By Jim Crawford
University of Georgia
Among all the flowers in our Southern gardens, one of the most
popular, if not the most popular, is the pansy.
I’m very fond of them because of the unique patterns and really
bright colors. They come in just about every shade from yellow
to, oddly enough, black. I particularly like the yellow ones with
the “faces,” while my wife likes the violet shades.
Plant alone or in bunches
Pansies have many applications in the landscape as drifts of
single color or as massed planting of mixed colors. My wife and I
used them in masses across our front flower bed when we were
selling our house.
If you watch the real estate shows on television, you know that
they advise you to have a pretty “street appearance” when you’re
trying to sell a home. I can’t say that the flowers turned the
trick, but the house did sell so fast we had to hustle up our
moving plans.
Another great thing about pansies is you can plant them in tiny
or large spaces. Pansies are attractive planted under evergreens,
around trees, around the mailbox, in window boxes or in planters.
Multiseasonal bloomers
Not only do pansies come in a wide assortment of bright and
gorgeously mixed colors, they bloom in the garden up to six
months during the fall, winter and spring. Few other annuals can
make that claim.
Pansies do best when the night temperatures are below 65 degrees
and can withstand temperature as low as 2 degrees. The time to
plant pansies is when the heat finally tapers off.
Pansies come in a variety of sizes. Generally, pansies with
smaller flowers tolerate heat and adverse growing conditions
better than the large-flowered types. Some varieties that grow
well in Georgia are Springtime Yellow Blotch, Universal Plus
Yellow Blotch, Happy White Face and Imperial Pink Shades. Now,
who couldn’t like a flower that has a catchy name like that and
produces eye-catching splashes of color all winter?
Prepare the soil
Pansies love to grow in full sun, but they will also grow and
flower in partial shade better than other annuals. They will
perform very well if you’ll do a good job of preparing the soil.
Choose a well-drained location and work organic matter such as
garden compost, peat moss, commercially composted manure, potting
soil or
well-rotted leaves into about the top 4 to 6 inches of dirt using
a shovel, tiller or hand trowel.
It would be a good idea to get your soil sampled so you’d have
lime and fertilizer instructions. However, since pansies like a
low pH and that describes most of our soils, you could just amend
the soil and plant.
Pansies don’t have a high requirement for fertilizer. One and a
half pounds of bone meal per 25 square feet is helpful. You can
use either a slow-release fertilizer or 1.5 pounds of 10-10-10
fertilizer per 100 square feet.
Prepare the soil, hand-pack
Pansies should be planted in beds about the same level they were
growing in the packs or just slightly higher. Spacing is a matter
of personal preference, but I suggest planting them about 6
inches apart.
After planting, don’t forget to lightly water and hand-pack the
soil around the plants. This ensures the soil is in good contact
with the roots and the stems are supported so they stand up. And it
allows the soil to retain the moisture longer, giving the plants a
better chance for survival.
Next, place a couple of inches of mulch around the plants. Soil
moisture should be monitored for the first three weeks until the
plants have established good root systems.
It’s always discouraging to spend time selecting flowers,
preparing soil and doing the best job of planting that you know
how, only to see the flowers die or just not grow well. If you
don’t have a natural “green thumb,” pansies are almost foolproof.
Give them a try. I bet you’ll like what you see.
