Add Color to Your Winter Garden with Pansies

My winter yard and gardens are looking rather blah. The snowdrops are blooming and the crocus is coming up. The only green in my yard, besides the bulbs, is the evergreen shrubs and the Baltic ivy growing up the side of my oak tree.

The winter weather has been mild as we are twenty degrees warmer than the norm. So I thought I would plant a container of pansies and get a head start on very early spring gardening. I like the idea of having a container garden of pretty yellow and purple pansies close to the entrance of my home. Or I may plant some purple tulips that I have in cold storage in the center of the terracotta container and then plant a border of purple pansies.

Pansy Arrangement

Grow pansies in a container garden

Add color to winter gardens with pansies

The late winter/very early spring pansy flower containers will look nice growing on my deck. I will set them in a sunny location.

Know that pansies are easy to grow. You will need the following garden supplies; a Container that has drainage holes on the bottom, and potting soil that is amended with compost. Liquid fertilizer (I like to use  spray and grow), mulch, and winter hardy pansies.

Pansies can tolerate light snow, but if it gets extremely cold I will cover them with frost protection or drag the containers into my mudroom.

Note: You can plant pansies in the fall also.  It is a good way to add color to your container gardens.