The persistent pansy

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.

My December yard

(I took these photos on Dec. 20, 2012) 

This Swiss Chard is still green and thriving, despite having been transplanted a month ago.

Swiss Chard

Parsley (in a pot on my deck)

(This celery was grown from last summer from  the bottom nub of store-bought celery.)

Celery

This black-eyed susan didn't bloom until December. 

Black-eyed Susan

Only these blooms remain on all my chrysanthemum plants.

This strawberry plant was chewed to the nub by Japanese beetles this summer, and I had given it up for dead and was about to throw it out. And then it began to grow back, miraculously pushing out a strawberry in December, which couldn't quite ripen.

Strawberry plant in December

This Alysium was grown from a 50 cent seed packet. It still smells like honey. (The store-bought alysium plants in my deck planters had already died).

Alysium surrounding a strawberry plant