Pansies Have Only Gotten Better

When I was 4 or 5 years old my family moved from Queens to Nassau County. It was a traumatic move but incredibly exciting because suddenly my world changed from apartment life and pavement to a house with a yard and dirt. It took a while for the lawn, garden and trees to get planted but my father and I were always making weekend trips to garden centers. He hated the local garden spot called Weezy’s, so we often took a drive back into Queens to a place called Garden World. It was a huge garden center and nursery, but in those days the corn grew as high as an elephant’s eye, so everything was huge to this 5 year old.

I have clear recollections of taking the drive over in early spring when the place was pretty bare of live plants, save for the boxes and boxes of pansies. In those days pansies were grown in fields and cold frames and when the plants were fully budded and just starting to flower they were hand dug and moved to the outside sales area. The plants were grown in real soil or what you might call dirt. With a spade the nurserymen would cut rectangular blocks of pansies and slide them into paper-thin wooden boxes about 6 inches wide and 9 inches long. The pansies came in a variety of colors and you had a choice of mixed, mixed or mixed. But they were the first flowers of spring, the first plant sales of the season and for us, the first color in the garden.

It’s been years since I’ve seen field-dug pansies out here and the pansies of 2017 bear only a familial similarity to those I remember in the 1950s. They’ve changed, and all for the better. These are the friendly-faced flowers that you can pick up at garden centers any day now and for the most part they’ll just smile at the cold and late snows. Pansies were always a favorite for early color but they had a fitting reputation for fading quickly once the heat of summer set in. Not anymore.

Until the 19th century most people considered pansies a weed. Today, pansies are a hybrid plant cultivated from those wildflowers in Europe and western Asia. Much of the collection and cultivation of pansies can be attributed to plantsmen and women in the United Kingdom and Europe more than 200 years ago. For example: Lady Mary Elizabeth Bennet, daughter of the Earl of Tankerville, and her gardener crossbred a wide variety of Viola tricolor (common name “heartsease”) and showcased their pansies to the horticultural world in 1813. Further experiments around the same time eventually grew the class to more than 400 garden pansy varieties.

Garden pansies (Viola x wittrockiana) are a mixture of several species, including Viola tricolor. Oftentimes the names “pansy,” “viola” and “violet” have been interchangeable in gardening lexicon and that’s confused things a bit. However, modern pansies are classified by the American Violet Society as having large-flowered blooms with two slightly overlapping upper petals, two side petals, and a single bottom petal, with a slight beard in its center. They’ve been considered annual bedding plants, used for garden decoration during cooler planting seasons. Pansies come in a rainbow of colors: from crisp white to almost black, and most all colors in between. They are also a great addition to your spring or fall vegetable garden as they are edible and pair well with lettuces. They can also be candied and used to decorate sweets or other dishes.

In the late-1830s the classic pansy “face” was discovered in a chance sport that produced a broad dark blotch on the petals. It was released to the public by James, Lord Gambier, with the name “Medora.” Further hybridization of V. tricolor, V. Lutea and a blue-flowered species of Russian origin, V. altacia, led to breeders selecting plants for more unusual pansy colors, different color combinations, and a larger flower size.

Most pansies fall into a few categories: large (3- to 4-inch), medium (2- to 3-inch), multiflora (1- to 2-inch) and a new category of trailing pansy that can be planted on slopes, in baskets and on the edge of containers. Some modern large-flowered pansy series are Majestic Giant, bred by Sakata (where Majestic Giant White Face was a 1966 All-America Selections winner); Delta, bred by Syngenta; and Matrix, bred by PanAmerican Seed. Medium-sized pansy series includes Crown by Sakata and Imperial from Takii & Co., Ltd. (Imperial Blue won an All-America Selections in 1975). Multiflora pansy series like Maxim and Padparadja won AAS awards in the early 1990s. This year also look for Pansy Anytime Quartz, Plum Good and Iris from Proven Winners, as these are said to be three of the most heat tolerant.

New on the scene for hanging baskets and ground cover are WonderFall from Syngenta, and Cool Wave pansies, from PanAmerican Seed—the breeders of Wave petunias. These trailing pansies spread over 2 feet wide and there are rumors of them overwintering from fall gardens. Today’s garden pansy varieties can fill any sunny space – large or small, hanging overhead or growing underfoot with a delightful soft fragrance and happy blooms. Just what we need after even a mild and dull winter.

While most local garden centers offer pansies in handled-packs, hanging baskets or individual pots, you can grow your own happy faces from seed right in your garden, cold frame or windowsill. To germinate, start the pansy seeds indoors with a soilless mixture (this helps prevent disease on the seedlings). Plant seed 1/8-inch deep and cover the seed with soil as they are dark germinators, then water gently. The media temperature should be 60 to 65 degrees F and keep air temperature at 70 to 75 degrees F. The media should stay damp (covering with a plastic wrap or damp newspaper will help retain humidity. A fine spray or mister can be added if the media dries. Germination occurs in 10 to 20 days. When shoots appear, remove the covering and move the flat to a brightly lit but cool room to continue to grow. Continue to grow cool. Separate seedlings into larger containers after two sets of leaves appear. Begin to feed with diluted plant food. For spring blooming plants start the seeds in late summer or mid-winter, for fall blooming plants start the seeds in late spring to early summer.

For transplants or purchased finished plants, space your pansies 6 to 10 inches apart in a well-drained and fertile soil location. The best location is an area that receives morning sun. Adding an organic or time-release fertilizer to the soil is important, especially for trailing pansies as this increases their vigor and number of blooms. Offer plenty of water at planting and during their adjustment period to help establish roots and minimize stress. Mulching can help retain moisture and reduce any weeds that may compete with your plants. Pansies planted in the spring will enjoy the warm days and cool nights of the season. Most V. wittrockiana will begin to diminish or go out of flower as nighttime temperatures begin to rise in the summer. When planted for the fall garden pansies will enjoy a shorter but colorful season of blooms and in many cases will overwinter to pop up again the following spring. Keep growing.