The Pansies begin

[Pulsegleaner]

This is mostly for Nyboy, but I suppose everyone else is welcome too.

As of today I picked up my first pots of pansies (from the nursery near Hartsdale) To my surprise they had some pots what appeared to be Penny Lane (the small flowered kind I prefer, as it seems to be the only small flowered mix with red as a component) Normally I have to go to Mt. Kisco for that.
As usual, while there were red, there were not many; I was able to clear them out with four pots (it's actually a rather weird effect seeing a whole color disappear from a large section of pansies just because you picked up a single pot.

Probably go and look into Mt. Kisco on Thurs; see if I can't get more (Penny Lane does not seem to be a popular mix, and I have more or less resigned myself to the idea that, if I wan't to keep small red pansies in my garden I am probably eventually going to have to rely on seed I produce myself.)

 

[Nyboy]

Are they a red Johnie jump up ? I prefer the johnie over the large flowered because they seem able to take the heat better.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

They're not fully down to heartsease size,(ever since St. Patrick's day, I have been unable to think of the term johnny-jump-up without thinking of getting drunk(

), so I am trying to use the European name from now on.) though that IS in fact what I am angling for*, not just for the heat tolerance but for the cold tolerance (it seems to me that 1. all pansies that do come back for me by seed are medium size or smaller of flower and 2. Heartsease seems to be the only one hardy enough to come back here on a near weed basis If I see a random pansy plant growing in an out of the way place, like a lawn or a crack in the wall over our driveway (both happened) it's almost assuredly a heartsease (when you consider that, on it's native turf Viola tricolor is actually a wildflower/field weed, it makes sense).

I suppose it is also possible a lot of them revert to something like that after a few generations of inbreeding (sort of like how most morning glories go back to being white, pale pink or pale blue (their natural colors) after a few dozen generations.)

* I does seem possible to do this. The very first pansy I ever managed to get from seed to flower produced flowers that were heartsease size (or even smaller, more like blue violet size) but with a larger size pansy's color scheme (yellow with a black lip patch.)

 

[Nyboy]

Cold was never a problem, heat that does mine in, have to water 2x a day.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I was referring more to the cold of the middle of winter killing off most of the seeds that drop; so the number of plants one gets naturally come the next year is too sparse to let one get away with not buying any more to fill in. Since this red mix does not seem to be popular, I am always concerned that one of these years I won't be able to find any (either through the nurseries deciding to no longer carry such an "old fashioned" mix or the suppliers deciding not to carry the seed*. So it is important to me to do what I can to try and get seed off of whatever I can with the hope of having a red line stock of my own (it's complicated by the fact that for some reason the reds are not usually numbered among the more "fertile" members of the mix (those that produce the most seed pods with the most seeds), which could go a long way to explaining their rarity).

Not that this is the last time I'm going to hit that nursery for pansies. We need TONS of them for the gardens, so I end up hitting each site many times per year to see what has come in since the last time. We'll probably go back there for large size ones eventually; their stock is usually good for "x-ray" flowered ones (ones that are a dark blue or purple with a black patch surrounded by a faint middle blue corona, so that the result looks sort of like a blue x-ray. I actually almost bought three pots of large flowered yesterday; there were two with very faint lavender streaks on a white background and a blue patch and a purple with an unusual shade (a bit redder than most purple pansies are, more of a violet or very dark fuscia). And there is always the possibility of a one in a million surprise; like the yellow one with purple polka dots I found four or five years ago (I actually have an orange one this year with random purple patches so I may actually get something polka dotted again.)

If you actually are after the little ones, I found Blackberry sorbet to be a very stunning one last year (both Rosedale and Green Valley usually carry it) it's basically a heartsease without the yellow (or white) leaving a deep purple lower petal and jet black uppers (there is also blackberry sorbet a la mode, which puts the white back in and fades the black to purple, but I like the pure's aesthetics better.)

*I HAVE gone online to see if there is some way to get seed for the mix directly, but no soap (plus even if I did, the rarity of the red in it means I'd have to plant pansies at basically the scale a commercial grower did just to get a handful of what I was after)

 

[Nyboy]

Never been to Green valley. Client was telling me about a nursery on Central ave. They have dragon Begonia that he says is amazing in planters.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

That's probably Tazillo. Never been there.

 

[Nyboy]

Home depot on rt 9A had red pansies last night. I don't know if color you want very dark red, I bought some will post photo later

 

[Pulsegleaner]

It's not the color, it's the color AND the size. Large red pansies I can get literally anywhere; it's the little ones that give trouble.

 

[Nyboy]

I bought small orange and purple last night. I am getting into color orange, I tried painting my front door orange BIG mistake.