Discount Violets

The Home Depot near my house keeps putting 12-packs of violets on clearance for $2.00.  Normally these go for $10!  While the blooms are fading, they're still healthy plants and will bloom again with a little TLC.

I don't have a photo of the initial ones I purchased about 3 weeks ago, but here are some more that I bought yesterday to go in the ground.

I planted up half of the original pack in containers in the greenhouse, and they seem to be doing fine.

This first two went into a fancy pot.  There's even a new bloom on one them!

The next five are going to be transplanted in spring, so they're in temporary pots to over-winter in the green house.  The ones on the right and back left are a little leggy... I might try pinching them out.

Even though it was snowing earlier in the day, yesterday evening I put the rest of the initial 12-pack in the garden.  It got down to 34°F last night, but pansies are supposed to be tough!

Photo of the pansy plantings.

Just a tiny bit of color in a fairly barren bed.

The additional 12-packs are going into several locations in the garden to see if there's any effect on the plants.  I'm not too sure it's going to go well planting them this late in the year, but it's an experiment!

According to this resource put out by the University of Georgia extension office, their ideal growing temperature is between 45° and 65° F.  The 10 day forecast still has us hitting the upper 40's every day of the week, so we're good there!  It also looks like historically, the average high reaches at least the mid 40's all the way through November and December.

Even if they are a little stunted, I'm mostly hoping to get a bit of spring color and some self-seeding for next year... as well as a fun experiment to watch!