How to Plant, Grow, and Care for Pansies
Pansies are the cheerful flowers with upturned “faces.” They love cool weather and are popular to grow in spring and fall. They’re also edible, adding color to salads, drinks, and cakes. Here’s how to plant pansies and keep them growing and blooming.
About Pansies
Pansies are a type of Viola (Viola × wittrockiana) with large heart-shaped, overlapping petals and one of the widest ranges of bright, pretty colors and patterns.
Good for containers and borders, and as ground cover, they are a go-to flower for reliable color almost year-round in some places. Pansies look pretty on their own in a monochrome scheme or in mixed colors; they also look pretty when planted with other cool-season flowers such as primroses, trailing lobelia, and sweet alyssum.
Are Pansies Annual or Perennial Flowers?
Most gardeners treat pansies (and all violas) as an annual, but they’re actually hardy in USDA Hardiness Zones 3-8. They tend to get too leggy in the heat of summer. There hasn’t been much success in producing heat-tolerant pansies that can adequately survive hot weather.
Pansies are surprisingly hearty in cold weather, though. They’ll survive a frost, bouncing back from even single digit temperatures. If the blooms wither in the cold, the plants will often stay alive to bloom again, which makes them a great flowering plant for fall and early winter color.
How to Care for Pansies
- Remember to water pansies regularly. One of the most common reasons pansies fail is that they are not watered enough, so if they are not doing well, try watering them more.
- You can use a general, all-purpose fertilizer around your pansies to help them grow. Be wary of using a nitrogen-heavy fertilizer, as this can result in more foliage than flowers.
- Remove faded/dead flowers to encourage the plants to produce more blooms and to prolong the blooming season.
- Pansies are one of several edible garden flowers! They have a mild minty flavor and make for a lovely edible flourish on a salad or dessert.
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Will the pansy grow If I keep it in my room? I don't get a lot of direct sunlight though
Pansies are sun-loving plants that enjoy cool weather, so not the best choice for a room without direct sunlight! See our article on best indoor plants for low light: https://www.almanac.com/best-indoor-plants-low-light
Do I just pinch flower off or cut stem to produce new flowers?
You can do either—pinch off the flower bud or cut it off just below the faded bud. New flowers will come up on new stems.
can pansies be brought back to life if they are cut down?
Thanks so much for telling me that Pansies have "faces". Now I know the difference between the Pansy and the Petunia. Those "faces" are sweet and lovely.
Thanks
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all of us Garden Novice.
Thank you Again
Ange Dixon
I live in Southeastern Tn. I have had potted Pansies blooming in winter with snow fall. They love Spring, Fall & will tolerate Winter, But come Summer time where I live you can forget it. The summer temps here are in the 90's & sometimes get to low 100's. They die. I just pull them up & plant a new batch in the Fall.
How many pansy plants can be in a container I put 4 in a pot about 16” pot
I planted my pansy seeds in pots around December 1 and keep them in a south-facing window in Massachusetts, I have a lot of green plants but no flowers yet. If I use supplemental light and low-nitrogen fertilizer, do you think I could have flowers by February?
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