When the winter winds blow and I am feeling completely dejected, I make myself feel better, by reading my seed catalogues.

Of all the pictures of flowers that I see, nothing makes me smile more than the pictures of Pansies!. They have such expressive faces, I feel that they are almost human and are smiling out of the pages at me. I know this sounds dillusional, but it makes me feel that spring MUST be around the corner.

I started trays of pansies in my basement some years ago, and to my delight they came on leaps and bounds, I had read that they had to be kept dark to germinate, and this did work. I was so proud of myself, as I had always thought that they would be hard to grow.

This euphoria did not last long!

My basement is not used as living quarters, as I live in a 120 yr old house, and the basement actually gives me the creeps!, but in order to have the right growing features for my seedlings, it was ideal.

I was not the only one to think this, oh! no, the mice that winter in the walls of the old basement, thought that I was being over generous, I was actually feeding them, with nice green shoots!
So, when I went down to check on my pansies, DISASTER! they were no longer there! All I had left were trays of earth that had been knocked over and were lying on the floor, not a pansy in sight!

So, I reverted back to visiting my garden center and buying trays of pansies to plant as soon as the weather co-operated.Pansies like cool temperatures and are perfect for early spring planting. They will bloom all summer, but do tend to get "leggy' so you must be very strict with yourself and cut them right back, and then you will get twice as many blooms as you had before, and they will continue to keep blooming into fall.

I could not imagine my garden without pansies, I still say that their faces smile at me as I go by, whether from the pages of the catalogues or the window boxes that they live in!.

Learn more about this author, Ena Clewes.
Click here to send author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about Growing pansies?
We want to hear your view. Write now!