Yes, pansies are good WS candidates but they like the cold. I hope someone with more experience pops in with a suggested start date. There was another question about this awhile ago and I think it was recommended to WS seeds in fall but I can't recall specifically how early or late. It certainly couldn't hurt to sow some now and some later, then compare which was the more successful or even if there's no difference.

My plan is to sow them now as if I were WSing but hope they germinate sooner rather than later--wish me luck!

thanks gardenweed & Merilia. I think I may try a few about mid october (it was 43 here last night and gonna be 40 tonight and tomorrow night) just as I was WS them. then will WS some anout Christmas. I always end up buying more in late jan and early feb anyway. We will see what happens. I think I read some where that they don't need light to germinate. I will recheck that also.
thank you both again
Tom

I hate to risk any of my pansy seeds now but you got me wondering with these replies.

Some violas seem easy to sprout, but I ws'ed pansies 2 winters ago. If I had any sprouts, it wasn't many. Then a long hiatus to the point the containers ended up scattered and nothing done with anything.

This spring in the north side of the house, I found just one of those Raspberry Sundae pansies blooming (I don't have good leaf recognition yet and labels were kaput), so I put it in the planter out front and it bloomed all summer because I picked off the spent blooms.

So I'm wondering if it takes 2 winters if you sow about February (I can look up the date). If I sow now, they could germinate when it gets to the temps they like yet this fall and they get killed when it gets so cold.

Or are you saying they will be ok? I notice the other posters are in zones quite a bit milder than here.

My viola seeds germinated very nicely about a week ago (sowed on Oct 1), so let's see if they make it! I am worried that I started them too late, but so far the weather has been nice and mild here. In my climate I can expect a few mild frosts in the near future, but average lows should be about 40 degrees into November. I just hope they get enough sunlight--the combo of a constant low dark cloud cover and northern latitude in Western Washington doesn't allow for lots of photosynthesis. I'll post an update later on to say whether or not they actually survive, and either way it'll be a valuable experiment.