The difference between Pansies and Impatiens is that Impatiens are a tender perennial and Pansies are a biennial we treat as an Annual. You could probably overwinter it inside, but I don't think you'd be happy with the plant the next summer. It would grow long and scraggly and would probably not last the summer.

You would be better to leave them in the ground. In your climate they may go dormant and survive the winter, especially if you gave it some mulch after freeze-up

Pansies like most flowers have been hybridized. They may come true and may not, especially if it is one of the frilled or fancy ones.

The good news is they are easy to grow from seed. Plant them in the ground as soon as the top layer of soil is thawed. They sprout in cool weather. By the time you are ready to plant other annuals they will be getting ready to bloom. Pansies are good candidates for winter sowing. If you want to go that route check with that forum on this site

I'll bet if you went through some on line seed catalogues you could find your pansy.

If you only have that one color and there are no other pansies around, your seed from your pansies would likely be blue, but they may not be exactly the same in size of flower.

in my z5 .... some do winter over.. some dont ... [which might be a function of which year of the biennial cycle they are in ...]

i suppose it matters on how bad the winter is.. or ... how good the mulch is ...

i would take some seed from yours .... and see if a little winter sowing might not get you some ... as a failsafe towards losing all yours ...

i used to use well ground up fall leaves as a light airy winter protection ... applied late in the season ... so they dont start rotting while blanketing a plant ...

ken

Pansies will occasionally overwinter for me in Z:4 with a mulch of shredded leaves. Last year my pansies stayed nice until late in the summer then self sowed in their container. I left the seedlings in the container and covered them with a bag of leaves for the winter. This spring when I lifted the bag they were still green and grew quickly blooming with the same beautiful colors and ruffles as the parent plants.

I'm trying the same thing this year but we've had some really hot days this month and the seedlings don't look too good. Maybe they will perk up when cool weather comes.

Actually, all pansies are short-lived perennials, not biennials. We typically treat them as annuals, however.

Graciemoxie, I think that you will be pleasantly surprised if you give your pansies a good haircut right now. Yes, you'll be cutting off some flowers, but the plants will soon begin to regrow and rebloom. Pansies much much prefer the cooler temperatures and even the blooms are tolerant of mild freezes. The foliage is very tolerant.

I don't think that your pansies would be happy inside for the duration of the winter. They are truly cool season plants. Perhaps protect them from the very cold temperatures, but I'd not recommend that you try to winter them in a sunny window.

A while back, I mentioned a new pansy (coming soon to a garden center near you!) that has shown some really great cold tolerance. It's called 'Plentifall' and would surely last though the winter in your location. Not only last, but bloom all winter long.

My early spring-planted pansies never survive our hot, hot, hot July-August, but I have planted pansies in the ground in early fall and most of them have survived our Zone 6 (Kansas) winters, unless the winter was unusually brutal. In my experience, hot weather is much harder on pansies than cold weather. The only protection my fall-planted pansies got was leaves that nature sometimes blew over that bed, rather haphazardly.

Kate

rhizo

The plants we call pansies are not perennials but Biennial. Others of the same family like violas are perennial. I looked at many sites on line just to see if you were right and not 1 listed it as a Perennial--They were listed as Biennial

Hmmmm...I see that pansies are listed as biennials at some websites. Strange for a plant that doesn't act like a biennial in any sense of the word. Pansies clearly bloom their first season. Yes, they have a very short life span, no matter what kind of nurturing we may give them.

Honestly, I don't see anything about this plant that qualifies as a biennial....a plant that grows vegetatively it's first season, goes dormant, then produces flowers and seeds in the second year before it dies.

Not that it matters for this discussion, but it's interesting.

I just dragged my Hortus Third off the bookshelf to see what was said about Viola in general and Viola X Wittrockiana (Pansy) in particular. All 500 or so spp. of violas are cited as perennial or annual 'herbs' or (sometimes) sub-shrubs. Viola X wittrockiana is categorized as a perennial, but it states that it is often TREATED as an annual or a biennial.

Sheesh, we can list a boat load of plants that fit into that category, can't we?

Boring, I know, but I love getting to the bottom of things like this. I hadn't hoisted my Hortus III around in a long time, so I thank you for the opportunity!

AbsoLUTEly! (We both learned something.)

I don't think that I would include the self-seeding aspect into the annual/biennial/perennial discussion though. Lots of plants self seed; it has nothing to do with their natural life cycle.

I wish that my redbud would stop self seeding all over my annual/biennial/perennial beds! lololol