Pansies are an easy plant to grow and look lovely. They are perfect for a simple border or for a child's garden, to help them get into growing things themselves. They are also good for putting in pots of containers and come in a wide array of colours that will cheer up any garden.
Growing pansies:
Pansies will grow well in full some of partly in the shade and will prefer a soil that is moist yet well-drained. They are not very fussy and will grow in most types of soil or growing medium without too much trouble.
Pansies are easy to grow from seed. Spring/early summer flowering pansies can be bought as bedding plants but since it is so easy they should be grown from seed, which should be sown either in early October for earlier flowering, or early in the spring. It is easier to get the seeds to germinate indoors, though they can also be sown where they are to flower. You can also get winter flowering pansies, which bring a welcome splash of colour to the winter garden and these should be sown in summer.
Pansies are usually treated as an annual plant, though some may endure to a second season, when they tend to begin to look a bit straggly. Pansies come in a huge range of different colours, shapes and sizes and there are plenty of varietals and hybrids on the market to choose from.
Pansies are charming in patio pots or hanging baskets in the spring/early summer. It is important to make sure that you water the pansies enough during periods of dry weather, though pansies will not enjoy having too much water either.
While there are not too many problems to which pansies are prone, slugs can sometimes be an issue in wet years and there is a problem called leaf spot that is less easy to deal with organically. That said, you are unlikely to encounter many issues as pansies are one of the most easy going of flowers.
Remove faded and dead flower heads to keep the plants blooming for longer.
Why grow pansies in the garden?
Pansies are delightfully easy to grow and create a cheerful, colourful display on containers or in garden beds. Varieties can be found that will bloom all throughout the year. If you chose your varieties carefully you could have pansies in bloom in your garden year round. As they are so easy they are fun for kids to grow and great for beginners.
Pansies are also said to really attract ants, which means that they can be useful as a trap crop, keeping ants from herding aphids onto more valuable plants like roses. They are also said to be helpful to onions and other alliums.