Mum & Pansy Recipes

Two plants that complement each other surprisingly well are mums and pansies. They have a chocolate and peanut butter relationship: each is good on its own, but they are classic when they are combined.

Here is a simple but effective example. Notice that the pansy eyes pick up the same yellow as the mums. The colors are also very clean.

Pansy Matrix^® Clear White and Mum Draga Yellow

Mums and pansies work well together because the broad range of colors available are so complementary. It is pretty easy to find mum shades that connect with pansy shades so that you have a common color theme working through the garden. Normally you would think that tall and small wouldn’t mix, but the color ties them together. In this example, you can see the same mum yellow carried by the blue pansy eye—the yellow is the connection.

Pansy True Blue and Mum Draga Yellow

Mixing two types of flowers in a bed, or in a combination pot, walkway planter, or retail bench, helps to set you apart from your competition—especially if that competition is somewhat bland. It’s not difficult to muster up a bit of flair and uniqueness. This recipe is a little fancier, but it still follows the two-tone rule: the dark reds of the mum connect to the dark reds in the pansy face.

Pansy Yellow Blotch and Mum Tabitha

The trick is the color connection—it’s like a string that ties the design together. Be sure to look for cultivars that share colors, because you can build on them. In this recipe, you can see two connections: The yellow mum connects to the yellow on the pansy face, while the orange mum connects to the orange hairdo on the pansy top.

Pansy Fire, Mum Miranda Orange and Mum Draga Yellow

Did you notice the pansy on the left? It has a darker red, so it connects to the burgundy mum at the top of the design—but the yellow ties everything together. You can easily build a strong backbone for any landscape bed, combination pot, or retail display by just watching your color connections.

Connections aren’t solely about color—they can incorporate texture as well. In this recipe, you have the yellow pansies connecting to the yellow tips of the orange mum. However, the texture of the orange mum connects to the texture of the red mum. A different kind of connection, but all the connections count, and they add up to a tighter design.

Pansy Clear Yellow, Mum Tabitha Scarlet and Mum Miranda

Culturally, mums and pansies are safe ground for experimentation. Both plants grow well together, and their care is well understood by both professionals and the general gardening public. They are a great way to hone your design skills, because both families have an abundant range of clear, pure colors backed up by an even wider range of more sophisticated, more complex shades. It becomes easy to connect the dots, when you have so many dots on the page.