Flower of the Week: Pansy
As enchanting as a fairy’s dress, the pansy is a lovely little plant impossible to overlook in the garden. This common wildflower originated in Europe and West Asia. It is an annual herb of Violaceae and is often cultivated in gardens or as a potted plant.
This beautiful flower has an amazing number of varieties, yet only about 200 years of cultivation history. In the early 19th century, Lady Mary Elizabeth Bennet (1785-1861) collected and planted all kinds of pansies in her father’s 4th Earl of Tankerville garden in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. With the help of her gardener William Richardson, she produced a large number of plant varieties through hybridization.
In 1812, she introduced her pansy to the horticultural world. Florists and horticulturists began to cultivate and sell pansy. The flower became the most popular garden plant of the period.
Since the 19th century, pansy has been developed into many popular varieties. Particularly in the past 50 years, selective cultivation has introduced many new pansy varieties. The cultivation of pansy is mainly carried out in Germany, the United States, and Japan.
The newer pansy colors are colorful, ranging from simple two-color or three-color to dreamlike color-changing. In very recent years, a popular oil painting depicting the retro color design demonstrated an artistic appreciation of the flower.
In terms of flower design, the direction of selective breeding has changed from the early pursuit of large flowers to a present pursuit of delicate and natural small flowers.
In recent years, pansies with romantic tendrils and double petals have gradually become more popular varieties, though the lovely rabbit flower design presently remains the most popular variety.
Besides decorating your garden, the pansy has many uses. Its leaves and flowers are actually edible. They can also be used as an embellishment for fruits and cakes, as well as a natural dye. Some varieties with longer stems can also be used as fresh cut flowers, impressively rounding out the plant’s usefulness in the garden.
Modern pansy petals often have very interesting, large, dark spots sometimes likened to scary facial expressions. However, back in the 18th century when pansy was not widely bred and hybridized, the original ancestors did not have such spots. They only had a few dark lines which were called “nectar guides”. These lines would guide insects to the nectar to more easily pollinate the pansy.
The primitive, lined pansies described above are Shakespeare’s literary “love potions”. In the plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the “juice of the heartsease” is a love potion, and “on sleeping eyelids laid, will make a man or woman madly dote upon the next live creature that it sees.” This led to the neverending separation and reunion of lovers throughout the story.
In the 20th century, when Margaret Mitchell was still writing her famous novel, “Gone With the Wind”, she initially chose Pansy as the heroine’s name. This was probably because of pansy’s unpredictable nature, and perhaps also the other meaning of pansy, which is “love to dress up”. These descriptions both fit the heroine’s characteristics. It wasn’t until the last minute before the book was printed that the author changed the name of the main character to Scarlett.
Potted pansy tends to bloom all year round, sprouting flowers that are gorgeous and fragrant even in late autumn when everything else withers. Pansy has also been introduced to North America, where it is widely cultivated as a popular horticultural plant.
Pansies are easy to care for. Remember to water them regularly. Commercial, all-purpose fertilizer can be added around the roots and will help them bloom better. Nitrogen-rich fertilizer should be avoided.
Size: 4-8 inches tall, 8-12 inches wide
Hardiness: zone 7 and above
Sunlight: full sun to partial shade
Soil: loose, well-draining
Bloom time: all season long