Growing pansies from seeds requires a little more effort than buying finished plants from the gardener. However, the little effort is worth it, as the flowers you sow yourself are more resilient and bloom more persistently.
How do you sow pansies correctly?
To grow pansies from seeds, you should use nutrient-rich, lime-poor soil and plant the seeds 1-2 cm deep in the soil at no more than 15 degrees. Keep the soil moist and shady, prick out after 4-6 weeks and plant out at a height of 5 cm.
Preparing the soil and buying seeds
The soil for sowing should be nutrient-rich and low in lime. It is recommended to add compost (€12.00 on Amazon) outdoors; standard garden soil is sufficient for sowing in the boxes in winter. Since the pansies are poor feeders, further fertilization later is hardly necessary. The location for outdoor sowing should not be too sunny. If the soil temperature is not more than 15 degrees, the germination time is about two weeks.
Most large-flowered pansy breeds are F1 hybrids, therefore not very suitable for harvesting seeds. The seeds of both garden pansies and horned violets are available commercially in a wide variety of varieties. In addition to the naturally occurring colors of white, yellow and violet, pansies are available in dark to brown-red, midnight blue, orange and many other colors and shades.
Sowing in just a few steps
The timing of sowing depends on when you want the pansies to bloom. If you plant the seeds in June, you can expect the first flowers to bloom in October/November. If the seeds are sown in September, the first flowers will appear in the spring of the following year. For summer flowering, the seeds can also be grown in a cool room in winter and later transplanted outdoors or into balcony boxes. The following instructions should be observed when sowing:
- Sowing depth approx. 1-2 cm,
- Cover seeds lightly with soil,
- Keep soil moist and shady,
- Prick out 4 to 6 weeks after sowing,
- plant out at a height of approx. 5 cm.
Tips & Tricks
The pansy flowers are edible. With the plants you grow yourself, you can be sure that they were grown free of pesticides.
