Thinking about Pansies

Sorry for the pun! Yes, I know that the name Pansies came from the French pensée, which is all about thinking and thoughts. In the language of flowers, the inclusions of pansies in a bouquet or a gift of any kind, related the message: 'I am thinking about you'.

Lovely, romantic. But today I just want to talk about what good do-ers these plants are in the garden. As you know, I have a new garden which I am re-creating to suit my own style of gardening. This is not to say that there was anything wrong with the previous owners style of gardening. It was lovely, but I am a flower lover, so there needs to be a lot more flowers to keep me happy.This, however, involves digging borders, improving the soil, and planting the plants. As a lady of a certain age, with Rheumatoid arthritis that takes time, even with help. Lock-down earlier in the year didn't help either. Normally, I would trawl Garden centres for plants to fill in the gaps - not possible this Spring.

So when ordering seeds, I included a packet of Pansy 'Summer skies' in the order. My thinking was that they are fairly easy to grow from seed; they are of medium build,; they are fairly unfussy about soil,situation and watering; will fill in gaps in the low borders, wall and rockeries; and have a long flowering period. So I promptly sowed them and they came up within about a week, I think, and in about a month (April/May?). they were planted out in the garden. They started to flower almost immediately, and have been flowering since (1st of November, as I write this). So that's about six months of no-fuss service in the garden. I have watered them once or twice, and occasionally dead headed them - so not exactly high maintenance plants.

As I get older, I have less patience with the prima donnas of the plant world. Maybe it's because 'I hear times winged chariot hurrying near'. I don't know. But I do know that I will be growing Pansies again nest year (If the Lord spares me, as my friend Anne says!

Happy gardening!