The Cheery Flower I’m Planting Now for Months of Blooms to Ward Off Winter Blues

There’s a much-overlooked flower that I always plant in September because it withstands winter and brings blooms through the darkest days of the year. It has rich, velvety petals and vibrant tones. It’s ridiculously easy to grow, and remarkably cheap. What is this wondrous fall flower, I hear you cry? The humble pansy.

There’s a little trick you need to know if you want this hard-working plant to produce abundant flowers in fall and carry on producing pretty petals all through winter and into spring, and that’s to plant it in September. While most folk wait until late fall before putting pansies in the ground to enjoy early spring blooms, by planting them earlier while the soil is still warm enough to encourage strong growth, plants will get busy flowering. They’ll also grow bigger root systems, making them better able to withstand harsh winter conditions. And hey presto, you have hard-working plants that last for months from fall through winter.

While sub-zero temperatures will cause even winter-flowering pansies to temporarily pause blooming, as soon as a milder period of winter weather arrives, they’ll produce plenty more petals, fast. They’ll keep on flowering into spring, too.

Part of the Weekend Wins series, planting pansies is a 10-minute job that brings a big reward, warding off winter blues with months of easy-breezy blooms. So, if you're wondering what to plant in September, start right here.

Which Pansies Survive Winter Best?

Pansies are shoulder-season plants, preferring cooler spring and fall temperatures to summer heat. If you want pansies that will flower on and off all through winter, too, you need to look for varieties that are particularly cold-hardy.

Cool Wave Pansies

Cool Wave pansies have been bred specifically for cold weather, and Morpho's contrasting yellow and purple tones shift as the temperature falls. The purple tones become more intense in the cold, shifting to a lighter blue in warmer periods when the yellow parts of its bicolor blooms become more prominent. Exceptionally hardy in zones 5-9, Cool Wave plants grow fast, reaching a height of 8 inches high and 14 inches wide, so they make a colorful groundcover or will cascade over the sides of windowboxes and hanging baskets.

Plentifall Pansies

Blooming from October to May in zones 5 to 9, Pentifall pansies also grow to 8 inches tall but spread further, making their trailing stems perfect for spilling over the rims of hanging baskets and patio containers. Plentiful Frost brings the longest stems, spreading to 2 feet, with flowers in shades of white and pale purple with striking central markers, known as whiskers to many gardeners.

This tough-cookie series is also available in darker purple Plentifall Lavender Blue from Burpee, and elegant Plentifall White, also from Burpee, with stems trailing to 18 inches.

Delta Pro Pansies

Hardy in zones 4-9, the Delta Pro series was bred for commercial use with bigger, more uniform flowers, strong stems and reliable performance through fall and winter. While plants are a little more expensive, you won’t be disappointed as the colors are intense, in particular the Delta Pro Red with Blotch (it does what it says on the tin!). Though they only grow to 4-6 inches high and spread to 6-8 inches wide, the well-branched stems produce abundant flowers so use these to color-drench porch planters and patio pots.

Delta Pro True Blue pansies, available from Trees (formerly Fast Growing Trees) is indeed a brilliant blue, while Delta Pro Clear Yellow pansies, also available from Trees, are a vivid yellow.

Ocean Breeze Pansies

The series has extra large flowers in a serene palette of lavender, white, soft blues and rich purples, so a mix produces a harmonious drift of cool colors that are a vivid contrast to fiery fall tones and blend for a beautiful winter border.

Ocean Breeze copes in zones 3-8, and is naturally compact, growing in a neat mound, growing to 8 inches high and 10 inches wide. This series handles wild and windy weather particularly well, despite its bigger-than-usual pansy flowers, so its resilient nature alongside its mounding habit make it a great choice for windowboxes and border edges.

How to Plant Pansies in September

Wondering when to plant pansies? The answer is straight away! The sooner you get their roots into soil, the stronger plants will be before the weather turns – so add planting pansies to your list of September gardening jobs, pronto. At this time of year, you'll need to buy young plants, not seeds.

Pansy plants need fertile, well draining soil so use an enriched potting mix for containers such as Miracle-Gro Potting Mix, available from Walmart. In the ground, mix a couple of handfuls of homemade or prepared compost such as Back to the Roots Organic Compost, available from The Home Depot, into the soil before planting.

Give this winter flowering plant full sun or part shade, and remove fading flowers to keep them blooming. Don’t worry if they stop flowering when the temperature dips below zero, they’ll soon bounce back. To keep pots and hanging baskets flowering, it helps to move them to a sheltered spot in prolonged cold snaps.

Creative Ideas with Pansies

These cheery blooms are so easy-going and eager to grow, you can get creative and use them to make all sorts of fun cool-season decor. For a start, trailing pansies make fall hanging baskets full of color and charm. From planting upcycled gardening equipment to creating a cascading flower tower, there are all sorts of other clever ideas to turn cheap plants into unique garden centerpieces. I like to make pansy kokedama, and they survive remarkably well in my exposed garden.

If you’re filling up planters with beautiful bulbs to plant in fall then add a top layer of pansies so they look good straight away. The bulbs will grow right up between the plants in spring, and the pansies will help stop hungry squirrels from digging up the bulbs. And honestly, whatever quick and clever container gardening ideas you dream up, pansies will fit the bill perfectly.

More Weekend Wins

This feature is part of the Weekend Wins series, packed with quick and easy 10-minute gardening tasks that bring a big reward.