Content
- Pansies are hardy
- Self-grown plants are frost-resistant
- A little winter protection can not hurt
- Tips & Tricks
Even drawn pansies are winter hardier than pansies bought in spring
Pansies are hardy
In order to have flowering pansies for the balcony or garden in the spring, they must already be sown in the summer months of the previous year. For this reason alone, the two-year-old plants need a certain degree of winter hardiness.
The pansies are biennial plants. This means that they have to outlast the following winter after sowing to flower the following spring. In very early sowing, it may happen that the first flowers already appear in late autumn and the pansies bloom throughout the winter.
The sufficient winter hardiness is, in addition to early flowering time and size of the flowers, one of the breeding objectives since the beginning of the 19th century. When buying seeds you should therefore not only on the color, but also pay attention to whether the desired variety is sufficiently winterized.
Self-grown plants are frost-resistant
The garden pansies (Viola wittrockiana) and the horned violets (Viola cornuta), which we are going to buy in autumn, are cold-resistant. By contrast, the plants offered in the spring, which were grown in frost-free greenhouses, are comparatively sensitive to cold. Therefore, an experienced gardener sows his pansies for the spring blossom even in summer. The self-grown plants stand out
A little winter protection can not hurt
Nevertheless, even in temperate climates, pansies can freeze to death in very cold, snowless winters or dry out in a very sunny spot. It is therefore advisable to protect the plantations with straw, leaves or brushwood during severe, permanent frost and lack of snow cover. In frost-free weather, the plants should now and then be watered sparingly.
Tips & Tricks
The pansies can not be overwintered in the window boxes. For your balcony you can prefer the young plants in winter in a cool room.