In Minnesota, pansies are a desperate gardener’s gamble. By the time spring rolls around, most of us are so hungry for color we buy as many pansies as our gardens and wallets allow. We plant them out when the weather seems too cold and — at least in my experience — the plants sit there a good long time. Then they bloom a bit, then the weather gets hot and they wilt. It’s not always the best dollar per flower investment.
Except.
Except, if we have a year like this one, where despite one or two hot days, the weather has stayed in the 60s or 70s (or even lower) for what seems like an interminable amount of time. It also rains a lot. As the TV weatherman noted the other day, “It’s been a crappy spring.”
This is the year where a gamble on pansies paid off. I have lots of annuals in my front bed — spunky zinnias, blue salvia, a few snapdragons — but guess which annual is blooming best. Pansies.
Note: If you are concerned about the dollar per flower investment, pansies are also very easy to start from seed. Most of the ones I have out front were started from two seed packages.
Billie Jo says
June 23, 2011 at 9:16 amSad, but true. My pansies are really filling out here up north!
Donna says
June 25, 2011 at 2:15 pmI moved a yellow pansy and a yellow viola into a shrub border from their pots a few weeks ago, and they look so nice below a red ‘ Champlain’ shrub rose. You’re right, this is the year for them!
Janet Glaser says
July 16, 2011 at 6:43 pmPansies are my favorite. My birthday is at the end of May and my mom always planted pansies as part of my birthday celebration. However, my husband hates them exactly using the excuses you stated above..But I love their happy faces. I don’t know why they bred the faces out of some varieties of pansies.