Deadheading your pansies

I know it may seem a little cruel; tricking the pansy plant into thinking it’s not proliferating the species. I do this by picking off the little seed head that form after the beautiful flower fades. The pansy does more of what it thinks it needs to do, because of my thievery, to create more pansy plants. It flowers like crazy. Now, other things also help, like having good soil to grow in and proper fertilization, but deadheading is, oh so important. The pansies I have in pots on my front steps…a day doesn’t go by without me picking off at least a few spent blooms. Maybe I’m obsessed, but I have lots of flowers!
How to: Just pinch off the spent pansy bloom at the base of the stem with your fingers or use pruning snips. You’ll become an expert at determining what is a seed head and what is a flower bud in no time.
By the way - at the end of the pansy season, as spring is coming into form, I allow the pansy to go to seed. I may even scatter a few in the garden to see what might come up later in the year.