Do you want to have a garden full of your favorite flowers for free? Do what your grandparents would have done, learn how to save your own pansy seeds!
Some Reasons To Save Pansy Seeds
I used to think that flowers were useless in the vegetable garden, but that couldn't be further from the truth.
Flowers attract both pollinators and beneficial insects to your garden. This leads to fewer pests and an increase in fruit due to the extra pollinators.
Pansy flowers are greatly beneficial becuase they are an early flower. This offers food to bees and other pollinator when there aren't many flowers.
If you want to grow pansies for pennies, then you need to learn how to save their seeds.
Which Pansy Plants Can I Save Seeds From?
You need to read your plant's seed packet or plant stake to see if your plants are hybrids or heirlooms.
Heirloom pansy seeds will grow true-to-type while hybrid pansies will either produce sterile seeds, or off types.
Make sure your tag either states heirloom or open-pollinated. If it says F1, the plants are hybrid and shouldn't be grown for seed saving.
The panies that are pictured in this post are the heirloom variety Brush Strokes.
Can I Save Viola Seeds?
Yes, you absolutely can! Viola and pansies are very similar plants, and both have the same seed saving steps.
Pansies are actually bred from violas! Violas (aka violets) are hybridized by breeders to create the larger blooms of pansy plants.
I have found the violas often have stronger scent, more flowers, longer lasting blooms, and an overall vigor, unlike pansies.
Now, there are some stabilized/open-pollinated pansies that you will find in seed catalogs, but if you want a hardier and longer lasting plant, choose violas.
(Although I grow violas, I will be using pansy and viola interchangablly in this post as you grow them the exact same way!)
Will My Pansies Cross Pollinate
Yes, pansies will cross pollinate. If you want to grow plants that produce true-to-type, you will need to isolate your pansies.
This is best done by creating distance between the varieties, using insect netting and hand pollinating the flowers, or by only growing one type of pansy.
If you are not worried about keeping the varaties true-to-type, there is no need to isolate the flowers, but you may have some new colors next year.
Step-By-Step Guide To Saving Pansy Seeds
Follow the below steps to save your own pansy seeds. Note: Grow your pansy flowers just like normal before following the below steps.
I like to save pansy seeds right around the beggining of summer, as this is when the plants start to struggle with the heat. After seed saving, I simply remove the plants.
Step 1: Allow Your Pansies To Produce Seed Heads
If you are growing pansies for their flowers, you should be continually dead-heading the plants.
This will cause the plant to produce flowers instead of seeds. However, when it comes time to save seeds, you need to let the flowers mature.
Once the cooler spring tempertures have passed, your plants will naturally try to produce seeds.
Allow the plants to grow flowers, mature, drop petals, and produce a seed head.
Step 2: Harvest The Seed Heads
Once your plants have mature "pods" that are brown, you can harvest the seeds. Below is an example of a seed head that is TOO EARLY to save seeds from.
Below is a picure of a seed head that is mature and needs to be harvested.
The seeds pods may open when they are brown, so timing is key! If you wait too long, the seed heads will burst open and scatter the seeds.
Wait until the pods are dry and snap open when crushed. The seeds should be dark brown or black and they should feel dry and hard.
Step 3: Sort The Seeds
Once you have your seed pods, lay them out on a white napkin or paper towel. This makes it easy to tell what is a seed and what isn't.
You can now crush the pods to release the seeds. Then remove the pod fragments and sort our the seeds.
If you have a large quantity of seeds, you may want to winnow them. You can learn more about winnowing seeds here.
Step 4: Dry The Pansy Seeds
Pansy seeds are very dry when they are harvested, but if there is any moisture the seeds will rot in storage.
To dry your seeds, place them on a window screen or paper plate in front of a fan. Make sure the fan is set on low and is in a dry, dark, and cool room.
Within a week, your pansy seeds should be dry enough for storage.
Step 5: Store Your Pansy Seeds
It is now time to store your seeds so you can plant them next year. Pansy seeds can be stored in glass jars, envelopes, or in paper seed packets.
Keep your seeds in a dry/cool room as they will last longer. Pansy seeds should last in storage for 2-3 years.
For more seed storage tips, read this post.
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