Right now, gardens up and down the land are filled with the little smiling faces of winter pansies and violas. Their bold, cheerful, multi-coloured, easy-to-grow flowers brighten up front porches, flowerbeds, doorstep pots, winter baskets and windowboxes. And don’t forget, there are spring, summer and even autumn versions of these fantastic plants, too.
What’s the difference between pansies and violas?
All pansies (as well as violets) are forms of viola. In fact, all of the pansies you buy from garden centres or mail order suppliers generally derive from the one garden plant, Viola × wittrockiana. During the 1800s this was bred with other species, predominately ‘heartsease’ or wild pansy (V. tricolor), and by the start of the 20th century, at least 400 named varieties were in existence as the result.
Today’s varieties
