[sclarke624]

Am I imagining things or did pansies only used to be available as winter flowers coming up about the same time as primroses.  I just don't remember them being summer flowers, have they always been around?

[SnooziSuzi]

Well I sowed a batch which were listed as 'Winter Pansies' so I assumed that there were other seasons available too!

[JulesJ]

I remember growing pansies as summer flowers back in the mid-Seventies, along with petunias.

[sclarke624]

well I think I will get me some summer pansies then LOL

[celjaci]

Pansies were originally summer flowering, short lived perennials. The winter flowering pansies were a huge breakthrough and have really caught on as they provide some colour through the winter then a bold splash in early spring before exhausting themselves.
It is possible to still get summer flowering pansies but they are getting pushed out of commercial horticulture by other bedding plants and particularly by violas. These have smaller flowers but more of them and a much tidier growth habit

[sclarke624]

You know I was thinking last night and my brain had a break through I remember now the Winter pansies being the new thing and as you said summer being thenorm.  Old age at 52.  Do you know then if winter summer pansies are perinneal or are violas.  Difficult to decipher what I found on google but I thinki it was saying violas were pansies dunno. 

[mumofstig]

Think i am right in saying that violas are the original small flowered forms that the other pansy flowers have been bred from. Violas are perennial, if short lived, they tend to flower themselves to death

[Stripey_cat]

Most pansies are short lived perennials.  I always feel a bit guilty pulling them up in the autumn, so my favourites tend to survive as pets.  I had some three year old ones my mother pulled up (thank-you - so helpful of her ), and the few survivors are coming into flower now.  They can get a bit straggly, but respond to pruning.   The little bedding violas are (as far as I know) exactly the same species as the bigger sorts, the only real differences being habit and flower size.

[New shoot]

I work in a garden centre & buy in a lot of bedding. The pansies nearly all suppliers sell now as growing plants are universal pansies so can do summer & winter. Some suppliers do stick 'winter pansies' labels on their bedding packs in the autumn as older customers won't buy them otherwise, but they are the same seed strains they use for the spring crop 

We sell them autumn through to about Easter, only because our bedding canopy gets too hot and they don't hold after that, but they are great summer bedding for shadier spots.

They are short lived perennials like Stripey_cat says and only tend to fizzle out if they are in a really hot spot over the summer. Prune them back and move your pot into a shadier place and you can keep them going for ages. Violas are the same - our houseplant lady has a trailing Friolina viola hanging basket she bought about 8 months ago still going strong.

New Shoot

[sclarke624]

New shoot thats really helpful thankyou.

[sunshineband]

Pansies were originally summer flowering, short lived perennials. The winter flowering pansies were a huge breakthrough and have really caught on as they provide some colour through the winter then a bold splash in early spring before exhausting themselves.
It is possible to still get summer flowering pansies but they are getting pushed out of commercial horticulture by other bedding plants and particularly by violas. These have smaller flowers but more of them and a much tidier growth habit

Is it my imagination or have winter pansies been the best ever for years this year? may be the cold winter?

[JulesJ]

Is it my imagination or have winter pansies been the best ever for years this year? may be the cold winter?

I put some in a hanging basket in September; they flowered all winter brilliantly, and I've only just cleared them.

[sunshineband]

Ours are still a mass of blooms.and look great with the blue primroses

[celjaci]

  Do you know then if winter summer pansies are perinneal or are violas. 

Summer pansies may be regarded as annuals, although they may live another year they get very straggly and don't perform well.
The problem with violas is there are several  types- Bedding violas are annuals grown from seed and sold in packs in autumn & Spring
perennials violas are bred from viola cornuta & viola lutea and form dense clumps with many shoots. There are many named varieties eg Maggie Mott, Rebecca etc   in shades of blue, purple white and yellow, propagated from cuttings and sold as individual plants. In the right spot ( dappled shade, damp soil ) they flourish and provide flowers for months

[sclarke624]

Who would have thought pansies are so complicated.