Photo courtesy of Tagawa Greenhouse

By Joshua LaPoint

In the world of color annuals, pansies have been among the most popular for many years, their popularity buoyed by their cold tolerance.

But plant breeders have kept them at the forefront of the marketplace with breeding that has extended the range of colors, improved flower structure, broadened the range of colors and varied plant structure.

This has helped keep them on the top of gardeners’ and lanscapers’ must-have lists.

Cold tolerance

Pansies have a cold tolerance that sets them apart from virtually every other plant because they will bloom throughout the winter in many regions.

“One year in the early ’90s, it was down to 4–5 [F]” reminisced Don Kondo, owner and president of greenhouse grower Yoshitomi Brothers (West Linn, Oregon). “We’d left a few flats outside in the wind and the cold and they survived when a lot of other things didn’t.”

Pansies actually prefer cold weather, and it will cause them to create tighter, more vibrant blooms. Even snowfall and temperatures in the single digits will not stop them from blooming.

The typical pansy season is from early October through May, while many other annuals and perennials only have color starting in April or May and going through the summer.

Pansies have been bred to bloom in virtually every color imaginable — red, blue, purple, yellow, brown and even black. “If you need a color, there are pansies that come in that color,” said Brenna Estrada, owner of Three Brothers Blooms (Camano Island, Washington) and author of Pansies: How to Grow, Reimagine, and Create Beauty with Pansies and Violas.

Pansy flowers can be ruffled, soft, or giant. They can even have smaller blossoms that are common with a trailing growth habit. Trailing habits are the preferred choice for hanging baskets because they create a waterfall of color. Dense, mounding habits are the most widely grown because their larger bloom size and thick form makes them ideal for mass plantings.

“A lot of people use either clear mix, which is a solid color without a blotch, or a blotch mix,” explained Steven Engel, regional account manager at PanAmerican Seed.

With so many different colors, breeders have undertaken great effort to ensure that each of the colors within a given pansy series will bloom at the same time. “The most important trait is the evenness of bloom,” said Jon Venzke, general manager of F&B Farms & Nursery (Woodburn, Oregon). “If I plant them all at the same time, they should be ready at the same time.”

If the bloom times are not synchronized, the intended effect will be thrown into disarray. Thankfully, after years of careful breeding, the blooming times are now very consistent, with all the colors within a given series opening within a week of one another.

Photo courtesy of Walla Walla Nursery Co. Inc.

Deep-seeded traditions

Several of the most popular series currently in production are the Matrix and Delta series for mounding habits, and the Cool Wave series for spreading pansies. These three lines represent a fantastic amount of pansies sold across the country and are responsible for countless installs every year.

Ron Newble, small plant sales manager at Tagawa Greenhouse in Colorado, noted that the grower ships over 50 million units of pansies annually, with the majority of these being the Matrix series. It is an important part of their color annual mix.

Although both Matrix and Delta series are tremendously popular, there is no clear winner between them. Growers favor both and appreciate the value they each bring. “We grow some of Delta and Matrix,” said Jennifer Martin, the program development administrator at Walla Walla Nursery Co. “We do a catch all to grab all the main colors with clear face and blotch.”

For Kondo of Yoshitomi Brothers, consumer demand guided their decision to start producing Matrix. “Our customers demanded that we did a larger flower pansy and we started the Matrix line,” Kondo said. “It’s been very important for their breeders to come up with a series that are timed very well so you could grow a crop and have everything in full bloom within a week, rather than two and a half weeks.”

Delta has its fans as well.

“The Delta series has been very successful for us,” said Ben Verhoeven, president of greenhouse grower Peoria Gardens (Albany, Oregon). “They mature and come to market looking the same and at the same time.”

The Delta series by Syngenta is very popular, with their Delta Pro flowers marketed to be very short with large flowers and nice uniformity.

“The Delta series has been a strong workhorse,” said Estrada, adding that she admires the series for their big, beautiful faces and jewel tones.

Spreading and trailing

While the retail market has adopted both series of clumping pansies, perhaps the most quintessentially “color annual” items they carry are hanging baskets. These are often a combination of different annuals, colors, and textures.

The Cool Wave series of spreading pansies by PanAmerican Seed has impressed home gardeners in this application for years. Their spreading habit allows them to trail down from the basket to create a waterfall effect. Their blossoms tend to be smaller and tighter, but they still showcase many brighter gem colors and softer pastel tones so there is a pansy for every application.

PanAmerican Seed, in concert with Ball Horticultural Company, has improved on this and launched a new series called Top Wave. Top Wave is like Cool Wave’s big sister. “This is a spreading pansy with large flowers that also mounds so you get color throughout the entire plant,” Engel said.

Kondo of Yoshitomi Brothers agreed. “It’s another dimension to be able to have them fill out a basket and drape over the edge,” he said. “These new Top Waves have 25% larger flowers, which is significant at close to a 2-inch flower.”

Between the combination of mounding/spreading habit and the increased flower size, Top Wave promises to make a huge impact in hanging baskets this year.

Plant Something Oregon

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