Thursday, November 20, 2008

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.

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:28 PM

    Absolutely stunning! :)

    ~Anon in AV.

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  2. Granny J..I had forgotten just how lovely pansies are..thanks for the great photos!

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  3. Anonymous12:58 PM

    Great colors. I have way too many javelinas grazing here to plant flowers

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  4. anon av -- and wonderful on those chilly mornings, when brilliant colors warm everything up!

    jan -- I, too, had forgotten -- partly through youthful snobbery against more commonplace garden flowers.

    dagny -- I've learned to put my pansies in high, secluded spots that the dang pigs can't reach.

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  5. amazing colors! Great pics!

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  6. Anonymous7:16 AM

    The purple center in the purple-and-white photo looked like a butterfly. Think what luck it would take to get a "mariposa" to land on that flower for a photo.

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  7. warren -- aren't those colors just!

    boonie -- thank you for bringing that to my attention; I had never realized that pansy faces were mariposas.

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