Pansies
Pansies are one of the few annuals I plant in early spring. They can stand the cold and can decorate a salad (as they're edible) They'll be a food source for the bees when nothing else is blooming yet. Plus, theyre pretty! To keep them flowering into July, deadhead the blossoms (meaning-- as soon as a flower starts to shrivel, pinch it off. Sounds harsh.... but it will keep them from getting leggy and going to seed too soon. I advise NOT buying pansies from big box stores like Home depot or Lowes, as they spray all their plants with pesticides (yes, even the pollinator plants. it's ridiculous.) Go to a nursery and find out what their policies are on pesticides. Even if you hose down your plant, the poisons will seep into your soil.
More interesting trivia regarding the pansy:
From William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream:
The "juice of the heartsease" is a love potion and "on sleeping eyelids laid, will make a man or woman madly dote upon the next live creature that it sees." (II.1)
Because its name means "thought", the pansy was chosen as a symbol of Freethought[18] and has been used in the literature of the American Secular Union. Humanists use it too, as the pansy's current appearance was developed from the heartsease by two centuries of intentional crossbreeding of wild plant hybrids. The specific colors of the flower – purple, yellow, and white – are meant to symbolize memories, loving thoughts and souvenirs, respectively.[9] The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) uses the pansy symbol extensively in its lapel pins and literature. The flower has long been associated with human manner, as one man cleverly stated: “Nature sports as much with the colours of this little flower as she does with the features of the human countenance.”[17]
Lots more information here:
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