On Their Own
*Greet your visitors with a cheery pot or two of pansies on the front steps.
*Add some eye level beauty with hanging baskets of pansies.
*Fill window boxes with a kaleidoscope of colorful pansy flowers.
*Improve your view with hanging baskets, planters or pots placed outside your kitchen, workroom, office or living room windows. They’re sure to brighten your day.
*Increase the beauty by planting pansies in decorative containers, tins or unique recycled items converted into planters.
Container Combinations
*Combine pansies with other spring flowers and vegetables
-Swiss chard, greens and lettuce make nice edible partners
-Stocks, nemesia, snapdragons, alyssum and dianthus are a few cool season flowers you can include
*Use small-scale garden art and decorative twigs for added interest or as a vertical accent. This is especially helpful when small plants are just starting to grow
*Plant them yourself or purchase ready-to-grow pots and baskets.
Quick Results or Emerging Beauty for Container Gardens
*Close spacing (as little as 3 inches”) = immediate beauty. This is perfect for spring containers that start to fade as the temperatures rise.
*Or give ‘em a bit more room to grow. Enjoy the transformation and showcase each plant by giving them a bit more room and time to grow and fill the container.
In the Garden
*Plant between bulbs for added color before, during and after the bulbs bloom
*Mix among perennials for early season color. As temperatures rise and perennials mature they will mask the declining pansy plants.
*Dress up shrub beds with an annual groundcover of pansies.
Keep ‘em Happy
*Pansies grow and flower best in cool temperatures
*Grow pansies in full sun or partial shade
*Keep the soil evenly moist
*Extend your enjoyment as temperatures rise
*Move containers into a bit more shade
*Prune back leggy plants and remove faded flowers
Melinda Myers is a nationally recognized gardening expert with more than 30 years of horticulture experience. She is a wealth of knowledge and we are pleased to share Melinda’s Gardening How-To with you!
