When to Plant Winter Pansies

When and Where to Plant Winter Pansies and How to Care For Them

Welcome to another entry in our blog, be sure to check out more of our plant and garden guides.

The backbone of any winter garden, winter-flowering pansies out bloom any other bedding plant during the colder months and add dazzling garden colour at a much needed time of year.

Winter pansies are so effective at producing off-season colour that they made onto our list of the best garden plants for winter colour and our guide to winter plants for hanging baskets.

Unlike their summer cousins, winter pansies are cultivated specifically for cold weather and are hardy enough to survive light frosts and even a dusting of snow.

The key to ensuring your winter pansies not only survive the cold snaps but flourish and continue to bloom, is the plant location, the time they were planted and the ongoing care they’ve received during the winter.

The Best Place to Buy Winter Pansies

Jersey Plants Direct has a huge nursery on the Atlantic coast of Jersey (see photos below) and has been selling plants for decades.

If you’re looking to buy plants online then we recommend Jersey Plants Direct.

For winter bedding plants such as pansies, we suggest buying the larger plugs which will be more developed and more likely to flourish in the colder months.

For summer bedding plants, the smaller plugs are just fine if purchased early enough.

The Best Time of Year to Plant Winter Pansies

Winter pansies won’t last long if they’re planted too early, either the heat and sunlight will kill them, or they’ll set seed early and then die off naturally.

Plant them too late, and the roots and top growth won’t have enough time to develop before the cold sets in and the pansy will either perform very poorly through the winter or die off completely.

For winter pansy plugs we recommend you plant them around September assuming the weather is typical for the time of year. If it’s unusually hot, hold off until the heatwave has passed.

By getting your winter pansies in place when the soil is still warm, you’ll encourage enough growth which ensures plenty of flowers through the winter.

Alternatively, buy the larger plugs which are garden ready even in mid-autumn.

What to do if You Plant Too Early?

What should you do if you plant the winter pansies a little too early and the weather warms up unexpectedly?

You don’t want the pansies to set seed as they will then stop growing and won’t have enough roots developed to survive the winter.

Should the weather stay unusually warm, you can encourage growth by deadheading and removing any seedpods in September and October.

What to do if You Plant Too Late?

If you plant small winter pansy plugs in October or November, you should still see some blooms. Still, the plants won’t be as developed, so space them closer together to improve density and avoiding shaded areas of the garden where possible.

Larger plugs can be planted later while smaller ones require an extra month or so of growth to cope with the cold.

Avoid over fertilising the plants at this time of year, there’s no point, and it won’t make up for planting too late in the season.

The Dilemma 

The dilemma for many gardeners is what to do with the summer bedding plants they already have in their garden.

With regular watering, deadheading and good weather, many summer bedding plants will survive well into autumn and sometimes even into early winter.

Removing healthy, flowering summer bedding plants just to plant a winter variety is nonsensical as it will leave the garden looking sparse at a time of year when you’ll still be enjoying the outdoor space.

The solution is to buy the winter pansies in September and pot them up from trays to 5″ pots and let them develop until the time is right (usually October) for transfer to their final location for the winter. Alternatively, buy the larger plugs but expect to pay much more for them.

Where to Plant Winter Pansies

While too much heat is a bad thing for winter pansies, they do need plenty of sunshine so a sunny garden spot would be ideal.

Winter pansies will still flower if placed in a spot with only partial sun, but you won’t see much growth. For plants grown in shaded areas, we suggest planting them closer together to improve density.

In general, winter pansies can be grown in pots, troughs, hanging baskets or even flowerbeds.

We recommend you ensure there is adequate drainage for the pansies, frozen water at the root level is likely to kill off the plants. Elevated flowerbeds should be fine, although all pots, containers and troughs should be lifted off the ground with feet. Hanging baskets should have drainage holes at the base.

There are no specific changes you need to make to your growing media; you can add coconut coir, perlite and grit to aid in drainage and aeration though, just as you might in the summer. Good multipurpose compost will provide enough nutrients for the winter pansies at least until the final spurt of growth in early spring.

Caring For Pansies Throughout Winter

You shouldn’t need to apply any fertiliser in the autumn if you’ve planted the Winter pansies in a nutrient-rich growing medium such as compost or manure etc. In early spring a top-up of fertiliser can aid the final spurt of growth though.

You will need to keep the winter pansies watered, and an occasional finger test in the ground or compost will reveal how much moisture is present. Pansies grown in hanging baskets or window troughs are often shielded from the rain by the roof overhang and may remain dry even when the rest of the garden is soaked.

Regular deadheading will promote new growth, so it is essential.

Throughout the winter do keep an eye on the weather forecast and where possible bring containers, baskets and pots to a sheltered location during periods of extremely cold weather.

For border plants, consider sheeting or covering them for protection during very cold snaps, which generally don’t last long in the UK. 

Winter pansies can survive temperatures to just below freezing but only for a short period of time. 

More Recommended Products

Planning on growing winter pansies for the first time?

Check out our recommended products:

Companion Bedding Plants

It’s easy to add winter colour to any garden in the UK, there are plenty of autumn plants that flower late and many spring plants, such as bulbs that bloom early.

By adding winter pansies and some of the companion plants below, we’re confident you can create plenty of winter colour to keep the interest going all year round.

Our guide to creating a colourful winter garden is also a great read and you’ll find plenty of shrubs, grasses and bulbs that produce colour in cold weather.

Inspiration and Ideas

From garden edging & fast-growing shrubs to hedges for privacy & garden plants that produce beautiful Winter colour. Explore our ideas & inspiration corner. Start here