Collecting Pansy and Viola Seeds

12 comments

I have not been on here for a while and thought I would like to say Hello again to everyone, and tell you all what I am doing in the garden at the moment.

Now that it is sunny again I love popping out into the garden and collecting my Pansy and Viola seeds, so that I have my own supply for sowing next year. Both these flowers are easy to grow, and they provide plenty of colour in my small garden. Here are some violas that I have growing in my shed windowbox.

As soon as the flowers have faded and dried a little, the seed pods pop open in three parts, and expose what I like to call ‘three little boats’, to the sun in order to dry out.

I cut the complete seed pod off and keep it in a dish until I have quite a few of them collected. When I have I take them indoors and spread them all out on some kitchen paper.

I separate the seeds out and keep them in a container ready for sowing, and put the rest of the debris (seed pods, leaves etc) into the compost bin for recycling.

I found an idea somewhere that someone uses orange juice cartons as seed propagators. I found they work well as they are waterproof and I use them myself now. We get through a good few boxes of orange juice each month so I have a good supply. The piece I cut off makes a good plant label and if you place the spout at the bottom it provides good drainage too, don’t forget to unscrew and remove the plastic lid though ;-)

I am now looking forward to many more seedlings and colourful flowers.

It’s great to be back amongst friends again..and hope you all have a lovely summer…..take care, Rich x

30 Jun, 2014
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Comments

Steragram

That is very ingenious - appeals to my Yorkshire background.

30 Jun, 2014

Richardpeeej

Oh thank you Steragram glad you liked it ..

30 Jun, 2014

Hywel

Violas are pretty. I hope you get lots for next year :)

2 Jul, 2014

Richardpeeej

Thanks Hywel ..

3 Jul, 2014

Cristina

Hi l don't come on much .. But thougt i say hi to you .. Glad to hear u ok .. And gardening.. We still busy with ours and just had our open day for n.g.s again ... Its all looking good xx

5 Jul, 2014

Balcony

Glad to see you have rejoined us, Richard! :-))

Now that we are in the summer I don't spend nearly as much time on GoY as I do at other times. Well you DO have to grow stuff before you can comment on it after all! I spend a few hours a day on my allotment & as it's often in the evening it means I can't be on here at the same time! LOL!

My wife & I bought some Violas during the last Bank Holiday in May from a street stall in a town just 5 miles from where we live. They were called 'Pansy Rocky', For "Pansies" they have very tiny flowers like Violas. But they are a uniform off-white colour with a blue "eye". As my wife liked them immediately we got a box of 6 plants. I later put them in pots & put one potful on the balcony railings, right in front of the door that leads out on to the balcony - so my wife could see them through the window in the door - even if she hardly puts a foot outside!

See the photos in my photos page.

5 Jul, 2014

Richardpeeej

Thank you for the welcome back my friend. Glad the open day went well Cristina will pop on your site and take a look at your pics.

Thank you too for the welcome back Balcony. I love the white pansies that you have on your balcony they look really healthy. As well as enjoying your flowers it seems as though you love your allotment too, hope you get plenty of produce from there :-)

10 Jul, 2014

Cristina

Hi Hun .not posted pics yet lol .. Bin busy. With our new. Alotment too .. Out to wales today
.enjoy ing nice wether with other half today .. Hope ur well .. Chat soon xx ?

17 Jul, 2014

Richardpeeej

Thanks for your visit Cristina. Hope you had a good time in Wales. Your allotment will be keeping you busy this time of year Cristina. Looking forward to seeing your pics.x x

17 Jul, 2014

Balcony

Thanks Richard for your comment on the Pansies. :-)) For a few weeks I thought I was going to loose them! They looked spindly & sickly - the dark green leaves had turned a yellowish-green & the plants had become spindly. I didn't know what to do with them! I deadheaded them one day as there were many seed capsules that I hadn't noticed before. Then I decided to give them some tomato fertilizer hoping it might make a difference but really I was almost resigned to them dying! ;-(( After a couple of more weeks they started to pick up again & are a much better colour & are flowering well again. Of course the spindleness hasn't gone, for that I would have to cut back the plants to the base to get them to send out new shoots but I was very reluctant to go down that route.

23 Jul, 2014

Richardpeeej

So glad that your pansies have come back to life and are showing new signs of growth Balcony. Will you be collecting the seeds from them to sow next year?. What I have found when I do that they don't always have the same colour and are a little bit smaller. I suppose that is to do with the cross pollination. Hope all is well and you are enjoying the warm weather....phew hot today!

24 Jul, 2014

Balcony

Hi Richard, yes I'm saving some of the seeds & have in fact sown the contents of just one seedpod. I sowed them a couple of days ago but until the weather cools down somewhat I don't think they will germinate.

These Pansy 'Rocky' plants seem more like Violas than Pansies! Perhaps they were sold as Pansies as it would be a more widely know name than Violas. (?)

They are lovely flowers but about the size of big Violas - much smaller than the Pansies we are used to. I believe the difference, apart from size, is in the number of petals but I'm not sure nor has it occurred to count them before this moment! LOL! :-D) I have no Pansies (other than these) at present on my balcony though the "Winter Flowering Mixed" ones I planted out on the allotment are going great guns! They are flowering now - in mid-summer - like they should have done in March/April but didn't. I'll put a couple of photos up so you can see them - they are such a vibrant colour! I must save & sow some seeds for this winter.

29 Jul, 2014

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