Why is "pansy" used as an insult to suggest weakness, when the pansy is often the hardiest (and last) flower in the winter garden?
The pansies in my front yard were given to me and forgotten, not planted or watered for a week in the late summer. And yet when I finally got them in the ground, even after they were munched down by the local deer*, they managed to bloom. Those bloom have persisted for almost three months, despite at least one hard frost and the wild swings of temperature this fall.
I used to only plant perennials. Why plant something again and again when you only have to do it once? But most perennials bloom for a few weeks and then they are gone, while annuals persist in an extended and glorious swan song. Now I make room in my garden for both.
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* They haven't munched them since I sprayed them with Deer Off.
