Plant Pansies Now for Lasting Color

Walter Reeves (garden guru) says there are only a few things you need to know when planting these colorful annuals:

Begin with SOFT SOIL. If you just stick pansies into our Georgia Red Clay, you will not see much growth! In order for pansies to do their best, their roots must establish themselves quickly in your soil as it begins to cool. A good rule of thumb to follow is using at least 25 percent composted material mixed with your native soil. A good recommendation is to pour one bag of soil conditioner over 10 square feet of bed and mix it into the soil eight inches deep.
Go BIG or Go Home! When you hit the garden center, you’ll find 3 inch pots, four inch pots and six-packs of pansies from which to choose. It pays to know which size performs best in your area.  Planting the six-pack plants in the colder parts of North Georgia will probably yield fewer blooms until the soil warms again in March. If you live further
Do NOT forget to FERTILIZE. Since pansies will soon be growing in cold soil, their fertilizer needs will be quite different from flowers that grow during the summer. Summer fertilizers have urea, ammonium nitrate or some other source of nitrogen for the plant. That’s fine during the summer when the soil is warm. But in the winter, nitrate sources of nitrogen are better for plants. Look on the label of your fertilizer – if it says some of the nitrogen comes from nitrate, your pansies will benefit. Right now, you can use any of the water-soluble, powdered fertilizers (Miracle-Gro, etc.) to drench the soil around each plant once it is in the ground. When you fertilize monthly from November through March, nitrate-containing fertilizers would be best…..but if you can’t find a product with nitrate, anything is better than nothing.
Offer them Some Protection. Pansies protect themselves during cold weather by temporarily wilting. The dry leaves are not damaged by cold; they recover nicely when warmer temperatures appear. But if the soil is frozen while dry, frigid winds howl across the leaves, pansy roots are unable to transport water back to the leaves. For this reason, keep a bale of pine straw handy during the winter. If a Siberian Express is forecast, cover all of your beds with a thin layer of straw. It will hold heat in the soil and it will shelter pansy leaves from the harsh winds.