Well, finally we have gotten some rain, cooler temperatures and, yes, the days are getting shorter.
So, now is the time to enhance our fall and winter gardens.
Winter pansies can provide eight months of colour but there is more to it than just popping them in the ground. They can create magic in our gardens if we use the right colour combinations and complementary companions.
What we need during dull months is brightness. Warm colours, such as yellows, reds and oranges, along with whites for accent, will add life to our gardens. Pastel colours, like pinks and mauves, are great but there’s a whole new range of blended colours that are far more impactful.
Multi-coloured pansies are attractive but in a winter landscape, they won’t have the same punch as vibrant, single-coloured or colour-blended varieties. Yellows and blues are often used together very effectively but what about soft yellows with attractive maroon-reds or wine-purples? Believe me, they’re combinations that really work. Whites with deep purples look very classy and bright oranges with pastel blues are also great.
My favourite blended combination is the ‘Citrus’ blend of soft yellows and oranges topped up by bright oranges and whites. It’s a happy, uplifting blend. ‘Autumn Blaze’ is a blend of yellows and reds with some attractive blotchy faces and bi-colouring. ‘Harvest Mix’ is a combination of deep orange, deep red and deep yellow and is warm and comforting. There are many more interesting winter pansy blends that really make a huge difference in fall and winter gardens.
Winter pansies are much more effective when strategically located in high visibility locations, such as along your driveway and sidewalks and around focal trees. Stand back and take a good look at your landscape to see just where little bits of colour would spark things up for the coming fall and winter.
If you have some large flower beds that you’d like to liven up, use pansies along with other winter plants. Flowering kale and cabbage are sensational winter focal points. Plant kale in attractive patterns, using blocks of three to five plants. Between your groupings of kale, add blocks of solid, brightly coloured pansies. Try orange pansies around purple kale or deep blue pansies around white kale. These combinations are really eye-catching.
Dwarf, compact evergreen grasses make fabulous focal points in planting beds or containers. For example, Carex morrowii ‘Variegata’ has white and yellow variegated foliage that is quite striking all winter long. These grasses are also perfect companions to small bulbs like blue crocus and dwarf Iris reticulata. The new evergreen ajugas, like the deep purple ‘Mahogany’ and the pink/cream ‘Burgundy Glow’, make fine ground covers or edging plants and are great complements to pansies. Fall coloured heucheras are not only evergreen but also provide fabulous accents for almost any colour of pansy. Heuchera ‘Peach Melba’ and ‘Peach Flambé’ are especially effective with orange and gold pansies.
We’ve only just begun to discover the pleasure and value that pansies can add to a garden during the bleakest time of the year. Getting an early start will make a significant difference to the size and quality of your pansy display.
