How do I care for Perennial Pansies?

I just moved into a new home that have perennial pansies in a circle around the outside lamp post. It looked gorgeous in June, but now all the stems are long and straw like and there are pansies growing at the tips. It looks horrid. What should/could I do??

How do I care for Perennial Pansies?
Perennial pansies are best planted in the fall. they grow then and bloom some. The live through the winter(althought they look well limp) and in spring you get kaboom! a beatiful late spring early summer display. they do die back when it gets hot so you will need to replant them in the fall for the same beauty next year. You can plant in spring too but not as pretty as if planted in fall. Therefore, not a true perennial living year after year.





Just go ahead a cut them back now or pull them up whichever you please. You could have planted some annuals when they started looking bad. You may still can if you can find some although it is getting really hot now and hard to get anything looking pretty.
Reply:Pansies hate the heat
Reply:Snip them back with scissors- remove the leggy ones and dead blooms.


Keep in mind.


Pansies will rarely make it as a true "Perennial". But they may seed themselves.


Oddly, it is more likely they will survive the winter rather than the summer.


With some luck: you may be able to have them make it...


I have been able to cut them back nearly to the root and have them sprout back in the fall. (Plantings from March...!) BUT they were week plants when they came back.





Pansies are cool weather plants and will look best when treated as annuals. Those planted in fall may make until Christmas. Or even to the spring, hence the term "Perrenial Pansie". (But they really are not perrenial).





---Note: Many types of Pansies will sprount from seed- "self seeded" from the previous year... The "Johnny Jump -Up" type seem to do this very well.