It’s been warm here and I’ve been busy in the garden weeding and planting. First part of the week I weeded the gardens – got rid of all the bits of grass that snuck into the perennial beds out back and raked out most of the leaves in front – and have it all ready for flowers.
First up were the pansies, my favorite. Here they are in the flat from Wedel’s garden center. I got them when we bought the spruce trees which also got planted this week (read about that here).
Pansies Waiting For Planting April 15, 2016
Dave and I like the pansies with faces but we don’t agree on some colors. I love the rich yellows which he’s not fond of but overall we ended up with a good mixture of colors. About the only colors that we are missing are the brick red and big deep purple ones with faces. This variety was Delta and I think the deep purple ones are in the Swiss Giant line.
They don’t look like much in this picture. They will perk up with a bit of water and grow.
Pansies After Planting Before Watering
Pansies supposedly like dappled shade and cool but I had the most glorious, prolific blooms the year it was 90+ every day and non-stop sun. Breeders keep working to extend pansies’ weather tolerance; we have had them bloom in the snow and in 90 degree baking sun.
We have a small oval bed in the middle of the driveway, partially protected by the garage and house that gets a lot of direct sun. Right now it is shady until around 10:30 am and later in the summer the shade disappears by 9 or so (meaning I better weed early) and stays sunny until twilight.
I’ve planted pansies every year in this bed with mixed results. Last year, which was cool, half the plants thrived, and in other years most plants were gone by end of July, yet in the ghastly hot 2012 summer we had pansies bloom until the marigolds crowded them out. I’m hoping this is another good year for my favorite flowers.
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