Six-packs of pansies will soon be front and center at local garden stores, waiting to become the centerpiece of an early spring container or the colorful edge of a garden bed.
To get those flowers ready in time for early planting, workers at Esbenshade’s Garden Centers put the seeds in soil just before Christmas. The seeds sprouted in heated greenhouses and grew under computer-controlled water misters.
By the first of February, a robotic machine transplants the pansies into six-pack containers big enough for the plugs to grow a little more before they’re sold.