"Perty" Pansies

The pansies are out!

They are blooming like crazy and making hearts sing.

Is there anything as pretty as pansies in the early springtime?

They brighten up two big pots on either side of our front steps. 

 When the sun pours down on them, it looks like somebody lit a lamp inside their blossoms.

Sometimes, it looks like the pansies have little faces, smiling away in the breeze.


I love pansies, don't you?

Joining Cynthia's Show and Tell Friday on her enchanting blog, My Romantic Home. This is the very first blog I found in Blogland! Therefore, it will always be special to me.

DO YOU HAVE PANSIES IN YOUR YARD EVERY SPRING?
p.s.  Cynthia's Cottage Designs is having a giveaway. Go to Cynthia's fabulous blog and check it out. Her blog button is on this blog's sidebar.

Pretty Pansies Brighten-Up Front Yard

Today's post joins Metamorphosis Monday on Susan's blog, Between Naps on the Porch. Be sure to go there to check out other home projects. Just click http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/.

Large planters on either side of some steps in the front yard, and one near the main steps, have been looking pretty forlorn for several months, piled with snow and pelted with icy rain.

While reading the newspaper one morning, there was an ad to a plant nursery that sold "frost resistant" pansies. Man alive, my eyes picked up that tidbit like a magnet.

Off we went to the plant nursery to check out the pansies. There were hundreds of them in all colors and designs, like this:

Do you remember picking johnny jump-ups in the woods, as a child?  Well, did you know that pansies are descendants of johnny jump-ups?  They are, according to the book Garden Flower Folklore by Laura Martin. This is a terrific book, crammed with hundreds of flower facts, legends, and, well, folklore.

Often associated with love, heart-shaped pansy leaves were used to cure a broken heart, according to Martin. Also, legend has it that pansies used to be all white until Cupid's arrow pierced them and purple and yellow appeared!

While looking for pansies for the front yard pots, it was almost impossible to make selections. I loved them all! Should we get solid yellow or the pansies with the little "faces?"  We opted for the latter.

Once home, the flat of pansies is ready for planting:

Into the pots they go:                                                   

The dismal looking winter weary pots are now filled with brave and beautiful  pansies. The pots already are starting to look so much better!

One sweet flower fell off during the transplanting so we called it "pansy in the palm." 

               

Now comes the waiting game to see if they really are frost resistant!

DO YOU LIKE PANSIES? 

 

The Faces of Pansies: Run for the Shade

When I was a little kid, one of my aunts used to take my cousins and me on walks through the woods near her house.

One of the best parts of those excursions was picking wild violets.  We'd gather fat bunches of them, come home, and put them into juice glasses. They were so pretty.

To me, violets and pansies, members of the same flower family,  are reminiscent of spring in New England. They arrive soon after robins and daffodils. They are among the oldest cultirvated plants and have a very delicate fragrance.

(Click photos to enlarge)

Pansies come in a huge variety of colors and designs.  The ones pictured above are among the most unique I've ever seen. Usually I think of these flowers as being purplish but, in realty, they come in a rainbow of colors.

The word pansy comes from the French word "pensie" which means thought or rememberance.

Pansies and violets are edible but, quite honestly, I wouldn't be interested in eating such pretty little flowers. I'd rather just look at them and admire their beauty.

Did you know the English have given all kinds of names to the humble pansy?  Check these out:

      * love-in-idleness

      * call-me-to-you

      * love-true
      * three-faces-under-a-hood

      * pink-eyed John

      * tickle-my-fancy
      * bird's eye

      * jump up and kiss me

      * God-father and God-mother

      * kiss-me-in-the-buttery

      * rob-run-the-street

      * heartsease

Isn't that amazing?

When someone lacks stamina, he/she is often negatively referred to as a "pansy."   This may have resulted due to pansies' inability to withstand heat. When the heat comes, just like me,  pansies wilt. Isn't it great to know one has something in common with  flowers? 

Here's one new, made-up name for pansies: run-for-the-shade!

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COLORED PANSY?