilized my soil by baking, because the thought of putting soil in my home oven is something my wife isn't eager for me to do. I'm growing Frizzle Sizzle this year in several colors and a mix. I planted 2,500 seeds in 300 pots. I like robust growth that I can thin, if necessary. I covered each row of flats with black contractor plastic bags until day 8, when I approximately 1/3 to 1/2 of the seeds germinated. This means some might not germinate, which is one of the reasons why I plant 2,500 seeds. I then removed the covers and turned on the grow lights. My lights are 6500s that are 4' long, 2-tube florescents. I suspend two parallel fixtures from the bottom of the next higher wire shelf, using lengths of wire coat hangers, which allow me to raise or lower the lights by moving the hooks on the coat hanger wires in or out on the next higher wire shelf. The lights are suspended about 2-3" above the tops of the 4" pots right now. Today (9/10), after almost three weeks, most of the seedlings are up with their first set of "true" leaves. I anticipate being able to transplant these 300 pots into my garden by mid to late October, immediately after I plant my bulbs. These pansies will be placed in the ground above the bulbs. Unless we have a very harsh winter, we can expect blooming throughout the winter, with a robust flush of blooms beginning in early spring, until we lift and dispose of the pansies to make room for next year's summer annuals. BTW: I plan on beginning snapdragons in late winter to plant with the pansies in early spring. The pansies will be my border plants, and staggered heights of snapdragons will be planted behind them. I've never tried this before, and I'm looking forward to a promising bloom this spring.
Can you direct sow pansy seeds in Central Texas for a winter bloom? When is the best time to sow? Zoo you sow and thin or sow in groups?
What you wrote means either belonging to the pansy or the pansy is. Try Pansies.
I don't correct the spelling, grammar, or pronunciation of others, because doing so suggests my greater interest in their errors than their topic.
Pansies are a great choice for Central Texas winters! A good time to plant is usually Oct. 15 to Nov. 1 but it really depends on the soil temperature. Plant pansies when the soil temperature is between 45 and 70 degrees F. If you plant too early鈥搘hen the soil is above 70 degrees鈥搚ou鈥檒l wind up with leggy plants, yellowish leaves and few flowers.
