These bold-faced flowers are a favorite in cool-season gardens due to their bright yellow to deep purple colors and new pink variations.
Pansies belong to the genus Viola. They are Viola tricolor hybrids, created through crossings with Viola lutea and Viola altaica.
Lady Mary Elizabeth Bennet of Surrey, England, introduced various wild heartsease kinds to her family's estate in the early 1800s and worked with the gardener to cross-breed them to create a diversity of colors.
At the same time, James Gambier was treating his gardener similarly. Popular hybridizing violas finally produced the large-flowered blotch-faced garden pansy we know and love.
Annual pansies are cool-season plants. Some seeds easily reseed. In northern regions, pansies are planted in spring, and in warmer regions in fall and winter.
Pansies tolerate light freezes and snow. They hate hot, sticky conditions and decay quickly in southern summers.
Low-growing garden pansies are ideal for borders. You can go near to pansies in planters and savor their delicate spring aroma and cheerful flower faces.
Mix them with sweet alyssum, snapdragons, and violas, cool-season flowers. Plant a large bed of colorful and patterned plants.
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