Johnie Jump Ups

[ninnymary]

I had some yellow pansies bloom all year long! Finally got tired of them and pulled them out.

Mary

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I have a sort of love/hate relationship with pansies. That is , I love them themselves to death. Every year I buy a lot of them, and actually comparison shop since I am picky and particular about my pansy patterns and presentation, and make a point of picking pansies I perceive as particularly prime.

The hate part comes down the road, as the pansies pass their prime and pass on, and in comes with regards to the pansies progeny. I am punctilious about the pansy's propagules (okay I'm going to drop the alliteration, this is too hard) I'm out there every day collecting seed, at least from those that make them (pansy genes are so mixed up and juggled around that a lot of them are very poor seeders. In fact, I think many don't make seed at all, and are propagated in the nursery trade vegitatively.

The problem, besides the fact I am not particularly good about telling when a seedpod is ripe (different pansies have different colored seeds, so I can't go by color. a pod with only a few seeds on one will be about the same size as a sterile one on a more prolific so size is no good judge. I can't wait for the pods to open since then the seeds usually have sprayed everywhere. And I've never had the patience to go through and bag each and every incipient pod.) is the fact it is all but useless, since I still have no clue as to how to grow working pansies from seed. Sowing in the ground doesn't work, none come up, ever*. Sowing them indoors make itty bitty super thin plants come up that can survive transplant. I think this may be another of those "can't do it without a functional cold frame" things. This failure is particularly frustrating since my exacting standards mean that a lot of the pansies that DO make the cut are very unusual, if not nearly unique in what I have seen (such as the yellow one I had three or four years ago with the purple polka dots, some of the X-rays [my term for a pansy whose flowers have a dark inner center, a dark outer part and a white ring between the two that is very diffuse] and the one I had when I was a kid that was a true chimera (flowers from one side of the plant were black centered blue; flowers from the other were black centered burgundy)

It's actually so bad that, when I am at the nursery in the right season, I actually take and save seed from wild pansies (those tiny cream colored ones that are actually considered a weed) at least THOSE grow.

*we have had one or two johnny-jump-ups/heartseases show up spontaneously, but this is like the odd petunia or sensitive plant that does this or the time I got a tulsi plant I hadn't planted. It happens but it doesn't happen often enough to bank on it happening.

 

[Nyboy]

Mary the White Plains house like most houses in the city, has a very small yard. The backyard is fenced for the dogs, I am lucky that none dig. I have 3 Japanese maples, that where very small when planted, are large now. They take up a good part of backyard. ( I need to prune them, but scared to) The front yard is small but I have it well planted with perennials, I have some antique containers I pack with what ever annuals catch my eye. I work 7 days a week so do a lot of gardening there. Work garden mostly annuals that flower all summer. Country house is on 4 acres that where I really have fun. Lots of trees, perennials, and containers, biggest problem was watering. Summer is very busy at work, I would sometimes go weeks without being able to go up. The landscaper only cut lawn, no matter how many times i asked he never watered enough. This fall I broke down and had under ground sprinklers on timers put in, I can't wait to see how this will effect my plantings. This spring I am putting in a orchard.

 

[Nyboy]

@so lucky My pansies never hold up to NY summer once heat hits I change the boxes out for summer annuals. I do think the smaller flower ones ( I call Johnie jump ups) do last a little longer then the larger flowered in the heat

 

[ninnymary]

Nyboy, do you grow any veggies? Your gardens sound lovely.

Mary

 

[Nyboy]

I plant a few tomatoes starts, i don't cook so vegetables Kind of useless.

 

[thistlebloom]

I plant a few tomatoes starts, i don't cook so vegetables Kind of useless.

Oh you really need to get a Nutribullet NYboy. Then you can grow your own greens and enjoy them in smoothies! Have I told you about green smoothies.......?

 

[Nyboy]

Thistle I need to open the box of my Nutribullet!!

 

[thistlebloom]

Open the box, plug it in and get yourself some mixed greens. You don't know what you're missing!