Fancy Pansy View

It's great to be back at our cabin in the country - after some 12 weeks in town. The weather is beautiful and the ice is melting away in the lake (Randsfjorden). In a couple of few weeks time now, we'll be able to launch our boat - looking forward to that!

In the early years of the 19th century, Lady Mary Elizabeth Bennet (1785-1861), daughter of the Lord of Tankerville, collected and cultivated every sort of Viola tricolor (commonly, heartsease) she could procure in her father's garden at Walton-upon-Thames, Surrey. Under the supervision of her gardener, William Richardson, a large variety of plants was produced via cross-breeding. In 1812, she introduced her pansies to the horticultural world, and, in 1813, Mr. Lee, a well-known florist and nurseryman, further cultivated the flower. Other nurserymen followed Lee's example, and the pansy became a favorite among the public. By 1833, there were 400 named pansies available to gardeners who once considered its progenitor, heartsease, a weed.

In Scandinavia, Scotland, and German-speaking countries, the pansy (or its wild parent Viola tricolor) is or was known as the Stepmother (Flower). This name rose out of stories about a selfish stepmother; the tale was told to children in various versions while the teller plucked off corresponding parts of the blossom to fit the plot.