Planting Your Pansies and Violas
If you buy your pansies from a reputable grower pansy care is very easy. Some people prefer to mix bonemeal, bloodmeal, or manure in their flower beds. This is because pansies love nitrogen and iron. Bonemeal and bloodmeal are both nitrogen rich, organic fertilizers. I prefer bonemeal because it slowly releases the nitrogen into your flower bed and is also a good source of organic phosphates. You can still grow beautiful pansies without this step but if you have the energy and time, go ahead. Your plants will thank you.
Ok, our beds are tilled and ready. It's time to plant. If the plants you are planting are root-bound rough up the bottom of the root ball before planting. (Firmly rub your thumb along the bottom of the root ball to break up a few of the roots.) This will help to stimulate growth in the plant. Now dig a hole and plant! The top of the root ball should be flush (level) with the top of your flower bed. Do not plant pansies deep. They will suffocate and die. Lastly, water in your freshly planted bed(s). It doesn't matter if your plants were wet or dry. The goal here is to let the excess loose soil sink into any remaining air pockets around the root system of the plants.
Maintaining your winter garden
Pansies need food and care, like any other living thing. Here you have some choices. Do you like feeding your garden by hand every few weeks or are you a low-maintenance type gardener? If you are one of those who likes to putter in the garden find a good liquid fertilizer that you can apply every two or three weeks. Pansies will accept most basic fertilizers but for a guideline: 15-2-20 is the fertilizer I find works best. The basic 10-10-10 will do in a pinch. If you have granular ironite be sure to sprinkle some around the beds every 3-4 months.
Now, for those of us who prefer low maintenance flower beds, time release fertilizer is the answer. My two favorites are Electra and Florikan. Just sprinkle liberally around the flower bed (on the dirt - not on top of the plants themselves) and allow the rain and/or sprinkler system to do the work for you. Electra should be applied once every couple of months for a fantastic show of color. I'm afraid Florikan is not yet available in the retail market but your local nursery has probably already applied it to their pansy stock.
Lastly, but not least important, for best results you should deadhead your garden once or twice every month. This will keep your plants blooming at their maximum and prevent them from going to seed.
These are the same principals that any professional grower will follow when growing their own pansies/violas for sale. Here are some pictures from the three main stages of my past (2006) growing season for retail sale.
Planting Pansies (Note that these pansy plugs are slightly root-bound and we do rough up the bottoms before planting)
Growing Baby Pansies (2 weeks after planting)
