SEASONAL flowers are beautiful, but perennial plants provide infinite colour and joy.
Pansies are considered a short-lived perennial, meaning they can survive for more than one growing season.
They are super colourful, often marked in the centre and look like faces – sometimes with darker blotches or ‘whiskered’ or plain.
They come in an enormous range of colours and variations – from blue, mauve, pink, purple, red, yellow, and white.
What’s more, they , which is great when the rest of your garden dies back and you’re desperate for colour in the winter.
Pansies start petite in size but can spread, so they make the perfect plant to add to your garden borders, pots and hanging baskets.
And is selling trays of 10 pansies for just £3.50 – that’s 35p a plant!
The online product description for the pansies reads: “Let your indoor and outdoor plant pots bloom with lively pansies.”;
And customers were impressed with the pansies, one said: “They’ve provided continuous spring colour to our garden.”;
Another wrote: “Good value great price, lovely plants.”;
A third reviewed: “Good value pansies nice colours and healthy plants.”;
How to care for pansies
Pansies do best in full sun to partial shade.
If there has been continuous hot weather, they need to be watered regularly – and water the soil rather than the foliage as this avoids the spread of fungal diseases.
From spring to autumn, it’s recommended that you feed them fortnightly with a liquid fertiliser, and remove the faded and dead flowers regularly, which encourages the plant to keep producing new blooms.
You can do this by either pinching them off with your finger and thumb, or using a pair of garden snips or secateurs to cut off the dead heads.
Other flowers that come back every year
Chrysanthemums
A hardy perennial, Chrysanthemums if planted in the right conditions will return the following year.
Campanula portenschlagiana
Nicknamed the Dalmatian bellflower, Campanula portenschlagianais a hardy perennial, meaningit will typically return each year.
It forms a mat-like ground cover and is known for its spreading habit which is perfect for the front of garden borders or under trees and shrubs.
Kalanchoe
Also known as “widow’s thrill”; for its reputation for being very hardy and able to thrive in harsh conditions, including neglect and minimal watering.
As perennial succulents, kalanchoe thrives indoors and required a period of reduced light and water to simulate winter dormancy.
