Prime time for pansies

Aside from the five or six plants lost to hungry javelina, most of my recently purchased pansies have settled in and are beginning to blossom. As they will over-winter in our reasonably mild climate, they form the centerpiece of autumn/early winter gardens and as a rule will be ready to flower again in early spring if I 1) don't forget to water and 2) deadhead the plants. In case you weren't aware of it, pansies absolutely fry when June heats up, making it a real bummer to buy them in the spring.

One school of thought about pansies is that the faces are what it's all about. The white/purple and yellows above are classic faces. However, I was struck by these two wildly colored pansies (immediately above and below). They remind me ever so slightly of the electric cats painted by Louis Wain, the artist, as he was going mad.

I tend to prefer single-color pansies, but my absolute favorites remain the purple/apricot two-tones which, this year, have only been available as violas, with the one advantage that they do bloom in profusion. Don't miss the little purple goatee at the bottom of the flower.

The preceding pansies are all from Watters; the apricot viola above was bought at WalMart.

Alien Eyes: As if schizoid cats and pansies weren't enough, Hoarded Ordinaries has posted a fine new photographic set of alien eyes.