i have never considered either to be a long lived plant ...

some might last over winter for me.. but generally i consider them an annual ... and so do you since you asked in the annual forum ....

how long do you want an annual to live ...

most annuals give up the ghost.. once they have accomplished their only goal in life .. procreation ... once they go to seed they die.. though we can extend such by removing flowers and seed pods.. forcing them to continue flowering ... but we can only do it for so long ...

good luck

ken

I expect to get more than 2 months out of pansies,
certainly. A lot of my other plants are also annuals
and yet they don't do this. The plants will be forming
new flowers and then suddenly they look wilted and drag
on the ground. They start to turn yellow and if disturbed
they disconnect from their root system (and into the
green waste). By the way, I am religious about deadheading.

forgive me...

as i turned off the computer and headed out into the freezing, sleeting snow storm up here in the great white north .. to look at my pansies that wintered over ... ALL OF A SUDDEN IT STRUCK ME THAT YOU WERE IN ZONE 10 .... and probably talking about new stock ... not wintered over stock.. if you even have a winter in zone 10 ...

sooooo ... with that egg on my face .... my best guess for rotting greenery in warm temps... hyper fertilization and balmy temps ... they could have been over fertilized BEFORE you ever got them .. presuming you didnt start them from seed ..

when you have too much fert... it can lead to too much lush green growth at too fast a rate .... which can lead to collapse and rot ...

thats my best guess for zone 10 .. and next time... i will be a little more careful about giving answers out of my zone ....

you are absolutely correct that they should last longer than 2 months .... which is about the time i will be planting new ones up here in the great white north .. to replace the ones that rotted due to winter ... i envy your early summer ...

ken

I have one question? What tempertures are you talking about when these pansies/violas are keeling over?
These annuals are more suited for cool weather. Around here I can expect good color until around July when they start to decline in the heat. I start to see re-seeded seedlings around end of August and re-blooms soon after. The late season re-seeders stay green thru the winter, under-snow etc. and begin blooming late February/March.

Vera

They are blooming all winter here and I seldom have a loss of a plant. Mine are planted on a slight mound in very well drained soil, lots of vegetative matter mixed in. If the crown of the plant gets under the soil it will rot. Al

The temperatures have been unseasonally cool. Maybe 70
in the day and in the 40s at night. I have been planting
these (bought in 6 packs) with the crown at ground level.
Do you think that's the problem?

Your temperatures sound ideal for pansies. Al

Violas last longer than pansies, for me. They really seem to like being planted in late fall rather than waiting for spring in a warm climate. What's growing best for me right now is volunteer violas reseeded from the previous year. The variety I planted this year is not as 'happy' as the ones from the previous year.

The watering issue has been covered -- are you deadheading? If the old blooms aren't kept picked off, they seem to think they're 'through' and seed out and die. I know it's a real chore, but deadheading will keep them going.

What about the condition of the plants when you bought them? If they'd been in the nursery for some time and kind of rootbound, they may not thrive as well.

One more thing -- you mentioned planting crowns at ground level. Mine do best in a mounded bed.

Nell

Pansies are very prone to several diseases that begin early on in the plant's life. They all look very similar to each other, symptomatically speaking...they collape, rot, melt away, etc. Phytophthora is one and Fusarium is another. These diseases are the most common problem with pansies and violas.

These fungal diseases are controlled during the plant production stage (greenhouse) with routine applications of fungicides...and of course...pre-planting soil treatments. Once they've been shipped to the garden centers, who knows what will happen to them. You see, those fungal spores are present in large quantities and with the fungicide applications halted......BINGO!

To add to the problem, the pansies soon become overcrowded as they grow in their cell packs, and are crammed with other crowded cell packs.....

The very best time to purchase pansies and other bedding plants is as soon after they arrive at the garden center as possible. Avoid bringing home any plant with brown leaves or a weak stem. And if you find a problem with some of the plants once you get them home...don't plant them. These fungal diseases spread, but can be prevented.

Nell, the scientific name of Pansy is Viola :)
Pansy is the common name for Viola x wittrockiana.

Your temps sound just right dimitrig. I don't plant mine at all they (Viola tricolor) just self-sow like mad. The only problems I get with them are Powdery Mildew in fall...then it's time to rip out. They don't die but look a site!
If your not getting signs of disease on the leaves such as Powdery Mildew, Botryitis or Cercospora (black spot), they I would wonder about Rhizoctonia/Thielaviopsis root/crown disease. Has it been overly rainy/wet?
I would first check out Thielaviopsis since Rhizoctonia favors a warmer soil http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r280100411.html

Vera

Here is a link that might be useful: Species and variants of Viola

Thank you, Vera, for the link. Now that I'm properly put in my place about nomenclature, I am referring to the small viola tricolor and slightly larger hybrids commonly sold as 'Violas' in the south, as opposed to the large viola wittrockiana commonly called 'Pansies' in the south. Some of the hybrids I planted this year are called at the Universities, 'Panolas.' They still hate heat and like to be deadheaded.

The viola tricolor seedlings are quite happy in full sun against rocks. My gardening guru, Miss Billie, specifies that one should plant only yellow, the small ones. Yellow does do well.

Nell

Your welcome :) I guess my head is still in school even on spring break. They drill that scientific name stuff in our brains ya know! LOL!!
Around here they are all commonly called either for all of them. No matter they are ALL species of Viola. I have Viola tricolor (Johnny Jump-up). By summer here they are fading away. They re-seed and bloom in fall/spring and sometimes they last longer then that if they are getting some protection from surrounding plants during the hottest part of the year. I'm sure there are some species that hold up better than others.
Panola is a new one for me, but seems they've been around since at least 1999....looks like OSU did a trial on these in 2004-2005 I wonder what their results were? We just do Poinsetta trias where I go to school.
MSU recommends them as a fall annual for Oct-Nov. Now the seed company who bred them (PanAmerican Seed) says they are just Viola x Wittrockiana...this tells me they improved on certain plants from this hybrid species to come up the the Panola series. I wonder how some hybrids come true from seed?
Anyways it seems that the original poster (better quit hi-jacking this thread!LOL) has perfect weather conditions for best display ...so I'm still betting on a crown or root rot. The only thing I would suggest is plant something else that is more resistant in this location and try planting the Viola in another spot and see if this makes a difference.

Vera

Here is a link that might be useful: PanAmerican Seed

dimitrig: I hear you. I'm in zone 9b/10a (s.f. bay area) and they do the same for me. My mom is in the central valley (9a) and they do the same for her. Exactly what you describe. My conditions: strictly containers only(apartment balcony), no feeding/fertilizing, live on the bay/coast, high humidity, extremely mild temps (almost exactly like yours), lots of wind. Mom's conditions: in the ground, no feeding/fertilizing, extremely dry air, huge fluctuations in temps. And they do the same thing. It's not something we're doing! I've learned, as rhizo_1 mentioned, that there are numerous diseases that seem to really take their toll on the viola family. I CAN say, however, that since I've sworn off buying pansies/violas from stores/nurseries anymore, and started growing them from seed, I haven't had a single problem. It's not us. Give them a try again; I have lots of different seeds if you're interested. I've had nearly 100% luck with growing them from seed.

Amanda 'romando'

Lemme back up, here. Dimitrig, I babbbled on about deadheading and on looking back, you plainly said in the third post that you faithfully deadhead. When do you start planting pansies? Are these recently planted or do you plant in the fall? Do you rotate sites?

What about fertilizer, or did I miss that, too?

Now to highjack your thread once again, I have a question for Amanda. I looked at your slideshow. Why do you not feed or fertilize your plants? Not even some 'compost tea' or fish emulsion or something?

Nell

I planted these at the end of January. I fertilize
occasionally, mostly with fish emulsion and kelp.
I haven't tried any from seed, but I bought some seeds
and I will do that. If it is a fungal disease then is
there a cure? I have planted pansies in this bed for three
years straight, always with the same lousy results. Before
that there were daylilies in that bed. None of the other
annuals in that bed are having problems of any sort.

Hi Nell! I do have some all purpose liquid plant food, but I always forget to use it. I have good intentions, but pretty much never end up actually using it. Occasionally I might toss used coffee grounds onto the potting soil surface, but really, I usually pretty much just use plain old tap water. I guess I've just been lucky! I need to update my slideshow-- I recently found a bunch of photos on the computer which I'd totally forgotten about! There's pictures of lots of poppies, nemesia, lots of other stuff. When I get a chance...
(I'm having a girls-weekend-out for a scrapbooking retreat-- hubby's staying home with the kiddos...)

Of course, my project of choice for this weekend is a scrapbook of my garden...(nobody else but you guys could hear that and not laugh insanely) I'm the only gardener among my friends, believe it or not!
Amanda 'romando'