Growing Pansies

The gardener is familiar with pansies as robust, quick-growing flowers that have almost heart-shaped, overlapping petals in brilliant hues or bi-colors, and often have center markings that seem like faces. Breeding has resulted in pansies that are better able to withstand the cold, but there hasn't been much success generating kinds that can withstand the heat. Although pansies are technically classified as short-season perennials, they are most commonly planted as annuals. They can be grown as biennials in regions that have winters that are not particularly harsh. They are an excellent option for containers placed outside both early and late in the growing season. In the garden, they work well as a companion to spring-blooming bulbs since they bloom just as the bulb foliage starts to die back. The vast majority of pansies do not grow to be particularly tall, and even those that do tend to cascade or flop over