'Swiss Giants Mix' Pansy Heirloom Seeds

'Swiss Giants Mix', heirloom pansies, are large-flowered evergreen perennials, usually grown as cool weather annuals or biennials, offering spring and fall interest, blooming all winter in mild climates. Long blooming, the plants produce rounded blue, orange, purple, red, white, and yellow flowers with a contrasting dark blotch for up to 4 to 6 months. Borne singly on upright, nodding stems, the flowers have a fragrance and make adorable kitchen table bouquets or cheeky additions to floral displays. And butterflies flock to them.

Delicate looking but tough and highly adaptable, these hardy herbaceous plants have a tidy, rounded, mounding habit of ovate to elliptic medium to dark green leaves. They grow best in full sun to dappled shade and loose, rich, humusy, organic soil, but they will grow in almost any moist, well-drained soil. They are disease and pest resistant.

For best effect, mass plant or group. The plants are well-suited to containers and hanging baskets but also work well in beds and borders. Deadheading spent flowers prolongs blooming.

In the North, sow seed indoors in cool, bright conditions about 6 to 8 weeks prior to setting out. Water sparingly until plugs are fully rooted. The plants thrive in cool weather and tolerate light frost or cold night temperatures. Acclimatize them outdoors 7 to 10 days prior to transplanting. In the South, plants can be grown for fall and winter flowering. Sow seed indoors in midsummer, 6 to 8 weeks before transplanting into the garden after the cooler weather arrives.