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The pictures above are seasonal color displays this time last year! With the extended cold this March, spring bloom is not as good this year, but with warmer, dryer days, most displays are perking up. This past weekend's cold and rain not withstanding, weather is improving and our pansies will be blooming well soon.
We plant pansies for over-winter displays and then sometimes augment in the spring with primrose and spring bulbs. Pansies are very cold-hardy, but the constant wet conditions during our normal winters cause them to fall victim to diseases. This often occurs in shady and poorly-draining beds and in locations where pansies have been planted for years. Despite the issue with disease, pansies are still the only flowering annual that survives the winter, so they are the only choice for winter seasonal color in our area.
The good news is, we have developed a planting and maintenance program that reduces the impact of disease on pansies. These diseases are difficult to control, but our program has been effective in most situations. Our program includes:
- Supplementing each planting with fresh, sterile potting soil and disease-preventing organics each fall at planting
- Monthly fungicide treatments throughout the winter
This treatment increases the cost of our seasonal color program, but it has become a standard practice. Without these steps, the pansies will likely fail, like they do with most other contractors.
Even with our comprehensive program, after years of pansies, the soil becomes too disease-ridden that supplemental potting soil is not enough. Due to this, we are finding that eventually we need to replace the potting soil and will likely do this every five years.
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