"The difference between a Pansy and a Viola is a question that puzzles many a garden-lover who is not enlightened by the statement that while all Pansies are really Violas, not all Violas are suitable for classification as Pansies"
The Ontario city of Cornwall's garden club innocently suggested that their community become known as the 'City of Pansies.' More in tune advice prevailed. But why a delightful garden flower become associated by homosexuality is something of a mystery. The usage has been dated to the 1920s, as a variation on the earlier 'nancy.' In turn, this itself dated back a further century to the 1820s 'Miss Nancy.'
In the flowers themselves, also lies a puzzlement. As the New Zealand botanist A.W. Anderson explained:
"The difference between a Pansy and a Viola is a question that puzzles many a garden-lover who is not enlightened by the statement that while all Pansies are really Violas, not all Violas are suitable for classification as Pansies."
If the violas known as 'Johnny-Jump-Ups' have invaded the garden, you are all too familiar with at least one of the genus. It is but one some 500 species of annuals and perennials. Many have been grown since time immemorial for their scent and, until recently, believed medicinal qualities. Numerous cultivars have evolved. Amongst these are the large flat flowers we recognize as pansies.
The name is believed to a variation of the French, pensée, from Pensées (1670) a literary work by Blaise Pascal, the French scientist and philosopher as his worldview. In French, however, its use to indicate a thought dates back to at least 1176: Ȇtre plongé dans ses pensées: to be lost in thought. The variation pansy also was used earlier, around 1460.
Viola tricolor, Johnny-Jump-Ups, were known to the herbalist Gerard writing in Elizabeth Tudor's reign. These, and closely related forms he knew as the 'hearts-ease' or 'pansie.' Later it was the V. tricolor crossed with another English native, the deep yellow V. lutea, plus V. altaica and perhaps others that heralded the modern cultivars of large flowered, flat-faced bedding pansies. Officially these are now designated Viola tricolor var. hortensis. Or should that be V. x wittrockiana? Confusion continues to prevail.
Pansies will likely bloom in spring and autumn, ceasing only when the thermometer climbs to over 17ºC
Appreciation of pansies commenced in the second quarter of the 1800s and the start of the Victorian era. In Britain, numerous pansy clubs started and with them came strict rulings on the form of the flowers. Probably we can thank this source for the preference of pansies for cooler temperatures and moist, well-drained soils they require to flourish.
On their home territory then, pansies will likely bloom in spring and autumn, ceasing only when the thermometer climbs to over 17ºC. Better still, in areas of brief frosts, they will remain green all winter although cease flowering, only resuming when both air and soil temperatures climb over to about 7ºC. Elsewhere and especially in North America, they are best treated as spring annuals
True, a few years ago, supposedly new selections were heavily promoted as surviving summer heat and winter freezing to become in effect short-lived perennials. The real-life results were disappointing, rarely achieving commercial claims.
The rise of British clubs devoted to pansies certainly kick-started their Victorian popularity. On a larger scale so did the pansies' appeal as a mass scale bedding plant for society upper crust. In cities, newly emerging public parks also engaged in such plantings. This continued down until recent years when annual bedding displays have become as limited as have city budgets.
Despite the last frost dates of spring receding, temperatures more often than not are slow to rise into even the low double digits. For as long as this continues, it will suit pansies just fine.
Wes Porter is a horticultural consultant and writer based in Toronto. Wes has over 40 years of experience in both temperate and tropical horticulture from three continents.
