This week, a quick rundown on pansies!
Q: I plant pansies every year when my summer color gives up, but the beds are never really full until almost Spring. When I do change out my beds for pansies this year, how do I make them as full and nice as the ones at your place?
A: The secret is warm – not insanely hot, but warm – weather.
Pansies will live through our normal winter, and bloom for most of it outside of ice storms, but like most plants, they don’t grow much in cold weather. Waiting for your summer color to become worn out as temperatures drop is the factor holding back the growth of your pansy beds.
You’ve two choices to grow a full bed of pansies to go into the cold weather. Either rip out your summer color relatively soon (and yes, it probably does still look pretty good, but it’ll start looking tired in about six weeks, unless we get an unseasonably early frost) and replant this October or wait for your summer color to fade and plant pansies closer together than normal. If one of your summer flower choices looks particularly amazing, for example, if your summer celosia plantings look outstanding but your other color is starting to look lackluster, change out your summer color in stages and space your later plantings a bit closer together than earlier plantings. Enjoy your best summer color performers for a while longer, while setting your flowerbeds up for their best show this fall and winter!