Friday, December 29, 2017

Sowing Violas and Pansies

Since learning to sow seeds for starting some of my own plants, pansies and violas have been elusive for me. They're some of the most beautiful flowers in my opinion. Although some other garden bloggers that I follow have no problem sowing and nurturing their seedlings until time to plant out. I've been successful once. Pansies were one of the first seeds I tried to sow long before I've learned more about gardening from reading books, good gardening web sites of nurseries, extensions, and others. Attending gardening classes, and of course my fellow garden bloggers. Since my first successful attempt with little knowledge but good success it's as if the more I read about how to sow pansies and violas, the worse success I have. This year, I try again.

I don't remember what I did the first time but the thing I remember the most was growing them on the window seal. Maybe this was the most important factor. Growing in a cool environment. Although winter sunlight is different than that during the growing season of spring and summer, my pansies thrived on the window seal. They weren't leggy at all and didn't stretch in search of light. Maybe the window will be their home this winter after I sow them until spring.  Keeping the cat from bothering or knocking the seeds out the window may be a problem. I don't believe I even provided darkness for them to germinate although covering them with a light dusting of seed starting mix obviously provided the darkness. Many sources encourage stratification a period of cold in the refrigerator (or for winter sowing outdoors naturally, followed by germination when soil temperature reaches the optimum for each seed) followed by growing them at about a temperature of sixty degrees when growing indoors or under glass.

I've sown more pansies than violas and just noticed when sowing some today that viola seeds are very tiny although not as small as other seeds like foxgloves and petunias. Those seeds are like dust. Violas can be handled with care when sowing and don't have to be pelleted seeds. Today for the first time I tried sowing them on coffee filters. Where did I get that bright idea? No I didn't read it anywhere although I did a lengthy search on line to see if others have tried this and what the results are. Didn't find anyone who'd done this and posted about it yet. Can't hurt anything except the money spent for the seeds if it doesn't work.

Unfortunately I dropped a whole pack of new viola seeds on the floor on a bamboo rug before I realized it. The whole package. So upset. Can't do anything about it but look in my stock of seeds for a similar type of viola. The main problem with sowing violas this way may be that the seed is so small how will I tell which end to transplant out of the soil if they germinate?

 Some  sources online in forums discussed the viability of seeds and stated that viola and pansy seeds aren't viable for long. This might be the reason for many failures although many seeds I sowed where ordered from good sources prior to the start of seed starting. Lets see if my experiment works.

These seeds are from Swallowtail Garden Seeds.

Will use some old seeds from 2013 and 2015. Hopefully they're still viable.

After dropping my 2018 viola seeds on the floor I used old seeds. Lets see how they do.

Didn't use seed starting trays but have to wash these 12 and many more.

Took a fluted coffee filter and put it in a cup of water to wet and layed it on a flat surface to sow the seeds.
As you can see the pansy seeds are large and I've seen even larger ones. These are smaller pansy seeds compared to some others.


Put in plastic bag to maintain moisture. I'll check them daily to make sure they don't dry out and water as needed, and check for germination.


Think these are the violas although the picture makes them look larger they're tiny.

Put inside a plastic container and covered with foil before putting in the refrigerator to provide the darkness recommended for germination.

I dropped them all on the floor. Couldn't identify them if I wanted to. What a loss.

Hope to sow these tomorrow and place in the refrigerator in a bag along with the delphinium below which also needs stratification.


That's blackberry Lily a good sized seed.

And delphinium. Want to start geraniums and echinacea next. When ever that is.

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