Brighten your garden in winter with pansies and violas
For those of you who want to plant pansies for their smell, choose yellow or blue blooms since they have the strongest scent.
ONE of nature’s gifts during winter is the sweet, fragrant face of pansies and violas.
These gorgeous little plants really take the bite out of winter. Add some joy to your winter garden with these special flowers which are extremely easy to grow.
Pansies have bigger faces and leaves than their cousin, the viola which is also known as Heart’s Ease.
Vygies, otherwise known by their hard to spell name, mesembryanthemums, are quite possibly South Africa’s most colourful group of plants.
What more could you ask for in a winter garden. Did you know that their most commonly used name which is Afrikaans in origin, ‘vygie’, means ‘small fig’? This is because its fruiting capsule resembles a small fig.
Pansies and Violas
Both pansies and violas brighten up an early spring garden with their multi-coloured faces that are delicately perfumed and edible too.
The blooms offer a soft, sweet fragrance that is most noticeable in the early morning and at dusk. For those of you who want to plant pansies for their smell, choose yellow or blue blooms; they have the strongest scent.
Pansies generally have fewer blooms per plant, but make up for it with much larger flowers.Violas have small, dainty flowers, but they are very florific. Both perform well in a sunny or partially shaded position, so planting under deciduous trees in autumn is ideal. Violas are even happy in quite shady positions, so are perfect for brightening up dull areas.
If we happen to experience a hot “Indian (late) summer, be sure to mulch well around your newly planted seedlings as they don’t like warm soil.
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