Plant pansies now for winter color

October is the perfect time to fill up pots with pansies; I photographed these last year right after Christmas. They love cold weather and it's wonderful to have something blooming into the cold weather.

As soon as we get a frost, I will pull out tender annuals to replace them with different colored pansies in containers. I place pots close to the house so they get a little warmth off the walls.

But containers aren't the only place for pansies, they'll be happy for months in the ground too. Last year I floated a few blooms in a birdfeeder, the water froze solid leaving the bloom in suspended animation until a thaw. Many of my pansies actually came back in the spring for instant color and of course I love the fact that I'm buying them once and getting two seasons of bloom from them. I saw flats of pansies at nurseries for $10, you can't beat that, get planting!