“And there is pansies; that’s for thoughts,” muses Ophelia in Hamlet. The link is in the flower’s name, which comes from the French word pensée, meaning “thought”.
The pansy of Shakespeare’s time, which he also knew as hearts-ease, was closer to what we today call Johnny jump-up (Viola tricolor), with small, heart-shaped purple flowers splashed with yellow.
Also called a wild pansy, this European wildflower is one of the parents of the modern pansy, a hybrid (×) designated Viola × wittrockiana.
Over the past 100 years, pansies have undergone a breeding revolution that’s made their flowers bigger and more colourful added to the individual blooms’ appeal with distinctive patterns that resemble the faces of kittens or lions — complete with whiskers.
These animal-like patterns arise from the fine black lines on the petals and…
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Good Organic Gardening (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue #13.1 - 2022