The Importance of Violas and Pansies

Pansies en masse

Our pansy crop is the first important mass color crop of the season. If you are in the business of providing Big Color to your clients, or you want to make money by painting the landscape with heavy color, then mastering the pansy family is important to you.

Sorbet Babyface Mix

It’s no accident that the first ubiquitous crop of the season consists of pansies. They thrive in the cold, handle surprise snaps well, have a huge range of colors and styles, and—importantly—they are very affordable. This last fact, price, is a key feature of all mass color crops, like impatiens, petunias and mums. If you are going to describe your design with words like ribbons of yellow, waves of blue, or blocks of red, the client has to be able to afford that big, bold vision of yours. Pansies deliver both color and budget in a way no other early spring crop can match.

Remember that pansies are not the monolithic block of sameness suggested by their commodity reputation. There are three major families within the group: traditional pansies (Matrix), violas (Sorbets) and hybrids between the two (Panolas). The ability to cover the soil with blazing color is definitely not the same from type to type.

‘Matrix Clear Yellow’—the traditional choice

The traditional American choice for landscapes is the ‘Matrix Clear Yellow’ pansy: a big yellow flower with a nice round shape and no face to spoil the vibrant color, no reversion problems, and a nice tuft of a plant underneath. For years, this pansy has been the default choice for many early spring landscapes and the yardstick by which other pansies are measured. However, the champ has weaknesses: you only get a few of those big yellow flowers per plant, and they’re held vertically. If you stand back six feet and squint, you still see a lot of green and brown in between the yellow blooms. To get thick color coverage, you have to plant Matrix pansies close together.

That big Matrix specimen flower is not prized in Europe the way it is here. Carpets of color are considered more important, so European breeders focused on improving the floral firepower of the viola. In this camp, the Sorbets reign supreme. The Sorbet could be described as the polar opposite of the Matrix: tiny little jump-ups that flower like crazy. Brushing your hands over the blooms feels like brushing your hands over a tight haircut. Stand back six feet and squint and all you see is color—with hardly any green peeping out from underneath.

‘Sorbet Black Jump Up’

Cold thriving is the other signature viola feature we value. Europeans live in a colder continent than we do so the Sorbets color up a couple of weeks before the pansies; after the Matrix gardens peter out Sorbets stay in color for two or three more weeks. Snow? Frost? Heavy rain? Bah. We don’t see any damage on the petals, much less the plant. The Sorbet is one tough customer.

Pansy Panola Citrus Mix

Still, a stone cold truth in our market is that Americans do love their big pansy flower. What we really need in our landscape designs is a blend of the best pansy and viola features. Such a plant does exist—it’s called the Panola pansy. As you might guess from the name, this series has a bigger flower similar to the Matrix, but it throws out a heckuva lot more blooms per plant. Another key feature: Panola flowers tip their chins up a bit, so when you stand back you see more color and less plant.

‘Panola Beaconsfield’

Panolas also have a broader season of color. In our trial gardens last fall, we saw our Panolas color up sooner and last longer than the Matrix garden right next door. From the road, we saw satisfying color well into November, and that garden also worked up right behind the violas this spring. Yes, the flower is a bit smaller than the Matrix, but the quality and calibre of the Panola garden was better, longer.

In our minds, the Matrix is still king of the pansy display garden—that big sunny circle of spring. However, for impressive landscape color on a budget, we strongly prefer the Panola series. Where true cold performance or thick carpets of color are called for, we turn to the Sorbet before all others.