I love how pansies are one of the first bedding flowers to bloom in the spring. They can handle cold temperatures more than any other bedding flower. Nevertheless, it warms up in spring enough to plant petunias to bloom from planting throughout the entire growing season. Thus, I never like pansies in flower beds. They will fry in the hot summer sun. In containers though, they can be moved and highly managed throughout the season for the blooms to continue throughout the cooler fall months. For this growing season, I planted my pansies en masse in containers.
Pansy Seed or Transplant
For years, I bought my bedding flowers as transplants from a garden center. Although they are beautiful, I never tended to buy a lot of them. The summer heat would come quickly after, or for one week at a time like Pennsylvania weather goes, and turn off those beautiful blooms from producing more.
In the 2022 season, I bought viola seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. They were gradient shades starting with a black tone in the center transitioning into a purple, called Lake of Thun Pansy. I didn’t start them early enough to produce flowers in the cooler weather, but when they did begin to flower, they were beautiful.
For the 2023 season, I started these same seeds, along with other varieties earlier, aiming for an April 3 planting date for cool weather crops and flowers. Seeing their blooms in May and June, continuing strong into some very hot spells, I’m sold on growing pansies from seed.
Why I Start Pansies from Seed
Majority of the plants sold at the garden centers at big box stores are started from cuttings rather from seed. This means instead of starting with a completely new plant, they will cut a stem from a mother plant to produce new plants. What I experienced with this method, although it offers flower plants that produce flowers very early, many of these plants do not reach full height. They are not given an early life dedicated to grow. Rather their whole life is dedicated to flowering.
Pansies started from seeds have their grow light/ greenhouse life focuses on their green growth and roots. They don’t need to worry about producing flowers. When they are planted outdoors, they transition from their green growth to producing their flowers. The stems on these blooms are delicate, but they can grow much taller.
Cost
Although I end up paying for the electric for grow lights and a greenhouse structure to finish them off, for the number of pansies I’ve planted this year, it is still much cheaper than buying them all at the store. For example, a 6-pack of pansy flowers may cost $3. If I bought 36 plants, that would cost me $18. A single, individually sold pansy may cost $2. If I bought 36 of those plants, it would cost $72. A packet of pansy seeds costs about $3 to $4 from Baker Creek and offers more than 36 seeds. Lake of Thun Pansy seed packet offers 100 seeds. Those pansies would start at $0.03 each, not including the soil medium, electric, etc. It is still less expensive than buying the pansies at the store.
Beauty of Gardening
Most importantly, when flower gardening, it is most beautiful when one can see the whole process of the plant’s life. Planting the seeds to see it germinate, then gain it’s true leaves, needing fertilizer, moving out to the greenhouse, seeing its FIRST blooms, caring and feeding it throughout the season, and seeing it through until it dies.
Where to Buy Pansy Seeds
One mix of pansy seeds were from Burpee’s. These can be bought at garden centers or garden departments in stores.
Baker Creek has countless options to choose for pansy seeds. These are less of a mix of numerous flowers, but of one specific variety. Neat thing about buying seeds from this company, everything is heirloom. You can save the seeds from these flowers to save the next growing season. Baker Creek also offers the best seed catalog along with free shipping.
https://www.rareseeds.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=pansy
Johnny’s Select Seeds offers pansy seeds as well. Some for bedding plants, but other varieties have longer stem lengths for the cut flower market. I think it would be so fun to start pansies for cut flowers. However, they could also work for taller pansies in the center of a container or the back of a flower bed. Beware that Johnny’s does not include shipping, unless an order is of over $200.
https://www.johnnyseeds.com/search/?q=pansy&search-button=&lang=en_US
Pansies in Containers En Masse
Pansies do not spread out that much. I spaced my plants about 2-4 inches away from each other in the container. This close planting allows for a massive ensemble of pansy blooms come May and June. For the most part, I kept the pansies to their mixes and varieties, but some were intermixed, which cause a unique look and aesthetic.
This was my favorite to grow pansies. Start them from seed and then transplant them into a beautiful container for their flowering season of life. Before any of the other bedding flowers could be moved to the outdoors, these flowers were handling low temperatures in the 20’s and creating a wave of beautiful blooms that LAST before any other flowers. Yes, the daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips were blooming, but those blooms were seasonal to a week, not two months of blooms.
Pansies in Containers as Low Bedding Flower
Pansies are shorter plants, so they work well as the exterior plant in a container arrangement. For the center, tulips work well for May, but since pansies can last throughout June as well, ranunculus work great as the center of the container. Ranunculus grows long stems, long enough for cut flowers. The pansies would just complement the ranunculus.
Tulips could be transplanted into an arrangement, but others may start the tulips in the container in the fall. I’ve tried this without success. And although I do love tulips, I love them the best in raised garden beds for cutting and flower beds to rebloom every year.
Ranunculus though are transplanted from a two-week head-start indoors at the same time the pansies are ready to plant in the containers as well. Both can survive cooler temperatures- pansies more than ranunculus. But being in containers, they can be brought inside or covered on the cooler nights the ranunculus may not be able to handle.
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