How To Keep Pansies Alive In Summer?

Pansies are beautiful flowers that thrive well in cool weather. Most of the time, they are planted during the spring and fall months. But, they are rarely grown in summer.

This is because they do not enjoy summer due to the sun’s excessive heat and the warm nights. Pansies need extra care to survive the summers.

So, in this article, we shall learn how to keep pansies alive in summer.

To keep your pansies alive during the summer, move them to partial shade where they get the morning sun but are protected throughout the rest of the day. Also, fertilize the pansy plant lightly and deadhead all the spent flowers to keep your plant thriving and maximize its bloom.

Pansies can bear cold, but they do not enjoy the heat, especially during the summer. Heat makes the pansies weak, sad, and leggy, and they will not produce any flowers.

Pansies are sometimes treated as annuals because they can tolerate cold and gets leggy during the summer heat. Taking care of pansies during the hot summers is a difficult job.

We will find out how to take care of pansies during summers and ways of guarding them against the heat of the summertime in this article.

Will pansies bloom in the heat?

Pansies favor cold weather. That is why in most places, they are treated as annuals. In areas like California, where the weather is moderately warm, pansies can be grown throughout the year.

Pansies do not enjoy extreme warm conditions. They grow weak and become leggy, and there is no blooming of flowers.

Growing them during the spring and fall months is the best time for their growth. But in areas where the weather is hot, it is better to grow the pansies during the cooler seasons.

But when summer arrives, you will need to take special care of them to get them going well, and then they will not disappoint you and again start blooming when the weather starts getting cooler.

Is it possible to grow pansies during the summers?

Growing pansies during the summers depend on your area, the climate around your living area, and the species you want to grow in your garden.

I mentioned earlier that there are different species of pansies. Most of them might not tolerate heat, but surprisingly, some of them can tolerate some amount of heat because they are developed in that way naturally.

Even if you grow these heat-tolerant pansies in your garden, they can tolerate the warmth up to 21°C during the summers.

But if the temperatures are much more than this regularly, then that will harm your pansies and make them weak, leggy, and wilted.

If you live in such places, where 21°C is the warmest and highest temperature during the summers, and if the temperature does not rise more than that, summers might be the ideal time for growing pansies in such areas.

It is better to avoid growing pansies during the summers because you never know when the temperature can rise more during the season and might harm your pansies. So growing them during the cool seasons is a better option.

Some pansy varieties that can tolerate a little bit of heat are Majestic Giant, Springtime Maxim, Padparadja, Matrix, Dynamite, and Universal varieties.

How to take care of pansies during the summers?

Pansies appear during the springtime and fall months. They do not like high temperatures and warm weather and prefer growing in cool weather conditions.

That is why they become weak and leggy during the summers and do not produce flowers most of the time. They can even die due to excess warmth and heat during the summertime.

That is why it is important to know how to take care of them during the summers. You need to know how you can keep them thriving during the warm summers.

Pansies are considered annuals and perennials according to their survival conditions in different areas and climates. Some are even called biennials.

Most of the pansy species cannot tolerate warm weather. However, some kinds of pansies can tolerate warm conditions.

When pansies are grown during the spring and fall months, at one point in time, the pansies have to face the harsh summer season, and special care is needed to keep them thriving.

If summers are arriving and your pansies have already started showing signs of warmth like saggy, wilted, or leggy growth, you might need to give extra care and attention to your pansies to protect them and keep them thriving throughout the summer.

Provide partial shade

Pansies grow well when they receive four to six hours of direct sunlight. They are sun-loving plants. But, during the summers, it is a good decision to provide them with semi-shade and protect them from excess heat and warmth.

Mostly, during the afternoon time in summers, the heat of the sun is at its peak. You will have you protect your pansies from the sun.

Excess heat and warm conditions will make your pansies droopy and leggy. Heat can also scorch the leaves and flowers and can even result in the death of the plant.

To protect your pansies, you can place some tall barriers like big potted plants or containers on the west side of the soil bed.

This will protect your pansies from the afternoon heat of the sun. You can also create a shade with a piece of cloth over a cylinder of mesh wire. Make the shade up to twelve inches long.

Deadheading

Extreme warm weather and the heat of the sun can damage some of the flowers. You need to eliminate those dead flowers from your plant to encourage further growth in them.

You should keep a watch on your pansies daily. Whenever you see any dead flowers in the plant, you must remove them.

Deadheading helps to stimulate the growth hormone in the pansies and helps in further growth of the plants and the new blooming of the flowers.

Removing the dead and dried flowers will help in conserving energy to form seeds. This will help the plant to concentrate on the growth of a strong root system and more flush of flowers.

Deadheading keeps your plant fresh and healthy. It encourages new flowers and roots. Deadheading will also keep your pansies from being leggy.

Remove the spent flowers

Along with the flower head, you must remove the top portion of the stem. This means removing all the flowers that are drying up or going to die. 

You can identify such flowers if you keep observing your pansies daily. Then you can understand which spent flowers you need to get rid of.

You can pinch them off using your fingers or fingernails. In case you are using pruners, cut where the first leaf sets of the stem.

Replant

Sometimes, trimming the flowers can be risky for your plant because you might cut them in the wrong position, which will not revive the pansies.

So, instead of cutting them, it is better to remove the whole plant, collect the seeds in good condition, and keep them aside for replantation.

You can grow the pansies with those seeds after the harsh summer gets over, which is, during the cold seasons or in late winters. That would progress to the full growth of the plant and blooms of flowers by the time spring arrives.

Also read: Where To Plant Pansies? (Best Place+Things To Keep In Mind)

Apply some amount of fertilizer

The pansies struggle to survive during the summers because they cannot tolerate so much heat. Due to this, you need to make sure that your pansies are receiving enough nutrients so that they can remain healthy throughout the summer.

The best time to fertilize pansies is during the time of its growth. But it would help if you also fertilized them during the summers to keep them growing well.

Granular fertilizer is a good choice for pansies during the summers. Add granular fertilizers around the plant on the soil bed and water them very well.

Avoid applying on the plant and flowers as that might burn the leaves and flower petals. Use a balanced fertilizer (10-10-10) for pansies.

Avoid using fertilizers containing a high amount of nitrogen. Pansies do not enjoy high nitrogen.

Besides, fertilizing with high nitrogen might boost the plant’s growth rate, resulting in the plant’s fast growth, big leaves but no flowers. A fast growth rate might lead to leggy pansies, which will start to break from the middle and fall off. 

Using high nitrogen fertilizer will stress the growth of the plant. This is bad for pansies which are in continuous growth after the summers.

Also read: Do Pansies Need Fertilizer? (What Type, How Much & More)

Protect pansies with taller plants

One of the best and easy ways to protect your pansies from heat during summers is protecting them will taller plants.

I said earlier in one of the ways to create artificial shade to protect your pansies from the sun’s excess heat, especially during the afternoon. But it may not have as much effect as the natural shade.

While growing the pansies in the garden, you can grow them along with other taller plants. This will give a natural and partial shade to your pansies.

This shade protects the pansies from the scorching heat of the afternoon sun during the summers. Also, it won’t block the sun completely from reaching the pansies.

Watering

When the temperature rises above the normal belt during the summers, the soil quickly loses its moisture and becomes dry due to excess warmth and heat.

In such conditions, if your pansies remain dry for a long time, then that might be harmful to them. The plants will fail to receive enough moisture and nutrients from the soil and the roots.

Keep checking the soil. If the soil has become dry and hard due to dry and hot weather, you will need to water them frequently to retain the adequate moisture that the plant needs to absorb the nutrients.

Also read: How Much Water Does A Pansy Need? (Pansy Water Requirements)

Final words

Growing pansies during summers is a common question for all gardeners. They grow best during the colder months, but some pansies can survive warm conditions if they get the right conditions.

You might be confused between biennial, perennial or annual pansies. These are differentiated because they grow in different regions. But how and when to grow them depends on the variety of pansies and the climate you live in.

The few best ways to take care of the pansies during the harsh summers are sheltering them to protect them from the heat, deadheading them, replanting the seeds from the removed plants, and fertilizing well. 

This will keep the pansies fresh and healthy throughout the harsh summer. And when winter arrives, the plants will start to grow healthy again.

You need to provide the pansies with a good amount of water during the summer as the moisture can get dried up now and then due to excess heat. Also, make sure they are getting enough airflow so that they are not getting suffocated.

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Ref: The University of Arkansas, Britannica, Utah State University, Wikipedia, The University of Georgia, The Pennsylvania State University, The Royal Horticultural Society.