Do you deadhead pansies
How to Deadhead Pansies | Home Guides
By Kimberley McGee Updated September 10, 2019
They can thrive through summer’s heat and into mild winter conditions and look pretty doing it with little maintenance. The many different varieties of this common garden grower offer quite a colorful punch to pots and raised garden beds throughout the growing season. With the right care and pruning, pansies can offer beautiful bouquets of low-growing flowers.
Pansies love a good pruning. They will create continuous waves of bright flowers when they are regularly deadheaded. Removing the spent flowers lets the plant thrive and concentrate on its healthy stems and leaves and produce impressive blooms. Nipped, cut or clipped, deadheading pansies is a must for a healthy plant over the entire growing season.
Characteristics of Pansies
The full flowers for which pansies are known grow in fairly compact clusters of leaves. They grow about 6 to 9 inches tall and spread out in mounds of about 9 to 12 inches in raised garden beds. Pansies grown in pots can become leggier than those that are allowed more leg room in garden beds.
There are many types of pansies from which to choose that will thrive under certain conditions. Although most pansies require little maintenance, make sure to plant a variety that works the best for the sun and temperature of your garden.
When Pansies Bloom
Each variety of pansy blooms at its own pace. The flowers will pop up depending on the type of pansy that you have brought to bloom in your garden. Pansies can bloom throughout the year with proper care.
At the first sign of warm weather, pansies begin to show up in nurseries and farmers' markets, begging to take a place somewhere in your garden or in the pots that line your patio. The pansy plant’s best blooming occurs when the temperatures are around 60 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and 45 degrees at night. Pansies bred for warmer temperatures work best for regions with temperatures that hover in the 90s.
Pansies proliferate in cooler temperatures and lots of sunshine and gentle rains. For warmer climates, pansies will do well with dappled shade.
Producing Pansy Blossoms in Warm and Cold Climates
The pansy is grown as an annual in most regions. Generally, they bloom in the spring through the early fall in cooler regions. When started indoors, pansies will begin the bloom production early.
In warmer climates, pansies can bloom through winter and into spring with proper watering, shielding from the occasional frost and fertilizer to wake them up when the weather warms.
Pansies are hardy and can be planted in cold-winter regions in the fall. They can stand up to cooler northern-region temperatures when given a layer of mulch to keep the heat of the day within the soil. This will help them to survive through the winter and into early spring.
Pruning Pansies for Longevity
It may seem counterproductive, but clipping and pulling spent flowers from the plant helps it to grow faster and have a longer bloom period.
When pansies get leggy, they are asking for a little attention. If the flowers fall to the side on the tender stems, cut them back a minimum of 5 inches and up to 7 inches. The best way to cut or deadhead a pansy flower is to use a pair of small clippers. Cut just above a leaf set on the stalk to minimize damage.
The flowers can also be pinched off once they begin to fade. Simply take your middle finger and thumb at the stem just above the leaf and pluck the limp bloom from the bud base. Check the pansies for spent flowers every two to three days to keep them at their optimal blooming.
References
- The Old Farmer's Almanac: Growing Pansies
Tips
- Regularly remove accumulated plant debris underneath your pansies to reduce the likelihood of pest and disease.
Writer Bio
Kimberley McGee is an award-winning journalist with 20+ years of experience writing for a variety of clients, including The New York Times, Las Vegas Review-Journal Home section and other national publications.
As a professional writer she has researched, interviewed sources and written about home improvement, interior design and related business trends. She earned a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her full bio and clips can be viewed at www.vegaswriter.com.
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Pansies are the perfect plant to liven up any backyard. Blooming throughout winter and spring, these perfect perennials are the ideal starter flower for many gardeners – although you may be asking how to create stronger and healthier pansy plants.
Looking after these plants does not end after learning how to grow pansies. These delicate-looking flowers are tough enough to last out winter in mild climates and will usually return in spring even in northern zones, however experts recommend deadheading pansies to encourage further growth and strengthen them so that they are more likely to provide blooms year after year. Learning when to plant pansies will ensure happy, showy blooms, too.
‘Pansies are a perennial plant, although we usually just treat them as an annual and throw them away once they have gone over. If you want to keep them once they have finished flowering, cut them back and place them somewhere out of the way until they start to flower again,’ explains Angela Slater, gardening expert at Hayes Garden World .
Below, garden experts offer their advice and explain why deadheading pansies is so important.
How to deadhead pansies
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To deadhead pansies, pinch the stem of the pansy plant between your thumb and forefinger just below the dead flower and in front of the living leaves, and use your nails to gently snap off the dead bud. These can then be added to your compost bin.
Deadheading pansies only takes a few minutes and is well worth the colorful reward, especially as pansies are some of the best plants for hanging baskets as their almost excessive growth and cheery flowers can provide color even in the dreariest of months.
Deadheading pansies also allows them to expend their energy on growing new flowers and developing stronger roots and stems rather than produce seeds. The removal of old flowers prevents seed pods from growing, and the plant's energy is preserved.
Much like deadheading geraniums, deadheading pansies does not require tools. ‘Using your fingers to remove dead pansy blossoms is more exact than using pruners or clippers,’ explains Rachel Crow, Garden Editor for Homes & Gardens.
‘Unlike deadheading hydrangeas, clippers could damage the smaller, more delicate stems of the pansy plant, whereas pinching with your fingers is more precise.’
When to deadhead pansies?
Pansies reproduce flowers quickly but also die quickly too. It is important to deadhead pansies as soon as you see their petals start to droop and their color fade.
‘Deadheading must be carried out regularly.’ advises Angela Slater, gardening expert at Hayes Garden World.
‘Once they set seed, the flowering starts to diminish. Cut off the stem down to the next leaf joint once the petals have started to droop.’ It is a good idea to check your pansy plants every few days, skipping just a few days could result in more wilted flowers and seed pods than blooming petals.
‘Keep feeding with a weak solution of tomato fertilizer, such as Tomato! , every week to ensure they continue flowering over as long a period as possible,’ she adds.
Should you deadhead pansies?
You should deadhead pansies if you want to encourage repeat blooming. Do so regularly – every few days in growing season – to encourage healthy new growth. If you don't deadhead pansies you will end up with fewer blooms and a greater chance of disease.
How do you keep pansies flowering?
The best way to keep pansies flowering is to regularly deadhead them, removing dead or fading flowers. This will prompt the plant to keep producing fresh new blooms.
What happens if you do not deadhead pansies?
If you do not deadhead your pansies, there will be few serious effects however they are less likely to bloom for as long.
With pansies being the ideal fall flowers for pots, brightening up backyards even when many other plants are dying back for the winter, deadheading them will result in a more colorful garden for longer.
In addition to producing extra blooms, deadheading pansies can also help to rid the plants of some diseases. Diseases such as botrytis blight cause flowers to rot and can spread in pansies during periods of wet weather. If you deadhead pansies with this disease, do not put these flowers on your compost heap but dispose of them in your regular waste bin.
Chiana is a junior writer for Homes & Gardens having joined Future plc as a new graduate in 2022 after achieving a 1st class degree in Literature at university. She first became interested in design as a child after spending her summers helping her parents redecorate her childhood home. As a long-time reader of Future’s homes titles, Chiana is constantly finding new inspiration at work as she focuses on emerging trends, how-to’s, and news pieces.
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