Pansies are excellent for spring gardens
While it might seem like a tongue twister, that is exactly what gardeners, physicians and plant breeders have been doing for many centuries. Each year they improve the offerings and add even more flair to these workhorse plants.
Pansies have graced gardens for thousands of years. Records show the Greeks used these as medicinal plants as far back as the fourth century B.C. The flowers come from the Viola genus, which contains more than 500 species. They originated in continental Europe in alpine meadows and on rocky outcrops.
It was likely a Frenchman that named the plant pensee, meaning thought or remembrance. The plant became known as Viola tricolor, and it had two differences from violas: the pansy plant has one main stem and then branches out above the soil, and the blossoms are larger and more rounded.
In England, Lord Gambier and his gardener, William Thompson, began crossing various Viola species in the early 1800s. They selected flowers that had unusual colors or patterns as well as larger ones. Thompson is credited with discovering V. x Wittrockiana in 1839.
He named the cultivar "Medora," and it and its descendants became popular with European gardeners. The bloom had no dark lines on the flower, but it had colored areas on the lower petals called the "face." Other continued making more genetic improvements.
Goldsmith Seed, in Gilroy, Calif., is one company that is continually improving these plants. A recent visit to Goldmith's headquarters and display gardens showed many new pansy cultivars. Pansies are developed in series. A series is made up of closely related sizes and shapes but different colors or patterns. Each series differs in how many colors and patterns are available.
Pansy flowers show three basic color patterns. The first pattern is single, clear colors, such as yellow or blue; the second pattern is a single color having black lines called penciling radiating from the flower center; the third pattern is the most familiar, with a dark center called a "face."
Few garden flowers have as wide of a color range as the pansy. Look for anything from pure white to black and almost anything in between. More recent flower introductions include orange, bronze and mahogany.
In addition to selecting the color, select by blossom size. They come in different flower diameters of large (3 to 4 inches), medium (2 to 3 inches) and multiflora blossoms (1 to 2 inches).
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