Cool weather favorites for spring and fall

 

Pleased-to-Meet-You Pansies

One of the garden’s friendliest, easiest-to-grow flowers, pansies bring color, charm, and cheer to your coolweather garden or container. Virtually disease and pest-free, pansies have one of the widest color ranges of any garden flower, including blooms in ranges of red, purple, bronze, pink, black, yellow, white, lavender, orange, apricot, and mahogany. Flowers may display a single color or dazzle with a combination of two to three colors and dark, central “faces.”

How To Care For Pansies

• LIGHT: Thrive in partial shade locations that provide morning and late afternoon sun with shade in the heat of the day—this is especially important for spring-planted pansies.
• TEMPERATURE: Prefer cooler conditions around the 40˚F mark. In the event of a frost, especially with newly planted pansies, cover to prevent damage.
• WATER: Keep moist, but be careful not to soak. A layer of shredded hardwood mulch is ideal for keeping out heat and sealing in moisture.
• FERTILIZER: Feed biweekly with water-soluble liquid fertilizer.
• PLACEMENT: Terrific in containers and as a pretty garden border. Pansies make an especially striking fall combo with kale, mums, and ornamental grasses.
• BLOOM
CARE: Keep old flowers pinched off to force more blossoms. In hot temperatures, when pansy flowering may slow, pinch back, keep well watered, add additional mulch, fertilize, and hold out for cooler temperatures.