Winter Pansies

[Benjamin]

Last October/November time we bought Winter pansy plants and were impressed by the amount of colour they gave all Winter long; in fact we still have one pot of them .

We've looked at seed packets but there only seems to be one type. Is it simply a matter of when you start the seeds off and if so when would you suggest for Winter flowering?

[buelligan]

I know very little about winter pansies but I had a little google and found this; http://www.bbc.co.uk/herefordandworcester/content/articles/2005/07/19/gardening_diary_week29_feature.shtml  Hope you find it useful.[:)]

[Benjamin]

Thanks for the link.

We couldn't see any different seeds when we looked but we have kept some seed from this Winter's flowers so we'll give it a try. Our biggest problem will be in finding somewhere cool in August!!

[andyh4]

If you have a sous sol, cave or even cool pantry, you could try sowing there.  They only need light once they have germinated.

 

We bought some winter pansies 4 years ago and they have successfully self seeded every year since - but that probably says more about the last 3 summers than anything else.

[milkeybar kid]

If you are using F1 Hybrid seeds (important to understand the difference)for your pansy's it is unlikely that you will get true plants if any from the seeds that you save after the pansy's are spent. I would certainly go for F1's because they do exactly what its says on the tin!! Very important to keep cool and damp after sowing, try to use modules so their will be no root damage , also if you can use a reasonable size of module tray it means you perhaps can plant straight out onto site as long as you have been feeding them!