This picture was taken two days after the big thaw of DFW’s “Snowmaggedon”. You might think these pansies have been killed by the hard freeze that lasted for four days. Fear not! pansies are one of the toughest winter annuals we can plant in our area. As the temperatures warm up these pansies will bounce back, putting out new leaves and eventually new flowers. It will take few weeks for these pansies to flourish again. If you prefer not to wait that long to have beautiful pansies after a hard freeze you should cover them with a frost blanket. Almost any kind of covering will help insulate the pansies: old sheets, towels, burlap, or an actual frost cloth will keep the pansies warm enough to prevent the worst damage while letting air and moisture through. Avoid any kind of plastic. I’ll post an update as the pansies recover. Stay tuned!
Garden Escapades
It depends on how much work you want. Assuming that you have healthy green growth under the frost damage then shearing the pansies back to that point would speed up the recovery process. But if you left them completely alone the new growth would eventually overtake the frost damage. It looks like we’re done with super cold temperatures but North Texas’ average frost free date is March 15th, so we could be hit by another round or two of freezing temps. This could cause more damage to pansies that were just sheared back. You might want to wait a week or two before cutting them back since the damaged tissue will help insulate the healthy leaves if we get another hard freeze.
Hayley
Should I cut my pansies back or deadhead them after frost damage?