Planting Tips For Beginners - Pansy | Aplus Farms

What's  not to love about a flower that looks to be smiling back at you! Pansies are a delightful annual to brighten dull corners of any garden during autumn and winter. And what's more, their cheery and edible flowers can be used to bring pops of colour to cakes and salads.

Pansies, heartsease or violas, as they are sometimes called, are easy to grow. They will tolerate a full-sun to part-shade spot and their low-growing, almost spreading habit makes them ideal to bring colour and life to garden beds while many other plants are dormant.

Pansy flowers can be used straight from the garden, fresh in salads or to decorate cakes. You can also press them into the top of butter biscuits before cooking for pretty pansy cookie treats. And they look beautiful when crystallised with an eggwhite wash and then dipped in white sugar - perfect for topping special-occasion cakes. 

Planting Tips and Tricks

Plant them under deciduous trees or shrubs or grow them in pots so you can enjoy them daily

GROWING

Pansies can be grown from seed or are readily available as seedlings from your local nursery. If growing from seed, be patient because they can take 3-4 weeks to germinate. Once you've sown the seeds 5-6mm deep, cover them with cardboard or newspaper, as they need this darkness to germinate. Once they emerge, remove the covering and let them grow. 

Watch out for slugs and snails munching on young seedlings. Protect them with a ring of used coffee grounds or some crushed-up eggshells. And fortnightly doses of an organic liquid fertiliser will keep them flowering for many months. Just remember to pinch off any spent flowers to encourage new ones. 

Symbol Of  Love : Pansy

When given by a friend or lover, a posy of pansy flowers symbolises tender attachment or "think of me" and they were a popular motif on clothing in the Elizabethan era - even the queen was a fan.

Scientific

• Common name: Pansy, viola, heartsease 
• Botanical name: Viola x wittrockiana 
• Family: Violaceae 
• Aspect & soil: Full sun to part shade; fertile, well-drained soil 
• Best climate: All
• Habit: Flowering annual 
• Propagation: Seed, seedling 
• Difficulty: Easy