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winter pansies which species?
mavis lord
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in Talkback
Which species are the hardiest that will be Ok for growing through winter? Mavis
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They are all hardy. I use bedding violas a lot. There won't be many flowers in winter but as soon as the weather is brighter they start coming and are a riot of colour in April/May before you want to plant summer bedding. I also like a smallish yellow and blue pansy called "Ultima Morpho", but I live in France so I don't know what they sell in England. I buy mine online as plug plants in autumn.
Here are some of mine.
Beautiful violas, Busy-Lizzie, love the colours in the first photo. Do you know the name of that mix? I would love to order some plugs when they are available.
They were called "Ultima Radiance", a small flowered pansy. I get them from a French firm that sells online plug plants, "Jardin Express".
This is their website https://www.jardinexpress.fr/75/73/first-visit-on-our-site.html I hadn't realised they sell to England as well as France. I use them for summer bedding plug plants too. But I think there are several companies that sell on line in England.
I did a trial for Mr. Fothergills Seeds of their winter pansy called "Cool Wave" and can thoroughly recommend them Planted as small plugs last September they are still flowering now.If you look on their Nation of Gardeners Blog you can see pictures of them grown up and down the country where they were on trial like mine in Bristol.
Also did well with Cool Wave. Have just sowed Suttons Babbling Brook, winter trailingvariety, just starting to pop up after a week. Will keep you posted on progress. Sowed some pansy seeds years ago, didnt think to keep pack, (always do that now, have a gardening allmanac) they flowered for 9 months, waiting patiently to rep-pot for summer bedding, never happened!
Busy-Lizzie, presumably they take euros, does the site automatically convert from pounds, is the postage reasonable, what about delivery times? Always good to know of new places. Some-one recomended a sweet pea seed supplier on this forum, they were CHEAP, and really good germination.
Nanny, I don't know about all that as I live in France. Look at their website, I posted the English one. I use the French one and I pay in euros. Plants arrive quickly in good condition the week that they say they will come. They gave me a free tray of 35 "Cool Wave" last autumn. They did OK but I thought the colours were a bit wishy washy, mostly pale yellow and cream.
For Sweet Peas, Eagle seeds are probably best (they exhibit at Chelsea) and I have found Kings seeds good too.
Course you do, I am a silly cow, and a jealous one at that! Am making notes of all these companies for future reference. When I had CB radio in my car back in the 80s my call sign was Busy-lizzie! yes, I did look on the site, only saw euros, mind it was a quick look.
Busy-Lizzie, thanks for giving us the website. I have added it to my favourites list for future reference.