I love pansies. We have planters full of them every spring and a new batch every fall. So from the first weekend in April through June and from mid-September to November, our deck is full of pansy color. Over the years, I’ve learned the secret of how to grow pansies.
It took me a few years to really figure this out, but there is a secret to getting small pansy bushes exploding with color in your planters that goes beyond just using the right potting mix.
The best part is that it is not difficult and takes no extra tools. It costs nothing extra.
The Secret of How to Grow Pansies
Here is the simple but profound secret.
You must prune back all the flowers as soon as you plant them.
You definitely do not want to remove all the flowers when you’ve been waiting for months and months through the long, cold winter (or depressingly hot, humid summer) to see your lovely flowers again.
But it works.
After David puts them in the planters and pots, we’ll leave the flowers on for a day or two at the most just to enjoy a bit of color. Then all the flowers get pruned back so there are no flowers for about a week to ten days.
But after that?
It’s a colorful explosion that continues for weeks.
Pruning Pansies for More Flowers
Why does it work? Because all of the energy in the plant goes to growing the plant, not keeping the flowers alive. It makes for very hardy pansy plants that give off multitudes of gorgeous flowers for weeks to come.
Pruning can be painful, but worth it in the end.
And that, my friends, is the secret to gorgeous pansies.
The Freedom Of Learning To Say “No”