Pansies are surely some bold fellows; we’ll give them that! With their bright, daring colors, heart-shaped petals, and large flowers, you can’t brush past them without doing a double-take. Now, if you’re ready to include pansies in your garden, a few questions might be on your mind, including: Do pansies need full sun?
Yes, pansies grow best in full sun, which also means that they need four to six hours of direct sunlight each day. However, this only works if the climate is on the cool side. If not, offering too much sun to pansies in too-hot regions could cause the flowers to wither away.
If you have more questions, we’re here to answer all of them in this article so that you’re 100% ready for your own arrangement of growing pansies. Buckle up!
How to Ensure That My Pansies Don’t Receive Too Much Sun?
Despite being famous for their love for direct sunlight, exposing your pansy plants to too much sun isn’t a good idea.
Their pretty petals might soon droop and die, the leaves turning brown and the stems losing their vibrant green color.
Therefore, you must carefully choose the spot where you’ll be planting your pansy flowers in your back or front yard.
Their location must be somewhere that gets three to four hours of the morning sun, shade or filtered sunlight during noon, and again, three or four hours of the late afternoon sun.
Of course, this is the case if you live in a region where the weather is considered mild or cool weather.
More specifically, if the temperatures during the day are always below 75 degrees Fahrenheit, that should be suitable enough for your pansy plants to receive six hours of sunlight.
However, if the daytime temperature goes above 75 degrees, your pansies will need partial shade. This translates to only four or five hours of sun per day, in the mornings or late afternoons.
A good way to battle high temperatures is to increase the amount of water that you give your pansy flowers.
This way, the water in the soil won’t evaporate too quickly in the sun, saving your pansy flowers from having to deal with droughts.
Do Pansies Grow in Shade?
For a plant or flower to grow in the shade, it must get more than three hours of sunlight each day. With that in mind, you might wonder if pansies can handle these conditions.
Unfortunately, pansies need at least four hours of sunlight, and that’s only if they’re planted in an extremely hot region. Therefore, full shade isn’t an option for our pretty little ladies.
What Are the Best Places to Grow Pansies Outdoors?
There isn’t a specific spot where you should plant pansies; the only rule here is that this location should get direct access to morning sun and shade in the intense noon heat.
That being said, pansies can be planted anywhere that fits this description, such as:
- Directly into the ground (in a flower bed)
- In pots on a windowsill or a bright surface next to a window
- In large outdoor containers or window boxes
Can You Plant Pansies Indoors?
Pansies can add a lovely touch of elegance to your living room or kitchen and a splash of color to improve the overall mood of your interior space. To make sure they grow into beautiful blooms, you must take care of a few things first.
For starters, the temperature inside your house must be steady, specifically between 60 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
Then, you’ll need to find a nice location for your pansy pots so that they get bright sunlight from outside. Place them next to a big window that isn’t covered by any shades, even those of the lightest type.
After that, treat your pansies like you’d do if they were outdoors; provide three to four hours of direct sunlight in the morning and follow them up with some shade during the hottest hours of the day.
When it’s late afternoon or evening, it’ll be time to expose your flowers to three hours of the sun once more.
How to Tell If My Pansies Aren’t Getting Enough Sunlight? Can Pansies grow in Shade?
The greatest thing about pansies, and plants in general, is that they’ll immediately give you signs if they aren’t in a good place.
This applies to the scenario when they don’t get as much sun as they need.
If that occurs, you’ll notice these symptoms on your pansies:
- Wilting leaves, flowers, or stems
- Long and leggy runners growing off your pansies
- Pale green or yellow leaves
- Too small leaves
- A noticeably low growth rate
What Happens If My Pansies Don’t Get Enough Sunlight?
If the previous symptoms go unnoticed, pansies can face more trouble than you might’ve geared up for. See, not having access to a sufficient amount of sunlight each day puts the flowers at risk of diseases, especially root rot.
Plus, not enough exposure to the sun can lead to stunted growth, no flower production, and an overall unhealthy plant with too-long limbs.
How many hours of sun do pansies need?
Generally, pansies need 4-6 hours of direct sunlight. But in warmer climate, you need to put it in shade and protect the plants from direct sunlight as too much heat can slow the flowering pansies.
There are other varieties like cool wave pansies that can grow in partial shade.
So, if you are wondering about how much sun should your pansy plants require to thrive, 6 hours is what they need!
Do pansies need to be deadheaded?
Pansy plants must be deadheaded to maximize the flower blooms and minimize the rise of infection during winter.
Do pansies come back every year?
Pansies need sunlight to grow, so during winter or freezing cold weather they die.
However, if you have mulched them and protect their roots, they can bloom again in spring. Remember that this can be done in moderate weather areas and not in freezing cold ones.
Do pansies self seed?
There are a wide varieties of pansies and hence, you can find different varieties of pansy seeds too.
If you live in a moderate area, you can see them coming back naturally from their seeds, if you don’t clear their bedding plants.
Frequently Asked Questions
What type of soil do pansies need?
Planting pansies in a fertile, well drained soil gives them enough potential to thrive. You can also plant them in a well draining pot, hanging planters with native soil and decomposed compost.
Can Pansies Get Too Much Sunlight?
In hotter regions, pansies need partial sunlight. While in cool weather, they need around 6 hours of sunlight to produce colorful blooms.
Too Much Sunlight in hot weather can lead their petals to droop and die.
Final Thoughts
Do pansies need full sun? It’s a question that many have asked in their pansy-care journey, and now, after you’ve read our guide, you have your long answer.
Pansies require full sun to grow into happy and healthy blooms, but only if the weather is moderate or cool.
In hotter climates, pansies are best kept in partial shade to avoid exposure to intense sunlight, which might cause them to wither and die.
If you come to think of it, growing pansies isn’t as hard as you might’ve thought; these plants are pretty tough, which only suits their confident look!
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