In order to have pansies blooming for the balcony or garden in spring, they must be sown in the summer months of the previous year. For this reason alone, the biennial plants need a certain degree of winter hardiness.
Homegrown pansies are hardier than pansies bought in the spring
Pansies are biennial plants. This means that they must survive the winter following sowing in order to flower the following spring. If you sow them very early, the first flowers may appear in late autumn and the pansies will bloom all winter long.
Sufficient winter hardiness has been one of the breeding goals since the beginning of the 19th century, along with early flowering and the size of the flowers. When buying seeds, you should therefore not only pay attention to the color, but also to whether the desired variety is sufficiently winter-hardy.
Home grown plants are frost resistant
The garden pansies (Viola wittrockiana) and horned violets (Viola cornuta), which we buy in autumn, are cold-resistant. On the other hand, the plants offered in the spring that have been raised in frost-free greenhouses are comparatively sensitive to cold. An experienced gardener therefore sows his own pansies in the summer for the spring blossoms. The self-grown plants stand out
- Robustness,
- persistent and profuse flowering as well
- greater frost hardiness.
A little winter protection never hurts
Nevertheless, pansies, which are native to temperate climates, can freeze to death in very cold, snowless winters or dry out in a very sunny location. It is therefore advisable to protect the plantings with a layer of straw, leaves or brushwood in the event of severe, permanent frost and a lack of snow cover. In frost-free weather, the plants should be watered sparingly from time to time.
tips and tricks
The pansies cannot be overwintered in the balcony boxes (€109.00). For your balcony, you can prefer the young plants in a cool room in winter.