The pansy is more popular than ever before and for many good reasons.
Gareth Carter is the general manager of Springvale Garden Centre in Whanganui.
OPINION
Easter is a good time to make new plantings of trees, shrubs, fruits — anything.
Planting in autumn offers the maximum period available for plantings to establish good root systems before the arrival of summer and the stresses this can bring to young trees and plants.
This week, we are looking at having colour in the garden, which is so often sought after, particularly in the cooler winter months.
Colour can come from flowering shrubs, perennials or annuals. Flowering plants attract the eye, invoke happy feelings and will often draw you in for a closer look to see what it is.
Flowering annuals are a very quick way to have colour in the garden. They can be seen as more work, as they generally need to be replaced twice a year.
Annuals, for the most part, can be grouped into either summer annuals (which do not survive cold temperatures) or winter annuals (which die in warmer temperatures).
I am a big fan of annual plantings, I look at the number of months of colour an annual gives, and the work of changing the plantings is not that dissimilar from regular garden maintenance.
In my garden, I have had some spectacular red salvias that have provided spectacular colour for months now through summer.
However, with the cooler autumn temperatures, my bright red flowering display is starting to finish.
As we are now heading towards winter. It is time to remove finished summer annuals and replace them with those that will provide colour during the dull winter months.
Pansies are one of the favourites for the winter garden with their cheerful faces giving happy feelings for many months.
The plants are easy to grow, so much so that if left to their own devices, they will often self-sow and come up by themselves year after year.
They will naturalise themselves into an area coming up between cracks of paving or concrete, popping up throughout a garden, self-sowing into containers or pots nearby.
They seem to survive in the toughest of spots with little water or sun and thrive in well-watered, fertile, sunny areas.
Pansies establish quickly, reaching the flowering stage from first seedling appearance or planting in a matter of weeks. They then proceed to flower prolifically for six months or more.
It is little wonder the pansy is such a popular plant. They thrive through three cooler seasons of the year but dislike the hot, intense sun of summer.
The cooler weather, while slowing the speed of establishment a little, doesn’t seem to slow the flowering.
The pansy is more popular than ever before, and for many good reasons.
The versatility of uses and tolerance of such a range of conditions has allowed this plant to gain popularity through all generations and ages of gardeners and non-gardeners alike.
There are several ways you can use these cheerful, easy-to-grow colourful plants to brighten up your winter abode and capture the imagination of others.
They are excellent for growing in hanging baskets. Planting both the top and sides of the basket will create the appearance of a ball of colour, which will look spectacular wherever you hang them.
Using a wire basket with a coconut liner will allow you to be able to put a slit in the sides with a craft knife through which the seedlings can be planted.
When growing in hanging baskets, watering needs to be watched more carefully as, given they are suspended, they tend to dry out quicker than pots on the ground.
The addition of saturaid to the potting mix, if it does not already contain it, will help dramatically with water retention.
Nothing is more welcoming than a colourful floral display by the main entranceway; whether it is a home, shop, business or community building, a display of pansies will provide a most eye-catching and colourful display for winter and spring in garden borders and pots.
Colours include: purple, white, blues, black, scarlet, yellow, gold, etc and mixed colours.
All are vibrant and produce a bright mix of colourful cheerful flowers on strong compact plants for a long time.
When growing in pots, don’t be tempted to reuse old potting mix — tip this into the compost heap and start again. More than half the success of any plant depends on the soil it grows in.
Select a decent potting mix, and you’re on your way to success. In the garden centre, we recommend and use Ican Premium Potting Mix.
What is the difference between these two similar but slightly different flowers? Plants considered to be pansies have four petals pointing upwards, and only one pointing down.
Violas have three petals pointing up and two pointing down.
I think the common description that most of us generally use is simpler, with the term “pansy” for those multi-coloured large-flowered hybrids that are grown for bedding purposes every year, while “viola” is usually reserved for smaller, more delicate annuals and perennials.
The biggest pest to pansies, as with most annuals and bedding plants, is slugs and snails.
These critters seem to disappear during the daytime and come out at night when no one is watching and devour young seedlings.
When planting, it is prudent to spread slug pellets around to protect your winter colour display.
The only other problem that is sometimes encountered when growing pansies is mildew.
This shows up in the form of violet-grey powder on the tops and/or undersides of the leaves.
It is a sign of humidity, and in Whanganui, it usually only shows itself in late spring at the end of pansy season when the plants are best removed to make way for summer plantings of annuals.
The little-known but favourite food of pansies is dried blood. This is not a fancy trade name but the name of the actual product, 100% organic from the meat works.
It comes as a powder in a 300g sachet, which can be sprinkled around the plant and watered in.
It is high in organic nitrogen and iron, and if applied regularly as a side dressing, it will help prolong the flowering season and improve the health and strength of your pansies.
Just a note, this is quite a different product to ‘Blood and Bone’ which contains phosphate at a relatively high level, which promotes more root establishment than top growth and flowering promoted by dried blood.
Use dried blood for pansies planted in baskets, pots or in the garden,
Dried Blood is also excellent for polyanthus, primulas and cyclamen.
Have a good week.
OPINION: Now is a great time to make new shrub and tree plantings.