Winter showed up in my garden last week. Jack Frost put to sleep any lingering thoughts of summer and my tender plants turned dark and limp over night. The difference between 32 degrees – and not – is the difference between life and death for many plants.
Fortunately, there are hardy annuals that don’t seem to mind the cold. Chief among these are the pansies. What great little plants! I can put them into the garden in October and, unless we have a sustained Arctic blast during the next few months, they’ll persist through winter and get a running start to perform beautifully in spring. I’ll finally dig them up to put in summer annuals in May.
Some of my friends and family think that I’m a bit over-the-top obsessed with flowers and plants. Ha! Compared to William Thompson, gardener to Lord Gambier, a British naval commander, I am quite sane and reasonable. This man spent thirty years working to hybridize the small viola native to England to create the modern pansy. He was a legend in his own time (and obviously ours!) and by 1833, there were over 400 different named pansy cultivars. Today, there are countless varieties of both the large petaled pansies and the smaller violas.
The original little wildflower had many common names including Johnny-jump-up, hearts’ ease and tickle-my-fancy. Violas, then pansies, have always been associated with thoughts of love. The heart-shaped leaves were eaten to cure a broken heart.
The name “pansy” is from the French word penser, meaning “to think,” because the French believed that the gift of pansies would make your lover think of you. According to the Victorian language of flowers, pansy means “to think of love.”
In addition to all this, both the leaves and flowers of pansies and violas are edible. The small viola blossoms make an excellent garnish for a salad or a beautiful decoration on an iced cake.
A Georgia garden would just not be the same without pansies. They are the colorful backbone of my winter garden. Okay, I may have gone a little overboard this fall, putting pansies in every nook and cranny, but who can resist? Not that I’m over-the-top enthusiastic about flowers or anything…..
