Welcome, Fall.

Welcome, Fall.

Welcome to another season for growing pansies! And violas if I can find them.

I bought a flat of pansies last week, just as soon as they arrived at my local greenhouse.

Then I was out in my front garden the following day and told one of the neighbors walking by that the greenhouse had pansies now.

“Oh, you can plant pansies in the fall?”

You bet you can! And why do people know so little about pansies and violas?

Pansies, and violas if I can find them, love the cooler weather of both spring and fall. Further south, they can plant pansies and violas in the fall and they’ll ride out the winter until it gets hot again in the spring.

Here, winter is going to kill them, so we have to plant them twice.

Which is fine. I’d rather plant twice than not at all!

The tricky part here is starting pansies in the summer when it is hot so they have time to grow to a good size to sell in the fall, without being all floppy from the heat. At my local greenhouse, they don’t even try, but bring them in from someone else who has figured out how to grow pansies to sell in the fall, but that grower doesn’t grow violas for fall.

Fortunately, at my local greenhouse, they grow lots of both pansies and violas for early spring sales, so there are plenty for me to buy then. That’s my big viola and pansy season.

In the fall, I don’t plant as many pansies and violas, but I always plant some. Enough to be able to say…

Welcome, Fall! Another season for pansies, and violas if I can find them.

(Side note… Pansies are one of the best flowers, in my opinion, for flower pounding. I did a bit of flower pounding in the spring and summer, but have just one Instagram post to show for my efforts. And that was a rose. Since I started flower pounding earlier in the spring, I’ve learned a bit about what makes a flower good for pounding the color out of it and onto a piece of paper or fabric. They should be flat and brightly colored. In other words, pansies. So now that I have fresh pansies in the garden, I can practice my flower pounding technique again, maybe even do a video about it!)