14 Pretty & Unusual Pansy Varieties

If gardeners and bumblebees are holding their breath for an early sign of spring, then there should be a mighty exhale at the sight of the season's first pansy blossoms. Once considered as weedy as its wild cousin the common blue violet, breeding efforts have produced fantastic new cultivars with both blotched and clear faces, along with ruffled petals and extra-large flowers in a brilliant range of candy hues. Fill your borders, hanging baskets, and window boxes with one of these cheerful varieties of pansies, which bounce back from late winter squalls of snow and ice with ease.

Pansies are short-lived perennials usually grown as annuals—or sometimes as biennials in warm-weather climates. The modern pansy was developed as a hybrid from several species of the Viola genus, especially Viola tricolor. The parent species are native wildflowers in Europe but became widely naturalized in North America. Pansies are therefore sometimes known as violas or violets, though most horticulturalists reserve the name "pansy" to refer to the hybrid varieties with large multicolored flowers.

Pansies are cool-weather flowers that often succumb to the heat of summer. In some regions, they're planted both in spring and fall when the weather cools again. In warm-weather zones, they can be planted in fall to overwinter into the following year.

Here are 14 unusual pansy varieties to consider for your spring garden.