Pansies can indeed be Perfectly Preppy

Pondering planting pansies on a pretty winter afternoon...

Kanon gives the pansies a sniff-test and they are "approved"

Hanging-pansies cheer up the dulled winter vines on the porch

Our doberman basks in, and guards, the pansies on the porch...

Pansies and pillows add softening to the marsh pit's seating area

A big bumble bee snoozes away perched on a pansy, bzzz...zzz

Sweet-faced pansies and assorted violas are not the flowers that come immediately to mind for me as being uber-Preppy as the likes of heirloom roses, peonies and orchids in porcelain cache pots automatically do. Pansies can be quite "pedestrian" when they're used in municipal building landscaping beds or set out into small, pathetic little rows much too near a house's perimeter shrubbery.

However, when tucked into planters, decorative pots and cottage window boxes with some ivy vines and moss trimming, pansies become much much Preppier and add such delightful cheer year-round but especially so in the midst of winter.

Another nice way to utilize pansies is to use them as a colorful rimming around decorative green n' purpled cabbage within kitchen gardens and also yes, in container planting as well.

This past weekend, the various planters out at the island house really needed some refreshing. It's far too early to put out the casual wildflowers and flowering vines that I like to add into these floral groupings on our front porch, near the garage and also out by the marsh side firepit area. We have warm weather and blue sunny skies at the moment out here but there's always, always another cold spell that hits us before April finally brings warmth-consistency. And so, a few flats of pansies fit the bill perfectly.

It was a wonderful lazy-ish Saturday afternoon then for my dog Kanon and I as he supervised my refreshing of the planters. Under a brilliant blue sky and in the mid-70's with a gentle ocean breeze, this created the perfect setting to enjoy getting my hands into pansies n' potting soil.

We took our time with lotsa' sitting around, Kanon rolling around in the grass and even a bumblebee thwarting our finishing up one planter pot as he buzzed onto a pansy and then spent the afternoon seemingly snoozing away on it in the sunshine...

What a wonderful respite kind of day and activity in the midst of this winter!

Even if you can't plant or refresh with pansies where you live, putting a dollar's worth 6-pack of them into a terracotta pot and perching it on your kitchen windowsill will certainly add a cheerful touch within what has been for many folks, a very long, cold, snowy or rainy wintertime indeed.

Bring on the pansies and bring a bit of floral sweetness into your wintertime days....