A Time for Pansies...

(Hearts Ease)

aka:  Viola, Pansy

Spring is here, but it hasn't sprung for all of us.  

Where I live, we're smack in the middle of the ridiculous season.  Relatively warm during the day when the sun shines bright but still cold at night.  For gardeners, this is sweet torment especially now that the days are longer.  It's time to plant something darnit! Seeds are nice but after a long winter I want/need/require instant gratification.  All I ask is for a little COLOR! 

This is the perfect time for pansies!

I'd say that pansies are the equivalent to Prince Charming, they appear at Home Depot just in time to rescue the cranky, color deprived damsel in distress from pinning 9,987,999 pics of flowers and blowing up the Pinterest servers.

Suffice it to say, my pansies landed at our local Home Depot and this is how I spent my morning after I donned my nano puff, wool hat and gloves.  

Notice the collective browns surrounding the flat of pansies?  So, I gathered tools and beverages and hit the dirt.  This particular whiskey barrel had a combination of last years (dead) annuals that needed to be removed and the dirt freshened.

Do your eyes hurt yet from all the brown?  Welcome to my life.

Just for kicks...

Pansies belong to the Viola family, a large genus of about 500 species that also includes hardier but smaller-blooming cousins such as garden violas and perennial sweet violets. 
Some pansies have a delicate fragrance that's more easily perceived in the early morning or at dusk. Those with yellow or blue flowers have the strongest scent.

After I cleaned out last years flora and fauna, I skipped to the compost pile to get a shovel full of compost to help "freshen" up the whiskey barrel soil.  It's not necessary to replace a pots soil every year but it is a good idea to freshen your pots with new potting soil or better yet, compost.  Because we have to water pots often during the summer, nutrients leach out quickly and need to be replaced by "freshening".  

 My color fix.  My Zennnnnnn.

Pansies are indeed a feast for the eyes in early Spring when Mother Nature is being ridiculous.  They can withstand light frost and even a dusting of snow and last through the summer if grown in part shade.  They prefer a cooler Spring to the warm Summers and if you are OCD like me and mine and keep the spent flowers pinched off, pansies will reward you with an abundance of blooms!  

Go forth and propagate the earth (with pansies).

XOXO!

Rebecca