without actually getting a full ID of the pansy you have.. it is hard to glean its cold tolerance ....

some are fully winter hardy .. some arent ....

i know you have spring fever.. but what is the hurry to throw them out to the vagaries of mother nature in MARCH!!!!!

in z6... your last potential frost/freeze date is near the end of MAY!!!! .... me thinks you might be ahead of the curve here a bit ...

ken

I have the "Delta" True Blue Pansies
It's not that I have spring fever as much as I want to make sure if the plants are no longer dormant they are getting the light they need (they are in a garage...no light)
I think I'll just wait until temps are above freezing at night or just move the pots back in the garage when night time temps go down further.

I don't really think anyone waits until the end of May to plant pansies ha

I have had my pansies outside in pots all winter long. We have had a very cold winter for us: 2 weeks with lows in the teens down to 11 and highs barely breaking 20. We've had snow, frost, freeze repeatedly. They are blooming their heads off. During the worst of the weather, they looked pretty rough: as if they were drawing in on themselves for protection. I have learned this is normal. When it warms up, they come right back out. I have had the same experience for 20 years. I have grown Ultima Morphos, Magestic Giants, Deltas, etc. etc. Never have I lost pansies to cold.....Deer? That's another story.

Curtis-
The last frost date for me is about May 10th. I think yours in Z6 should be sooner than that, right? I would certainly not wait till the end of May, you will only have a couple weeks before it gets too hot for them! I think your plan is fine, and if you are worried about cold temps just bring them in at night like you said.

Sarah

I noticed that you said they were in terra cotta pots. That could make a difference if a late spring freeze came along since the pots are much more porus then plastic. Just be ready to take them back in quickly if temperatures shift downwards after you have them outside.... Donnabaskets and I must be just a zone enough apart to make a difference in winter kill on overwintering container pansies. Of the 7 pots of pansies I left out over the winter, only 3 have survived and that's about normal from past experience. They are all in plastic containers btw. I tend to favor the Sorbet varieties (the smaller flowered types) and they "seem" to be more resiliant to our winter temperatures then the big flowered varieties, but I haven't put that to the test really, it's just a working theory.

I would say that you should be fine in April. When I lived in zone 6 that is when I would put out my pansies and violas. They are pretty tough and as was said above since they are in pots if you had a really cold night and didn't want to risk them you could bring them back in.

You say you have the pansies in the garage. I am curious to know whther that means that they have no light? If so that's really interesting because I've never heard of that technique. So you buy them in Autumn, keep then inside and then put them out in the Spring. Is that right? Can someone explain exactly what you do? We grow winter pansies here which stay outside all winter and summer pansies for the summer. But I've not heard of keeping pansies inside like geraniums or chrysamthemums. Please enlighten me.

Hi Flora_UK
This was sort of just an experiment.
Last year I had some mums in containers that I had out in the fall, we had a big freeze and when I went to throw out the mums I couldn't get them out of the pot because they were frozen in there. So I just put them in the corner of my garage and thought I would throw them out when the soil thawed. Well come that spring I went to throw them out and lo and behold there was no green shoots coming from the base of the plant. I've been doing that with my mums now because it saves me from buying every year. I decided to try this with my pansies this year too so come freeze time I threw them all in the garage with the mums and left them there until now. I've had them outside now for a few weeks and although they don't look fantastic they are green and very much alive. I expect them to continue to improve in appearance over the next few weeks as the temperatures rise.

In my zone if you plant pansies/mums in the mid/late fall they will not come back in the spring. However, if you plant them late summer/early fall they will...all depends on how established they are before the freeze comes.

My entire backyard is hardscaped so I experiment more with container plants since I don't have earth to plant things in.

Pansies are very cold-tolerant--it's heat they can't stand. If yours are showing green, I'd get them outside to a protected location for up to a week or ten days to harden them off and get them growing. Personally, I'd also water with Miracle Gro or whatever brand you prefer to encourage flower buds.

If severe weather threatens, you can either move them back to the garage briefly or throw plastic over them to protect them. A lot depends on how big the pots are--the smaller the pot, the more TLC they will need and vice versa.

Good for you for carrying them thru!

Yes......Pansie DO NOT like hot weather!