Pansies are tough little plants. They can take the snow and cold. The only thing they can't take is the heat. That's why it's vital to plant them now.
Pansies and violas are basically the same thing. They are all descended from the wild English Johnny-jump-ups. Pansies produce bigger flowers; violas make smaller flowers but produce many, many more.
If you buy pansies in four-packs, use gravity and squeezing to gently extricate them from the plastic packs. Space them three to four inches apart so they can develop properly.
As you plant, firm them well into the soil. Pansies are high-maintenance plants. They can't be allowed to dry out and they need feeding with a bloom-booster every ten days. The plants need constant dead-heading to keep blooming. Otherwise they stop what they're doing and focus their energy on setting seed.
When you deadhead, pinch off the whole stem of the faded flower. Otherwise you'll have a bunch of bare stems distracting from the display.
Other cool-season plants that make great companions for pansies include dianthus, ornamental kale, lettuce and strawberries. They can all endure temperatures down to at least 25 degrees.
I combine these cool-season plants with the bulbs that I potted last fall. The gallon-size plastic pots of tulips, daffodils and hyacinths spent the winter either in a cold, dark basement room or in a trench dug in the vegetable garden. Now they've sprouted and some are even ready to bloom. If you also potted bulbs as we showed you last fall, bring them outside as they start to grow. Leave them in their pots and sink them into larger decorative pots. Plant pansies, kale, lettuce and strawberries around them.
By leaving the bulbs in their gallon plastic pots, you can lift them out after they finish blooming. Replant them in the garden (sans pot) so they'll re-bloom each spring in their new positions.
Don't forget to remove the plastic tags from you plants. They're tacky and distract from the flowers. If you want to remember their names, start a garden notebook and staple the tags there.
Although these cool-season plants can handle cold weather, if we have an arctic blast or heavy snow, protect them with frost covers or sheets.
