Winter flowering pansies

When can I expect my winter flowering pansies to flower. Not a sign of a bud so far and they've been in well over a month.

 

linlin, I asked the same question last year.No flowers in winter then they came in spring.This year I planted them again in containers in exactly the same place, 2 pots are blooming, one is showing no sign of flowering, although that might be because I

 

Oops pressed the button too son-was trying to say that I experimented by adding seaweed from the beach to the compost in the 3rd pot, don't know if that's why there are no flowers. The only other difference from last year is that then I used something, can'tremember the name , which was meant to double the size of the root system. The plants grew lots of leaves and I'm wondering if that was at the expense of the flowers. Sorry I can't be much help, I'm usualy the one asking the questions! :D

 

I bought 64 tiny plants to put into the winter troughs like last year. With this autumn being so warm the encumbant geraniums have lasted too well.

I've now dug them out, but the pansies were too small to plant out so are growing on in pots in the greenhouse. Some are flowering now. If they hadn't been stunted there would have been a lot more in flower.

 

It depends on the type, some like universal will flower sporadically from planting out till march and then flower fully till may/june. Others bought now and planted out may not flower until the spring.
There is a lot of confusion over the naming of pansies being either autumn, winter or spring flowering.
The universal pansy I have been growing for the parks dept for years has now been discontinued by my supplier and replaced with a new cultivar, matrix, which has been split in to autumn and winter flowering so even I get confused! :confused:

 

Mine are Can-can which are frilly and flowered all winter last year.

 

Glad its not just me whose confused Strongy! I don't have the (relative) luxury of choosing cultivars from what's obtainable down at the market - in the unlikely event that they should be labelled in the first place - and my experiences are that they tend to flower in the warmer patches in the autumn, then stay in the ground looking like an elephant sat on them until spring, when they get going and finally provide an exuberant flourish to the bedding in conjunction with the mid-season tulips, by which point I am champing at the bit to dig them out and get the summer bedding in.

I think winter hardy rather than winter flowering pansies should be the description IMO.

 

winter pansies need to start flowering before the frosts if you want them to flower over winter. mine are flowering like crazy.....and some of them aren't even down as "winter pansies".

even if you buy them in plugs....it's a good idea to pot them up ASAP and pump them with good amounts of food and water regularly. tomato food once a fortnight is good. you should use that up until the frosts.

if they didn't start flowering, they won't start now until spring. if they have started, make sure you dead head them regularly. it only takes a couple of days for the seed head to bulge up and start ripening.







i know this is the last thing you wanna see....but above are pictures of mine. i got them as plugs about an inch tall....without about 3 leaves each. bought them about 2 months ago.....and look how they're doing now.

you could always buy some more that are already in flower. most garden centres are flogging trays full for under �£1 just to get rid of them to make space for xmas trees.

 

One of the problems with pansies and our milder winters is aphids, they can devastate plants in early winter as they carry on breeding without a cold check and they are not noticed as they are always on the underside of the leaves, :( so keep an eye on them through the winter.
Jazid, I know the dilema of leaving winter flowering plants in a week or two longer as I have to push our garden supervisors to clear them as the summer bedding is ready and don't want it spoiling in a hot glasshouse or polytunnel.