A Comprehensive Guide to Caring for Pansies
Posted on May 31, 2023 by Van Becelaere Greenhouse
Pansies are excellent flowering plants that come in various colors. It is also popular for flower gardens, window boxes, and container gardens.
When selecting pansies for your garden, it’s essential to consider the climate you live in, the soil type, the size of your garden bed, and the colors you want. Additionally, proper pansy care is essential to ensure that your plants thrive. With this guide, you’ll be growing any pansy color of your choice for your outdoor flower garden space.
How to Plant and Care for Your Pansies
Pansies are an easy-to-care-for annual flower that can brighten up any garden. With the proper knowledge, you can easily care for your pansies to enjoy vibrant colors all summer.
In today’s blog, we will provide you with the necessary steps for planting and caring for your pansies, including:
- Fertilizing pansies
- Watering pansy plants
- Deadheading Pansy Flowers
- Pansy pruning tips
Growing Healthy Pansies
Pansies are a beautiful and versatile flower that can be grown in many places. But to ensure your pansies stay healthy and thrive, you must give them the proper care. With the right knowledge and techniques, you can have a successful pansy garden that will bring you joy all summer.
The ideal location for planting pansies will provide good morning sunlight and shaded protection in the afternoons. When planting pansies, use a trowel to dig distinct individual holes for every plant.
Be sure the hole is deep enough to accommodate the entire root ball without bending or snapping the roots. Place the plant in the hole and fill it with soil until it’s level with the base of its stem.
Fertilizing Pansies
It’s best to use a 10-nitrogen, 10-phosphorus, and 10-potassium (10-10-10 NPK) balanced fertilizer mix to promote healthy pansy growth. You can either blend a slow-release fertilizer into the soil or use a liquid fertilizer diluted in water that pansy roots quickly absorb. That will enable your plants to get a head start to become more prominent and robust at producing flowers more often.
Watering Pansy Plants
Watering your pansies on a routine basis is essential for keeping pansy blossoms soft and vibrant. However, don’t overwater the soil, which could damage the roots.
Follow a regular watering schedule during the growing season by watering your pansies every two to three days to allow the soil to dry in between. Such conditions help harden off pansy plants and enable them to thrive in cooler weather.
Deadheading Pansy Flowers
To encourage pansies to flower regularly, you need to deadhead pansy plants. To deadhead, you pinch off wilting flowers by placing your thumb and forefinger just below the flowerhead in front of the leaves. Use your nails to pinch the stem firmly but gently, then snap off the dead or dying flower or unbloomed flower buds.
Pansy Pruning Tips
Prune back any bare stems to promote healthier, bushier growth for your plants. Trim no more than one-third of a stem at a time and aim to remove new growth to prevent the plant from growing too large or getting leggy growth. Cut back to the next set of leaves or existing foliage.
Where to Turn for Flower Garden Advice
Whether you’ve already planted your seasonal flowerbed or just getting started, stop in at Van Becelaere Greenhouse today to get all your garden questions answered. They have a vast inventory selection of bedding flowers and starter plants for mid-Spring planting.
Their friendly and knowledgeable staff can help you, whether you are a novice gardener or a seasoned garden-pro in the four states. You can also call ahead to place orders at (620) 231-1127.