HTA Plant of the Month – Pansies

Our friends at the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) have chosen their plant of the month – the Pansy.

Twelve different plants have been unveiled by the HTA for a special calendar, which will highlight plants that are widely available in garden centres and are looking their best on a month by month basis, and the pansy is this month’s pin-up.

The calendar has been nominated and agreed by the HTA Retail Suppliers Group and HTA Retail Management Group to ensure that it meets the needs of growers and retailers and is supported by the likes of David Domoney, Floramedia and Hortipak.      

                                                    

The Celebrity of the Month, who is also championing the pretty Pansy, is Esther Rantzen CBE.

She said: “I love pansies for their soft colours, all the shades of blues, purples and golds and for their faces, turned down, as if in contemplation, as Ophelia said, ‘There’s pansies, that’s for thoughts’ – and indeed the name comes from the French word, pensee, to think.

“They look fragile, but in fact they are tough, they can survive anything except the burning summer heat, and they seed themselves and return, year after year. Outside the garden wall their little wild cousins, the violets, send out their fragrance to reassure us that spring is on its way.”

Popular varieties recommended by the Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit  include:

·         Viola Aspasia

·         Viola Beshlie

·         Viola Clementina

·         Viola Cornuta

·         Viola Cornuta Alba

·         Viola Cucullata

·         Viola Huntercombe Purple.

*Image credit Whichford Pottery and the HTA