Pansy Flower – Meaning, Symbolism and Colors
Flower symbolism is there to teach us about nature around us and all the things that are going on without us noticing. We strained ourselves from nature and forgot to be more in tune with everything that is going on around us. We stopped appreciating nature and the living beings in it, and that is our biggest mistake.
Flower symbolism is not only there to tell you which flower sort to gift to someone, it is also there to let you know more about a certain flower sort and the history behind it. In today’s text, we will be talking more about the Pansy flower and the symbolic meaning behind it.
Meaning of the Pansy flower
Every flower has its own symbolic meaning and we need to know this meaning before we decide that this is the right type of flower for someone we love. Sometimes flowers can have deeper meanings that can be interpreted in a wrong way by the people we gift them to, and we certainly don’t want that to happen.
Besides this, flower meaning is also important because it teaches us more about the flower itself and the hidden meaning behind its existence.
Sometimes flowers can have such rich historic background, and we will be surprised about the fact that we never heard of it. The Pansy flower has following meanings:
- Loving feelings
- Thinking
- Considerate
- February birth flower
- Free thinking
Loving feelings – One of the most important meanings of the Pansy flower is that this flower represents loving. This is the type of flower we can gift to almost anyone who is dear to us and to whom we are feeling warm and kind feelings. The Pansy flower is an ideal gift for our partners, mothers and friends. There is no mistake when you decide to gift this flower to someone you love, because they won’t get the wrong message.
Thinking and free thinking – The Pansy flower is an ideal gift for people who are not afraid to speak their mind and think outside the box. These small but beautiful flowers can be a perfect gift for those people who are not afraid to say what is on their minds and to express themselves. Besides this, the Pansy flower is also a sign that you are thinking about someone and that your mind is preoccupied with thoughts about this person.
Considerate – The Pansy flower is also a symbol of consideration for someone’s pain or distress. This flower can be an ideal gift for someone who is going through some difficult moments in life and needs a little bit of comfort.
February birth flower – The flower of the month of February is the Pansy flower. People who are born in this month are either born under the Zodiac sign of Pisces or Aquarius and both personalities are imaginative and open minded. These are the people who are not afraid to question things and provide imaginative answers to questions. The Pansy flower represents this kind of personality and that is why it is an ideal gift for someone born in February.
Pansy – Etymological meaning
The name Pansy flower comes from the mid-15th century. The word Pansy comes from the French word penser which means “to think” about something. This is why the Pansy flower is often a symbol of free thinking and thinking in general.
The French word pensee comes from the Latin word pensare, which also means to consider a certain situation and measure things one more time.
Pansy – Symbolism
The Pansy flower has a very interesting symbolism, and it probably doesn’t look like the type of flower that has that kind of interesting background. The Pansy flower is the symbol of the Free Thinkers Society, which is a group of people who think outside the box and aren’t restrained by anything that society inflicts upon them.
This society promotes the highest form of logic and purity and people often use the Pansy flower as a symbol of this kind of thinking.
Also, the word pensee (which is the base of the name Pansy) means to think or to consider something.
In Victorian era, the Pansy flower was used for courting and it represented a display of love from one person to another. People would place the Pansy flower in a “tussie mussie”, which was a bouquet of herbs wrapped in a cloth together with some flowers. This was then gifted to the person you are thinking about and to whom you are feeling all kinds of romantic feelings.
Pansy – Color meaning
Color of the flower doesn’t have to determine anything, but often the color itself is the reason why some flowers have a much stronger symbolic meaning. The Pansy flower comes in several different colors and sometimes even color combinations. Each color has its own symbolic meaning and it can add or take away from the flower symbolism. Pansy flower colors are:
Yellow
- Color yellow is a symbol of happiness, positive energy and joy. This flower color can be gifted to someone who is going through some rough moments in life, especially if you brighten this person’s day or make them feel better.
Purple
- Color purple is a symbol of royalty, nobility and beauty. The purple Pansy flower is an ideal gift for a person who is not just ordinary for you and a person who has a lot to offer to the world. This person needs to be someone special and someone who evokes strong feelings in you.
Red
- Color red is a symbol of love, affection and romance. This flower color can be an ideal gift for someone you love and someone who fills your heart with romantic feelings. This flower is already a symbol of affection and consideration, so the color red only accentuates this symbolic meaning.
Orange
- Color orange is a symbol of happiness, joy and optimism. This flower color can also symbolize love and passion. The orange Pansy flower can be an ideal gift for someone you love and feel passionate about, but it can also be a gift to someone who is going through some rough moments in life.
White
- White symbolizes purity, spirituality and innocence. The white Pansy flower can be an ideal decoration in your home or garden, but when it comes to symbolic meaning, you can’t make a mistake by gifting this flower to almost anyone.
Blue
- Color blue symbolizes honesty and loyalty. This flower color can be gifted to someone who is a true friend and companion of yours in life, and to someone who is there for you in every sense of the word. Color blue leaves a strong symbolic meaning and it can be gifted only to those who deserve to be called loyal friends.
Pansy – Botanical facts and characteristics
These beautiful flowers are often the decoration of our meadows and gardens. People come across different names: day and night, little maids, mothers, field violets, meadow violets, mistresses, ladybug, mistress, widow. They are distinguished by the exceptional diversity of colors and shapes. The Pansy plant belongs to the family of violets and has many subspecies and forms.
In nature, we usually meet two subspecies: Viola tricolor subsp. Arvensis with small, whitish flowers, and Viola tricolor subsp. vulgaris with more purple flowers. In our gardens, frequent decoration is Viola tricolor subsp. Hortetnsis (Viola × wittrockiana) with colorful flowers, that is not used for bouquets and arrangements, but serves for the decoration of our gardens, parks and balconies.
They can be one-year, two-year or short-term perennial plants depending on the type and time of planting. These are small plants, 10-30 cm high, with stunted stems. Their stem is hollow, and the leaves of the plant grow on the edges of the bulb.
Flowers on long stumps appear from the leaves of the root. They bloom in the period from May to September, but since they are very resistant to low temperatures, their flowers first appear in our gardens and remain until late winter. The seed is very small and the weight of 1,000 seeds is 0.5 g. They tend to criss-cross and hence their great diversity.
Pansy is not a demanding plant. It grows well in the half-shade. These plants are very resistant to cold and low temperatures. They love to have loosely and oily land.
They can be propagated by seeds or cuttings. They are the easiest to reproduce with seeds. For late-autumn and winter planting sowing is done at the end of August. After sowing, the seed is covered with a thin layer of sand and foil that maintains the surface layer moisture. The foil is removed when Pansy begins to grow. The withdrawal period is 6-14 days depending on the temperature. The optimum flow temperature is 15-20ºC. If the temperature is higher than 25ºC and the dry surface layer, the plant will not sprout.
After the plants are grown, the temperature should be lowered to 10ºC. Pansy is transplanted when plants have 3 leaves in individual pots and after that just continue with care. Already in the bottle, after 3 weeks, the plants should be pinched (coated) to get a branched bush that will give more twigs and flowers. After 4-6 weeks, the Pansys can be planted in a permanent place.
Sowing can be done in the garden until mid-May. As in the bottle, only sown seeds need to be watered and covered with black foil until emptying. It is possible to sift 50 to 60 seeds per 1 m of small grain in the soil. All the care is the same. Young plants can grow or sprout.
The reproduction of cuttings allows preserving the purity of the shape and color of the flowers. Cuttings are taken during May and July. They should have 3 knots and plant at a depth of 5 mm. When planting, leaves should be cut along the stem. In this way, 400 cuttings can be planted on 1 m².
Every day, the cuttings need to be moistened. It is best covered with moist newspaper paper that will maintain humidity that is extremely important during the first 3-4 weeks. Plants from cuttings taken during May and early June give plants that will flourish at the end of the summer and during autumn of the same year. Later, the cuttings will flourish next spring in the spring. From one plant can be taken 10 cuttings, and from a well-developed bush, during the summer, 30-40 cuttings can be taken.
Day and night are planted at a distance of 20-30 cm and they need to be well watered with water at room temperature after planting and be careful not to cover leaves. It can be planted during autumn, early winter and early spring to well-drained land.
The autumn and winter plantations were more likely to appear than the spring, because the plants develop the root, be stronger and give more flowers. If you are buying a plant, pay attention to the appearance of the plant. Leaves should be healthy, green, and a plant full of flower buds. When it comes to fertilizing this plant should be fed with fertilizer rich in phosphorus and potassium.
During the dry season, regular watering should be continued, while the flowering flowers and dry branches must be removed during the flowering period. This will contribute to the prolongation of flowering, give greater flowers and preserve the beautiful shape of the plant. Older plants of high varieties and forms can be shortened by 15 cm and thus extend the period of flowering. Of course, it is desirable to remove weeds.
Very often in the cultivation of the plant, we meet with many pests and diseases day and night. Most often they attack and damage the snails with the house, the snails slipping and leaning on you. In order to protect them from the snails, the surface around them must be sprinkled with fine, sharp sand or set up with beer bowls. For the protection of your leaves, different herbal preparations from nettle, garlic or tobacco should be used.
The most common types of disease are on maids: ashtray, dancing, root rot, cucumber mosaic virus, and leaf bark.
Pansy – Secret message
Every flower is hiding a secret message that we need to decipher and understand. Sometimes this message is easy to discover and other times not so much. The Pansy flower is telling you to have a positive mindset and to always clean your mind and think before you do something.
This beautiful flowers symbolizes thinking, therefore it is no wonder that it teaches us to think before we act because it can sometimes save us from a lot of trouble.