Observations from - 
A PANSY BREEDERS 
NOTEBOOK 
Reviewing more than half a century of work with Pansies one 
begins to realize how much and how little has been accomplished. 
Great strides and improvements have been made but there are 
many still desirable projects for the future. I have been privileged 
to personally see and take part in a greater span of this work, 
probably, than any now living grower who has specialized in it. It 
is possible that this experience affords a background for some 
observations that may be of interest and possibly some value. 
Watching, year after year, the comments, ques- 
tions and problems of thousands of professional 
and home gardeners, it is forcibly demonstrated in 
a great many cases, that much misunderstanding 
about Pansies prevails. Here are some of the most 
common - 
MARKETING & GROWING PROBLEMS 
Each year there comes to our office many ques- 
tions on these subjects and whenever there seems 
to be a repetition of a question several times 
during the year we like to pass along some of our 
experience in the matter when we can. 
The growing, or maybe I should say the 
attempt to grow Pansies in flats seems to be con- 
sidered the desirable thing to do these days of 
mass selling. Only a few days before I write this 
this question came up again with its production 
problems from one of central California’s large 
growers. His problem was growing pansies in flats 
with 4 inch blooms and the plants short and 
bunchy. He felt sure that if this could be done he 
could sell thousands and thousands more of these 
plants each spring. We all could for that matter. 
Nature doesn’t work that way and whenever 
we are determined to break her laws we seldom 
accomplish the desired results, although, in some 
instances we do gain improvements. The specifica- 
tions, however, set up in this case is at present 
impossible of accomplishment, You can’t grow 40 
to 60 plants in a flat 24 inches square and get 
husky plants that are developed in a ground bed 
with spacing of 4x4 or 6x6 inches. There is 
neither the elbow room or the food supply to do 
this. Neither can the food supply be maintained at 
a high enough level in this circumstance to produce 
many 4 inch blooms. 
In fact, even with the obvious marketing con- 
venience that flat culture affords, we believe it to 
be one of the worst possible types of culture with 
Pansies. By the very nature of the plant they like 
lots of available food and elbow room to develop. 
They require a cool moist soil condition to do 
their best and this is a difficult requirement to 
fill with a flat only 3 or 4 inches deep. 
When it comes to competitive marketing of 
Pansy plants I would hate to have to buck well 
grown field or ground bed grown stock that has 
been freshly lifted from the growing beds and 
placed in Pansy baskets for display, with plants 
that have been grown in flats. You would simply 
be so much outclassed that you’d be lucky to sell 
the flat stuff at half the price. 
BAD TRANSPLANTING HABITS 
This probably accounts for about as many 
failures with Pansies as any single part of the cul- 
ture. Too many growers are too prone to trans- 
plant Pansies while the seedlings are too small 
and in some cases to transplant too many times. 
The commervial grower should never transplant a 
Pansy plant more than once - from the seedling bed 
to his growing bed. That means when the customer 
transplants it to his garden the plant has been 
moved twice and that is all these plants will stand 
without showing a reduction in bloom size. Too 
many transplantings also tends to produce ill 
formed plants, 
There is also a tendency with many growers to 
transplant the seedlings too young. Always make 
the seed sowing thin enough so that the seedlings 
can develop 6 leaves before being transplanted and 
it is better if they have 6 to 8 leaves. Smaller 
plants than this will be damaged to such an extent 
that they seldom develop the large bloom size or 
the robust plant habit that they should. 
Not enough care is used in many cases to 
transplant the plant at the proper depth, either in 
the nursery or by the home gardener. A Pansy 
plant that is transplanted too deep tends to leg 
up into an ill formed plant and flowers will be 
dwarfed in size. Also a plant that is not set deeply 
enough will develop a weak root stem, be floppy 
at the base and sufter from severe dwarfing of the 
flower development. When transplanting the seed- 
ling should be set as nearly to the same depth at 
which it has grown in the seed bed as possible and 
firm up the soil around the root-stool so as to 
give firm support to the upper plant without 
smothering it with soil. 
Care in attention to detail in this operation 
will go far toward the production of many more 
salable Pansy plants that will build your reputa- 
tion for quality plants. 
VARIATION IN COLOR BLENDS 
Every season we have a number of letters com- 
plaining about a color mixture being too this or too 
that. Usually it’s too much yellow; too much blue; 
too much purple. Unthinkingly the writer will 
jump to the conclusion that the seed grower is at 
fault and he might be if he is not an experienced 
specialist of long standing and good reputation. 
The funny thing about these cases is that one may 
come in complaining of excess yellow; the next 
one may be excess blue. From the seedsman’s 
viewpoint these cancel each other out. 
Now what is the cause of this? Well, yellow, 
blue and purple are predominants in Pansies. That 
is they are the most common, longest established 
colors, coming right up from the botanical stocks 
