One of the best plant recommendations for a flowering garden is the pansy because it produces beautiful and colorful flowers in the first bloom of spring. Given the hot summers and cold winters of Denver’s continental climate, most gardeners often ask, when is the best time to plant pansies in Denver? Nick Garden Center will help you understand various aspects of pansies to determine the best time to plant pansies in Denver as follows.
What are pansies?
Pansies are colorful, edible blooming flowers that are part of the Viola genus and Violaccae family and are often referred to as violets. There are two main pansy species: the hybrid version commonly cultivated in gardens, the garden pansy, and the wild pansy.
Garden pansies (Viola x wittrockiana) are a hybrid flower created by breeding the wild pansy, Viola tricolor, with other types of pansies. The wild pansy (Viola tricolor), also known as heartsease and Johnny-jump-up, is a native European and West Asian wildflower that is a progenitor of the cultivated pansy. They were first discovered in the 4th century BC before William Thompson, and Lord Gambier started cross-breeding species in the 1800s to improve and create various colors, shapes, and sizes.
Apart from providing vibrant blooms that create beautiful gardens, pansies are edible plants rich in vitamins A and C. You can use them to make syrups and salads or garnish soups and fruit. They are considered a romantic symbol of love and remembrance and have been mentioned in various literature, including Shakespeare, A Midnight Summer’s Dream.
What do they look like?
There are various types of pansies with striking, vibrant blooms and beautiful color variations. A pansy can either have one of three primary color patterns. Some blooms have a single solid color, such as blue, yellow, white, and orange, without patterns.
However, other pansies have black lines resembling pencil lines radiating from the center across the petals. Other pansy types have two or more colors with dark or light-colored splotches at the center that resemble a face.
Another distinct aspect of the pansies is their petals, as most pansies have five or six large heart-shaped petals that overlap and spread outwards to create flat, delicate, and vibrant blooms. The petal size can also range from 4 to 10 centimeters depending on the pansy type.
When do they bloom?
You should consider planting pansies if you want beautiful, colorful, sweet-smelling, and earliest flowering plants in your garden. Modern garden pansies can be cultivated as annual or perennial, depending on the type of climate.
Gardeners in hot climates treat pansies as annual plants because summer heat causes them to die. However, gardeners in cold climates treat them as perennial plants, although they last short durations, such as two years.
The type of climate also determines the flowering season for the pansy. For cool climates, pansy flowers bloom from spring to the start of summer before withering and dying out at the height of summer. In hot climates, pansies bloom from fall to winter before freezing solid and surviving the cold temperatures to later rebloom in spring.
When is the best time to plant them in Denver, and why?
Denver has a semi-arid continental climate with hot summers and cold and snowy winters. The best time to plant pansies in Denver is during fall when the temperatures are cool and the ground is workable. It will allow the plants to grow and produce a colorful season of blooms from fall to winter and later rebloom in spring.
Gardeners in Denver should not plant pansies during winter because the freezing temperatures and ground frost will prevent the pansy from germinating. They should also avoid planting pansies during summer because the heat will cause the plant to winter and dry out before germinating and blooming.
Are you considering planting pansies in your garden? Nick Garden Center is Denver’s best choice for quality and reliable pansies. Call us today!
