Pansy

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{{Taxobox | color = lightgreen | name = Pansy | image = 5p pwy pansies.jpg | image_width = 250px | image_caption = 5-petaled pansies | regnum = Plantae | divisio = Magnoliophyta | classis = Magnoliopsida | ordo = Violales | familia = Violaceae | genus = Viola | species = V. tricolor | subspecies = V. t. hortensis | trinomial = Viola tricolor hortensis | subdivision_ranks = Hybrids | subdivision = Viola × wittrockiana }} The Pansy or Pansy Violet is a cultivated garden flower. It is derived from the wildflower called the Heartsease or Johnny Jump Up (Viola tricolor), and is sometimes given the subspecies name Viola tricolor hortensis. However, many garden varieties are hybrids and are referred to as Viola × wittrockiana. The name "pansy" also appears as part of the common name of a number of wild flowers belonging, like the cultivated Pansy, to the violet genus Viola. One or two unrelated flowers such as the Pansy Monkeyflower also have "pansy" in their name.

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Development of the pansy

All across Northern Europe in the 1800s amateur gardeners crossed and recrossed the wild Heartsease (Viola tricolor) with another native violet (V. lutea) and eventually one from the Near East (V. altaica), to produce a host of bigger, bolder pansies. As a result of extensive cross-breeding in the 1820s and 1830s, named varieties became very popular. By 1835, 400 varieties were available. By 1841 the pansy had become a favorite show plant.

With the explosion of greenhouse-building in the Victorian age (due in large part to the availability of affordable, low cost steel) the bold flowers familiar to modern gardeners appeared.

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Pansies for underplanting

Pansies are suitable for planting under shrubs; acting as living mulch, they inhibit the growth of weeds.

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Uses

Pansies start blooming in the spring in the Northern Europe and the north of the United States, and in winter in warm climates. They are often cultivated with sweet alyssum as they produce a pleasing colour combination and bloom at the same time.

Pansies are edible and have been used to dye mordanted fabric. They also turn out well when pressed - all it takes is sandwiching it in-between two pages, then sticking in a book for a couple of weeks, or until dry.


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Cultivation, breeding and life cycle

Image:Pansy.jpg Pansies have been bred in a rainbow of colours, ranging from gold and orange though to purple, violet, and a blue so deep as to be almost black. They are quite a hardy plant, growing well in sunny or partially sunny positions. Pansies are technically biennials that normally have two-year life cycles. The first year they only produce greenery; they bear flowers and seeds in their second year of growth, and afterwards die like annuals.

Most gardeners buy biennials as packs of young plants from the garden center and plant them directly into the garden soil. Gardeners interested in rarer cultivars can plant seeds indoors in early November for plants ready in the spring. Under good conditions, pansies and viola are perennial plants, although they are generally treated as annual or biennial plants because they get very leggy and overgrown after a few years. The mature plant grows to 9 inches (23 cm) high, and the flowers are two to three inches (about 6 cm) in diameter.

Pansies are hardy in in zones 4-8. They can survive light freezes or a little snow, but not for very long. In warmer climates, zones 9-11, pansies can bloom over the winter, and are often planted in the fall. In these climates, pansies have been known to reseed themselves and come back the next year. Pansies are not very heat-tolerant - once the temperature gets over a certain point they will become leggy and stop blooming.

Pansies should be watered thoroughly about once a week, depending on climate and recent rainfall. For maximum bloom, they should be given flowering plant food about every other week, according to the plant food directions. Regular deadheading can extend the blooming period.


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Anatomy

Image:Purple Pansy.jpg The pansy has two top petals overlapping slightly, two side petals, beards where the three lower petals join the center of the flower, a single bottom petal with a slight indentation.

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Diseases and pests

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Diseases

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Stem rot or pansy sickness

The plant may collapse without warning in the middle of season. The foliage will flag and lose color. Flowers will fade and shrivel prematurely. Stem will snap at the soil line if tugged slightly.

The plant is probably a total loss unless tufted.

Soil-borne fungus. Possible hazard with unsterilized animal manure.

Use Cheshunt or modern Benomyl fungicide prior to planting. Destroy (burn) infected plants.

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Cheshunt recipe

2 parts finely ground copper sulphate 11 parts fresh ammonium carbonate

Mix thoroughly and stand for 2 hours in sealed container. Dissolve 1 ounce (28 g) in a little hot water and add this to 2 gallons of cold water and use immediately.

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Rust

Puccinia aegra fungal infection. Yellow-brown spots on leaves and stem. Spray with Benomyl or Sulphide of Potassium (1 ounce to 2 1/2 gallons)

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Leaf spot

Ramularia deflectens fungal infection. Dark spots on leaf margins followed by a white web covering the leaves. Associated with cool damp springs. Spray with fungicide.

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Mildew

Oidium fungal infection. Violet-gray powder on fringes and underside of leaves. Caused by stagnant air. Can be limited but not necessarily eliminated by spraying (especially leaf undersides).

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Cucumber mosaic virus

Transmitted by aphids. Fine yellow veining on young leaves, stunted growth, anomalous flowers. Virus can lay dormant, affect the entire plant and be passed to next generations and to other species. Prevention is key: purchase healthy plants, use ph-balanced soil which is neither too damp not too dry. Soil should have balanced amounts of nitrogen, phosphate, potash. Eliminate other diseases which may weaken the plant.

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Pests

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Slugs and snails

Lay sharp, gritty sand or Ésoil with chipped bark. Clean area of leaves and foreign matter.

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Aphids

Spray with diluted soft soap (2 ounce per gallon) Aphids are microscopic and lay eggs.

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Cultivars

Image:FlowerPansies.jpg

The Universal Plus series of 21 cultivars covers all the common pansy colors except orange and black.

  • Antique Shades

3 inch wide flowers
Silky sheen, pastel colors

  • Crystal Bowl Mix

2 1/2 inch wide flowers
Faceless, clear colors

  • Flambe Terracotta F1 Hybrid

medium sized flowers
Terracotta shades

  • Flamenco F1 Hybrid
  • Jolly Joker
  • Mambo Mixed F1 Hybrid
  • Orchid Blotch F1 Hybrid
  • Padparadja (named after the orange sapphire)

2 1/2 inch wide flowers
Faceless, deep orange
A 1991 All-America Selections Winner[1]

  • Pandoras Box F1 Hybrid
  • Pandoras Children F1 Hybrid
  • Petite Mixed F1 Hybrid
  • Raspeberry Ice Cream F1 Hybrid
  • Springtime Black

All silky deep purple and apparently black

  • Thompson & Morgan Black
  • Total Eclipse F1 Hybrid

Faceless, orange, yellow, black

  • True Blue

Faceless, sky blue

  • Water Colours Mixed F1 Hybrid
  • Zorro
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Name origin and significance

The pansy gets its name from the French word pensée meaning "thought". It was so named because the flower resembles a human face and in August it nods forward as if deep in thought. Because of the origin of its name, the Pansy has long been a symbol of Freethought<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and has been used in the literature of the American Secular Union. Humanists like the symbol also, as the pansy's current appearance was developed from the Heartsease by two centuries of intentional cross-breeding of wild plant hybrids. The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) uses the pansy symbol extensively in its lapel pins and literature.

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As a woman's name

Pansy is occasionally spelled "pansie" and can be a woman's name. In the United States, the name is popular among African Americans. The word "pansy" can also be used as an insult, questioning the masculinity or courage of a person.

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Pansies in the arts and culture

In 1827, Pierre-Joseph Redouté painted "Bouquet of Pansies".

In 1926, Georgia O'Keeffe created a famous painting of a black pansy called simply, "Pansy". She followed with "White Pansy" in 1927.

D. H. Lawrence wrote a book of poetry entitled Pansies: Poems by D. H. Lawrence.

In William Shakespeare's play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" the juice of pansy blossom ("before, milk-white, now purple with love's wound, And maidens call it love-in-idleness") is a love potion : "the juice of it, on sleeping eyelids laid, will make or man or woman madly dote upon the next live creature that it sees." (Act II, Scene I see also: Oberon at II, i). Since the cultivated pansy had not yet been developed, "pansy" here means the wild Heartsease, and the idea of using it as a love potion was no doubt suggested by that name. The folkloric "language of flowers" is more traditional than scientific, with conventional interpretations, similar to the clichés about animals such as the "clever fox" or "wise owl". Ophelia's oft-quoted line, "There's pansies, that's for thoughts", in Hamlet (Act IV, Scene V) comes from this tradition: if a maiden found a honeyflower and a pansy left for her by an admirer, it would mean "I am thinking of our forbidden love" in symbol rather than in writing.

There is a queercore musical band called Pansy Division, drawing on the fact that Pansy has indicated an effeminate male since Elizabethan times. The word "ponce" derives from it, and did not originally have its current meaning of a prostitute's controller; "poncey" still means effeminate.

The pansy remains a favorite image in the arts and crafts, from needlepoint to ceramics.

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Myths

“In traditional “flower language” pansy’s three colors – purple, white, and yellow - stand for memories, loving thoughts, and souvenirs, all of which ease the hearts of separated lovers. Pansy juice once served as an ingredient in love potions.” 

“The flowers, or whole flowering plant, either fresh or dried, yield a bitter tea that was employed to remedy a variety of illnesses. Beliefs were that pansy tea could cure infantile convulsions, and effectiveness externally for scabs, itching, and ulcers.”

“in folk medicines it was used as a fever reducing remedy, a diuretic, a laxative, a sedative, an expectorant, a gargle, and as a “blood purifier” and as a agent to rid the body of toxic substances, and as a demulcent.” “There is no scientific evidence regarding the validity of any claims made for pansy’s healing properties.”

Sources: Magic and Medicine of Plants (Reader’s Digest)

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References

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Books

  • A Potpourri Of Pansies, Emilie Tolley, Chris Mead. ISBN 0517594498 :; LCCN 92-41125 Many photographs, illustrations, crafts and recipes that you can use involving pansies. A good coffee table book.
  • Pansies, Violas & Violettas: The Complete Guide, Rodney Fuller, The Crowood Press Ltd, 1990, ISBN 1852237481. Perhaps the only modern book on the pansy itself. Includes an extensive bibliography.
  • Violas, Pansies and Violets, D. B. Crane, 1921
  • Pansies, Violas & Violets: Present-Day Gardening, William Cuthbertson, J. P., and R. Hooper Pearson, T. C. & E. C. Jack, 1910
  • The Book of the Pansy, Violas & Violet, Howard H. Crane, London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1908
  • Sweet violets and pansies: And violets from mountain and plain, Ernest Thomas Cook, New York, C. Scribner's Sons,1903
  • The Pansy and How to Grow it: With The Best Methods Of Hybridization With A View To Improvement, Etc., Etc., James Simkins, London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., 1889
  • Les Pensées, J. Barillet, Paris, 1869
  • (La) Pensée, la violette, l'auricule ou oreille d'ours, la primevère; histoire et culture, Rogonot-Godefroy, Paris, Audot, 1844
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External links

he:אמנון ותמר ja:パンジー

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