Withdrawal of the universal pansy
By Drc726
East Sussex,
England 
Sorry to see you go I will miss you as you have been around since 1979
Universal pansies this is probably their last season in our seed catalogues and garden centres as Goldsmith, the US breeder and producer of seed, has withdrawn the variety. from our seed catalogues its likely we will have winter Violas instead. I’ve been hearing about the Mariposa trials and it seems the smaller flowered violas do better in winter. Does anyone know if we can keep the old pansy seeds going ourselves?
2 Oct, 2009
Answers
Oh, wow......I love the Universal Winter Pansies...typically whats popular is withdrawn! Love Violas....but not quite as vivid as the Pansies. Could be very pretty though...Mariposa means Butterfly in Spanish...:o)
2 Oct, 2009
The pansy is too head heavy and not so many flowers as the smaller viola but I love big pansies even if they do flop Janey. Butterfly suits violas though.
2 Oct, 2009
I'm willing to bet we won't notice much difference in the winter pansies, Mariposa or not, except that many more viola varieties will be available in the autumn.
2 Oct, 2009
I can see the problem with the weighty heads....especially in the winter weather they get marked and spoiled...Milky has a pic of a fabulous one, my fave ......a golden shade merging into blush pink...I had these a couple of years ago and they flowered all through the worst weather..........
3 Oct, 2009
Janey I recently planted some blush pink ones called F1 pansy Rose surprise lovely pale pink with dark bits.
3 Oct, 2009
I assume so, as long as you stop them from crossing with other varieties.
2 Oct, 2009