The Farmer Bailey Interview
Sharing Tips & Busting Myths with Pansies Author Brenna Estrada
By Felicia D'Ambrosio
Pansies author and flower farmer Brenna Estrada (Three Brothers Blooms) joined us for an interview to discuss the benefits of growing Pansies for cut flowers, cultivation techniques, varieties, and Brenna’s personal experience in flower farming. Watch the video to explore the flower's history and potential, Brenna's upcoming book Pansies, and the impact of overlooked varieties and new hybrids on modern floral design.
Order your own copy of Pansies (Timber Press) on the Three Brothers Blooms website, or anywhere you like to buy books! Brenna suggests asking your local independent bookstore to order Pansies for you, a great way to support small businesses in your community.
About Three Brothers Blooms
My flower farm is a pretty small farm. We have about two and a half acres on Camino Island, here in the Pacific Northwest. I grow probably on an acre at most in the back space. I have to really maximize my space. I have three boys, and they were kind of the root and the start of it all. So they've been present and help me keep things going. It's very much a family business. We don't have employees or anything.
I have to be very conscious about my workload, because we are a very small farm, but the island's beautiful. The weather is beautiful. We have a constant sea breeze. We tend to stay a couple of degrees warmer than kind of the other areas around us in the winter and a few degrees cooler in the summer. So it lends to really beautiful cut flowers.
Why Pansies?
I was a 911 dispatcher for about 16 years, and that was after I spent five years active duty in the Marine Corps. So I had had 20 years of just very high stress, and fast-paced type of work environment. And I knew I needed a change.
I wanted to work with flowers, and I found that Floret was hiring. And so I transitioned from dispatch into working with Floret and being there with Erin, you know, you get this massive crash course in how to grow everything, and the year I started was the same year she was trialing Pansies for cut flowers. So I got to be there through that whole process and watch what she was doing, and she made this beautiful resource and sold all the beautiful seeds, and it just really blew my mind because I've never seen pansies in those colors. I'd never seen the option to grow them as cut flowers. I hadn't even seen them with ruffles, you know. All I'd seen was the red, yellow, and purple with the blotch at Ace Hardware and garden stores, and a very typical Pansy that you've seen for decades. But she was just showing these things that I didn't even know existed, and I was so intrigued.
And then as she was busy and moved on with her year in flowers and discovering Dahlias, I kind of just took those Pansies and really focused on them in my own garden. I was really, really curious. So I started doing my own trials and found every variety I could source and growing them, and pushing the limits and testing the stuff that I've been told about them. And it just led to more and more questions about all the old books led to more questions. And so, yeah, just kind of fell down a really big Pansy hole!
New and Overlooked Varieties
My biggest question is, if this fancy variety is here in the US, what other varieties are there that I don't know about, that I'm not seeing? And then the question is why am I not seeing them? Why are we not able to access seeds for these beautiful varieties more easily? And so that was, you know, kind of my deep dive, and trying to understand the Pansies journey and why can't we grow these varieties more easily?
And that's where I found out about all the varieties that used to exist. All these colors and these ruffles and these shapes that you just couldn't even imagine or believe existed. And they just became lost sorts. So my hope is that we can realize if it was here, it can be here again. And we can further the hybridizing and get the seed companies to realize that. Hey, this is what we want! These are the Pansies we want, the ones reminiscent of the old fancy Pansies and ones that are great for cut flowers that still have those trailing habits about them. And yeah, I'm hoping I'm hoping that we can shift back into it again because they are just extraordinary.
Growing Conditions
I have not grown mine in a tunnel yet. I do have some flower friends in the area that grow in tunnels, and they have really good luck with it. I grow mine all out in the open, and one of the reasons that I chose not to do tunnels and other methods during the writing of the book is, I wanted the book to feel accessible to everyone. I wanted people to see that they can do this, too.
The Pansies in the book aren't perfect in every photo because they are just grown in a natural environment. I don't use chemicals. I grow all organically. I want to make sure that the wildlife around me is not harmed in any way. We have a ton of wildlife on the island. So I wanted people to feel like, okay. If she can grow them this way, then I can grow them this way. And I truly believe that, too.
So mine are just out in the open. They're in raised beds for the most part. I have a lot of them in with my roses. I grow them at the base of my sweet peas, but they're exposed to the elements year-round.
The only helping hand I have is when I start my seeds. I start them indoors on racks with lights, so I control the temperature very carefully, and then, when I first move them out on my winter sowing, I have a greenhouse. It's not heated, but I have a little heater that keeps it from dropping below 40. So that's kind of the only areas I have extra assistance outside nature, but other than that, you know, they're outside in all seasons.
They start blooming in spring, and bloom through the entire summer. I have ones that overwinter. I've had ones that have overwintered for four years. They're perennials basically, now in my garden. So it's really just testing. You know, it's just testing your weather, testing your zone, testing the theories and finding what works for you because, really, what do you have to lose? Give it a go see if it works.
Achieving Stem Length
You know, I read a lot of the old books, and in growing a lot of the information is the same. It's it's how the plant grows, and it still grows that way today. So it was nice to see that. And it did help me a lot with finding out how they prefer the soil, and this is what they paid attention to. And what I really found is you have to put a lot of attention into getting the root base to establish at the cost of blooms, and I think that's hard for a lot of people, especially how the Pansy has been categorized as blooming in spring, blooming in fall, blooming in winter. If you let it go, the plant will 100% flower itself to death.
In the older books they talk about how you have to be vigorous with your deadheading when you're getting the plant established and remove the buds before they even open.
Get that root base at least 6 inches down under the ground, because that's where you're going to have that cool, moist soil. So even if the top inch of soil dries out, the roots are happy, and that is what's going to keep the plant blooming in summer, and I have found that to be very true. My pansies bloom all through the summer in the heat. We'll have 90-degree weeks, and they're blooming and l'll deadhead and I'll give them a rest, and I'll give them some fertilizer, some compost tea, but and they don't always look perfect, you know. Of course, they have their phases, but the plant survives, the plant continues and then continues to bloom again and again.
What I found as it comes down to the root base is just giving that plant enough time to establish deep roots that you can keep nice and cool and moist because it's the summer heat that draws out the stems. So if your plant dies before June or July, you're not going to get your long stems. I don't usually have my first cutting flowers until late June, July. So it's after the plant goes through its spring bloom, and then it starts to trail, and you train those stems to grow up. And that's when you cut. So you've got to get that root base. They are happy to withstand the summer heat, which is what lends the long stems.
Spacing
The most I space mine is 4 inches. I usually plant them 2 to 4 inches apart when I'm transplanting them out after starting them as seeds. So they are very, very close, you know, and there's always downsides to it. It's a matter of what you're growing it for. I mean, I get leaf spot on my Pansies every year, but I also get leaf spot on my roses every year. You know I'm in the Pacific Northwest. It's inevitable, and it doesn't kill the plant, and it doesn't harm the blooms, and if it's really bad I treat them and they always recover.
But you just kind of have to understand, there's a give and take with your purpose. So if people are growing them strictly for beauty and landscaping, and they don't want trailing long stems. Then obviously, you don't want them close together, but close together is yes, definitely what allows them to kind of trail, or, I guess you should say, grow up rather than trailing.
Mythbusting: Shade or Full Sun?
You know, it's interesting because there's so much advice about Pansies, and there's so much stuff that's been ingrained to me all my life that Pansies do best in shade, and Pansies have to be germinated in darkness, and I found both of those to be untrue just based on my own trials, and also based on what they talked about in the older books.
So I would discover something, and I would think, gosh! Is it just me? Am I wrong? And that's where I would kind of look to the origination of the Pansy in the older books, and they said it, too. So Pansies tolerate shade, and they do like protection from the afternoon scorch but it's mostly because their roots need to always be cool and moist. That's kind of the big key component. So I have found that pansies bloom best in full sun. I give mine at least 6 to 8 hours of full sun. All my beds are in full sun. The only ones some of them will get shade during again the afternoon scorch with the climbing roses around at my garden. But I don't have any pansies that are mostly in shade at all, and I do I find that they have better color and better bloom size when they get at least 6 hours of sun.
It's obviously zone-dependent if you're in a zone where it is scorching. Then yes, of course, you're going to want to provide them some shade during parts of the day, but for the most part, I do find that they do like a full day of sun.
I know it can be a little nerve-wracking, though, when you're myth-busting, especially things that are decades old and ingrained. And you're like, well, I've kind of found differently, and you know my advice with any of that is, just try it, if this is what you've always been told and now someone's telling you to do something different. We'll just try it. Maybe it works for you. Maybe it doesn't, you know, but it never hurts, because maybe you find a better way.
Seeds vs. Plugs
You weigh out the cost. And Pansy seed is very, very expensive. It's just a more expensive seed for the hybrid and hard-to-find varieties. People often get shocked when they see how expensive pansy seed can be, but it's it's not even just the seed cost. It's everything that goes into it. The hybrids do need a little more care. Most Pansies in general have a very particular environment in which to germinate, and you don't always have that setup. You don't always have the money, or the time, or the setup, or even just the timing of the year. I start mine 12 weeks before the last frost for my first sowing, and then again in 3 months, and then again in 3 months, and it's very easy to get busy and miss that window. There's the space it takes while they germinate, and the space it takes as you're growing them big enough to transplant out. So plugs are huge. I've had several times where I've had to resort to plugs and get them in, and it's nice because they're healthy and they're ready. And they're just right there. And I do I think it's a huge tool for any grower, but especially flower farmers, even more so if you're doing any kind of wedding or floral work where now, suddenly you have a wedding, and you need this palette, and it's like, well, gosh! I didn't start those seeds 3 months ago. And now you can. So I think plugs are absolutely essential. And I'm I'm thrilled that you guys have those varieties available through plugs for people that don't have the capacity, or even just desire to start from seed.
Succession Planting
I start my pansies three times a year to get continuous blooms for cutting. I currently grow them all outside in open beds. My first sowing is in late December/early January, these will be the flowers that bloom from spring to early summer. I start my second batch in late March, these will be the ones I cut from once the first sowing is done and needs to be cut back. They carry me through the end of summer. I start my second batch in late March, these will be the ones that I cut from once the first sowing is done and needs to be cut back. They carry me through the end of summer.
My third sowing is in late June/early July. These are the ones I transplant out in September and overwinter for the earliest blooms possible. Occasionally, they will even come into bloom in fall or winter, but I usually pinch the buds to be sure they have a very strong root base and the best blooms possible come spring.
Farmer Bailey plugs are a wonderful option for fall transplanting if you missed the window for seeds, or just prefer not to start with them. Erin at Floret Flower is growing over 2,000 pansy plugs of all my favorite varieties, so be sure to follow along with her!
Timeless Beauties for Today
I use pansies in all my market bouquets. I use them in all my arrangements. I did a wedding bouquet a couple of years ago that had two dozen pansies in it, and it was just stunning. I love designing with them. I think they do fantastic in design work.
They are a very old-fashioned flower. Their history was so well established almost 200 years ago. They were so beloved and so big at that time, so I think they have a sentimental attachment to a lot of people, to grandmothers, to great aunts, to fathers to their childhood, those faces peeking up at you. It's a very sentimental flower, and I think that does carry in when you use it in arrangements and bouquets. You bring in this level of sentiment, and whimsy and elegance, because it's not a flower people expect to see in a beautiful arrangement or a bouquet, and then you just see this little face, and especially in the colors and shapes, now with the ruffles and the streaking and the watercolor stripes. They just really catch your eye, and I found they do fantastic in arrangements. I've had them outlast several other flowers in my arrangements, and there's the pansy still just right there, popping out new buds. I think they work really, really well.
Brenna's Favorite Varieties
For me, always, it's the black Pansy. I know there's a lot of people that are still very eyebrow raised about black flowers in general. But oh, my goodness! They are so beautiful! They're like velvet.
In arrangements, I will put them with an ivory and a blush palette. I will use just solid black Pansies and a white vase. They're really beautiful. If I can incorporate a black Pansy into something I'm going to do it. They're really extraordinary. But apart from them, if I let them go, Chianti is probably the most popular, and I imagine it's very popular for you guys as well.
Chianti is one of my most popular seeds, just because the color range is so broad you have gold, and you have mauves, but then you also get a lot of the pale ivories and the lemons, and the raspberries and the peaches, and the streaking is what it's really known for–that beautiful raspberry streaking, and it's an excellent cut flower. So I think Chianti is definitely one of the top ones.
Oh, one of the ones I love for arrangements is Nature Antique Shades is incredible in its palette. It also puts out really beautiful stems. But I've actually been told by several sources. It's being discontinued, which is devastating to me.
So that gets me on this whole other arena. There's this whole huge audience and this movement of growers and florists that have entirely different desires for Pansies than what they see at the hardware stores, and the seed breeders need to be paying attention. There are four or five varieties now in my book that were my favorites that are being discontinued this year, and I'm hoping that we can kind of halt that and reverse it with enough attention.
Nature Antique Shades was fantastic because it had all that raspberry and gold and kind of peachy and orange and tangerine colors. You know the really beautiful, sunset kind of terracotta colors. That was a really great one in bouquet work. I know that palette's been really popular.
The thing is that the more you grow, the more you realize there's so many really good ones. I think it comes down to the colors you're going with. I mean favorite pansies for me, just as cut flowers, the Flamenco Terracotta is really beautiful. Tricolor Rose is really beautiful. The whole Flamenco series is just astounding. The Frizzle Sizzle series is really good. A lot of the Nature series are very good. The Pandora has a really great range of color that does fantastic.
Why Write the Book on Pansies?
t was really kind of just a natural tumble process. I love to write. I've always loved to write. I love to read. I've been an avid reader all my life. I love to write things, although I've never journaled, which is kind of odd, but I love to write in general, and when I was researching this I I felt like I could have been a historian in another life. I just am voracious for information, if it's something I'm interested in.
When I had all these questions and could not find the answers, I became very determined. And it was a lot. It was over a year just strictly trying to find everything I could, reading scientific articles, reading journal entries, poring through the Internet, ordering all the old books I could find to even mention the Pansy from all over the world. And just really composing all this, and I would type them. I love typewriters. So I would type out all my notes, so I had a written copy that I could go back and reference. It's interesting because a lot of them I found contradicted each other. You know, you have books written when there's no fact checking, there's no Internet, it's just Bob's word of mouth down at the local pub. And you would see all these differences. But I'm sure it's the best they could do at the time. So it was not even just, well, this book says this, but then I had to go back to the book that they were quoting because they misquoted it, or the information contradicted this information. So then, I had to find that book, and it was just this whole massive rabbit hole. And I thought surely other people have these questions that don't have a year and the embarrassing amount of money that I invested into buying all these old books to find the answers, and I thought, Well, gosh! I mean I'm in the perfect place to share all this. Why on earth wouldn't I? And then also, just seeing all these pansies disappear, all these lost sorts? I feel like, if this is something I can do to just kind of get them to pause and bring these varieties back and get more interest in hybridizing. And more people out there wanting to say, hey? I want to hybridize pansies. I want to bring back these colors and these shapes and sizes. I would love to inspire that.
I almost feel like more of a messenger. It's really just me sharing, look at this flower. Look at all the stuff we assumed, all this stuff that's been forgotten, all the stuff that's been overlooked. Look at how beautiful it can be. Please pay attention to it. Let's work together and get it back to where it deserves to be.
Ambassador of Overlooked Flowers
Oh, yeah, my publisher started calling me the Ambassador of Overlooked Flowers. And I I love that. I will own that. You know the flowers like the the Pansy, the Bearded Iris, the Gladiolus.
I think they were so big, so long ago that they've just been kind of categorized as old fashioned, and not really looked at again with a fresh set of eyes. Then they were big for a reason, and even though the color palette then may have been different, they can still be just as big and beautiful with a current color palette that people love.
So I think it's just giving them a little more credit than they've been given, because there's so many beautiful annuals, too, that are just overlooked for how absolutely fantastic they are.
Other Favorite Flowers
Bearded Irises are my second love. I'm always excited about Poppies. I've been growing more and more Poppies. I really love Poppies. I know people have a hard time with them as a cut flower, but you can get a few days out of them if you do it right?
Especially with this year being so busy, I'm doing a lot of traveling for the book, and I'm not going to be here. So I'm trying to make the workload manageable because my boys will be basically running the farm in my absence. So I'm trying to be careful with what I grow, so that it falls into something that's easy for them. They are really good at harvesting. They do really well with annual Phlox. I love Phlox. It's fantastic. Snapdragons, Stock. Things like that that are justa very good flower, very easy to harvest and care for. And yeah, I think I'm wrapping those up this year.
Pansies, the Book
The official release date is March 11, by Timber Press. It is available for pre-order everywhere. I have signed pre-orders on my website. I would love for people to support their local independent bookstore. I know a lot of people have gone to their local store and asked them to order it in for them. Which is amazing. But as of March 11, it'll be on shelves. So it's exciting.