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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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can someone please advise if winter pansies will flower in shade, and if not, can you suggest something that will (in a basket)
I live in Nevada, Fall Pansies due extremely well here. First, for hot sunny winters the best place to plant is in a northern location where there is shade until late afternoon, then sunny until the sun goes down. As the winter progresses your plants roots grow along with the plant allowing more sunlight during the day. Remember to water everyday in early fall, every other day until about March, then every day. As the plant get stringy collect seeds for next season. If you live in the desert spring Pansies don't do as well. However, we put two potted plants either side of our front courtyard gate and did not move them all fall, winter and now spring, getting that wonderful scent at shoulder height gate posts.
Yes, pansies can take shade and should continue to bloom for you.
How much should you water the seed and how often should you water them
Pansies need about 1 inch of water per week during the growing season. Water on days when you don’t get rain, preferably in the evenings. Try to make sure that the soil is damp but not soaked.
I use Epson salt,it works wonders 3 table spoons per gallon of water,everyday,you can fertilize regularly as well ,but Epson salt kicks but
I used this for my project and got an A. Thanks!
Do rabbits and Quail eat pansies? Live in Henderson, NV, and it is hard to find flowers/plants that rabbits and Quail don't eat. Thank you.
Rabbits will eat pansies. You could try Mexican marigold. Most animals do not like the aroma of this flower.
Is it best to pull the pansies out of the bed and discard it, or leave it in the bed and recultvate it back into the soil? Once re cultivated will the flower reproduce the following fall?
