In order to have pansies blooming in spring for the balcony or garden, they must be sown in the summer months of the previous year. For this reason alone, the two-year-old plants need a certain degree of winter hardiness.
Are pansies hardy?
Pansies (Viola wittrockiana and Viola cornuta) are hardy when sown in summer and grown outdoors. Home-grown plants are frost-resistant, but additional winter protection may be recommended in extreme cold phases or snowless winters.
Pansies are biennial plants. This means that they have to survive the winter following sowing in order to bloom the following spring. If sowed very early, the first flowers may appear in late autumn and the pansies will bloom all winter long.
Sufficient winter hardiness has been one of the breeding goals since the beginning of the 19th century, along with early flowering times and the size of the flowers. When buying seeds (€2.00 on Amazon), you should therefore not only pay attention to the color, but also whether the desired variety is sufficiently winter-hardy.
Home-grown plants are frost-resistant
The garden pansies (Viola wittrockiana) and horned violets (Viola cornuta), which we buy in autumn, are cold-resistant. On the other hand, the plants offered in spring that were grown in frost-free greenhouses are comparatively sensitive to cold. An experienced gardener therefore sows his own pansies in the summer for the spring blooms. The home-grown plants are characterized by
- Robustness,
- persistent and lush flowering as well as
- greater frost hardiness.
A little winter protection can't hurt
Nevertheless, pansies native to temperate climates can freeze to death in very cold, snowless winters or dry out in a very sunny location. It is therefore advisable to protect the plantings with a layer of straw, leaves or brushwood in the event of severe, permanent frost and a lack of snow cover. In frost-free weather, the plants should be watered sparingly every now and then.
Tips & Tricks
The pansies cannot be overwintered in the balcony boxes. For your balcony, you can prefer the young plants to a cool room in winter.
