Coolwave Trailing Pansies

Transcript

Pansies are easy plants providing  great color during the winter, but the story on pansies doesn’t stop there today on southern Gardening.

The plant breeders are always at work looking for ways to make our garden and landscape plants better. I have really liked the new Cool Wave series of trailing pansies. If the Wave in the name sounds familiar, it is. Cool Wave pansies were developed by the same folks that have brought the popular Wave petunias to many of our gardens.

These plants have a unique spreading and trailing growth habit that make for must haves in your garden. Cool Wave trailing pansies are much more vigorous than the standard pansy varieties. The plants are well branched and will really fill a landscape bed or hanging basket with good color from the all the way to next spring.

The flower colors are very attractive with white, lemon violet wing, and frost. All of the flowers have yellow eyes with whisker lines radiating from the center resembling delicate artist brush strokes. Cool Wave are really well-suited for growing in combination containers and make great spiller plants. Try combining with Red giant mustard as the thriller and Telstar dianthus for a colorful filler. These plants are hardy through Zone 5. During really cold weather these plants will seem like they have frozen solid. Any flowers open during these temperatures will be goners, but with warming temperatures the flowering will return very quickly.

Cool Wave trailing pansies need to be grown in the full sun, at least six hours each day, for the best flowering and growth. It is important to maintain consistent moisture for the plants. I’m horticulturist Gary Bachman for Southern Gardening.