Round or jagged, each pansy flower carries just five petals in a single colour around a darker eye. One of the rare flowers to open at the heart of winter, it asks little more than a sunny or lightly shaded spot — and in return it will bloom when almost nothing else in the garden does.
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And you thought this petty flower was fragile… Pansy is anything but fragile! Its hardiness, together with the delicate impression it gives, is what makes it very appealing in winter. One of the rare flowers to bloom at the heart of winter, pansy has another advantage: it only requires little care, provided it is set in a sunny or partly shaded spot.
Ideal for flower beds or garden boxes, viola (to call it by its scientific name) belongs to the Violaceae family. Its flowers, sometimes round, sometimes jagged, are of one color with a darker center. The color can be almost any imaginable color.
Native to Europe, it was initially considered a perennial.
But the varieties that grow today in most gardens are closer to being annuals or biennials.
Depending on the species, they can come in different shapes, but they all bear flowers with only five petals.
→ Ideas: Summer garden boxes
Pansies flower almost all year round, but the flowering season depends entirely on when the seed goes in. The table below matches sowing time to bloom time, and to the care each batch will ask of you.
| Sowing time | Flowering time | Main care need |
|---|---|---|
| Early to late spring | Early summer | Frequent watering |
| Early to late summer | Midwinter, or the following early spring | Frequent watering while young, mulch for winter |
| Early to late autumn | Midwinter to early spring | Roots protected from the cold with mulch |
Whatever the season, you’ll have over 500 species to choose from.
Unavoidable in this period of the year, the winter pansy especially needs its roots to be protected from the cold with mulch, whereas its spring or summer cousin will need to be watered often.
Note that viola can resist freezing down to 21°F (-6° C) so it can be set in hanging pots together with ivy or in garden boxes with cyclamen and Veronica to embellish your garden in winter.
That said, whatever the season, you’ll have over 500 species to choose from.
Seeds sown in spring will produce flowers during the beginning of summer, and seeds sown in summer and fall will bloom in winter or in the following spring.
Lastly, did you know that pansies are often confused with violets? Of course, they belong to the same family, to the point that only the flower petals can help tell them apart.
Violets have two petals facing upwards, and three facing downwards but pansies have four facing up and one facing down.
