A pansy is a small garden flower with a “face” on its petals, and it likes cool weather. Growers raise pansies and sell them to garden centres and stores — some in pots, some in shallow trays called flats. This quiz counts only the pots. One more thing: USDA’s 2024 census form asks growers about “Pansies/Violas” as one item, so this line counts pansies and violas together — violas are other garden flowers from the pansy’s plant group, Viola. In USDA’s 2024 count of greenhouse and nursery crops, 41 states have a printed figure for pansies and violas sold in pots; 8 more are hidden behind the withheld mark, and Nevada has no line at all. Put these three in order, most-to-least.
Tapping assigns 1→3 in order
Texas! Everything is bigger in Texas, so Texas must sell the most pansies. Easy 🐾
2Answer
The order USDA printed is…
Maryland — 5,185,960 pots of pansies and violas sold, nearly one pot in every five of the 26,792,323 USDA counted for the whole country, and about 2.12× second-place Virginia. That first place is a national place: everything USDA did not print adds up to 2,740,592 pots, less than Maryland’s figure, so no hidden state can climb past it — not even North Carolina, whose pot figure is one of the withheld ones. From second place down, the places are places among the printed states only. Now, was Biscuit wrong about Texas? Only about the pots. USDA counts its pansy-and-viola line more than one way. Count the money — every pansy and viola sold, however it was packed — and Texas is first in the country at $17,948,129, with North Carolina just behind at $17,831,104. Maryland, the pot champion, is sixth in that line, at $9,511,341. Count the flats instead, and North Carolina is first, with Texas second. Three ways of counting the same USDA line, three different winners. So “Which state is the pansy state?” has no single answer even in USDA’s numbers until you say what you are counting. This quiz counts pots, and in pots it is Maryland. USDA does not say why Maryland’s growers sell so many of their pansies and violas in pots, and this quiz does not guess.
📚 BackgroundA pansy is a cool-weather flower. (USDA counts pansies and violas together; the page quoted here is about the garden pansy, Viola x wittrockiana.) North Carolina State University’s Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox calls it “one of the most popular bedding plants for cooler weather” — a bedding plant is one grown to be planted out in a garden bed — and its advice for gardeners is short: “Plant in the fall for winter and early spring blooms.” The same page says how the season ends: “Pansy will eventually succumb to summer heat and should then be removed from the garden.” It describes the flower itself as having “five overlapping petals with a center eyespot or face-like markings.” The page does not say why Maryland’s growers sell more pansies and violas in pots than any other state’s. Neither does this quiz.(North Carolina State University Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox, “Viola x wittrockiana (Lady’s Delight, Pansy),” Description and Quick ID Hints. Quotations unchanged)↗ (opens in a new tab)
🐕Biscuit's fun facts
📚 Stated as fact by textbooks / public agencies
The name is a thinking word. The Online Etymology Dictionary traces “pansy” back through English to Old French, where pensee was a name for the pansy and meant, literally, “thought, remembrance,” from the French verb penser, “to think.” The dictionary also gives the reason: “So called because it was regarded as a symbol of thought or remembrance.” It does not say who first gave the flower that name — and neither does this note.
Texas! Everything is bigger in Texas, so Texas must sell the most pansies. Easy 🐾
3Compare
Pansies (and violas) sold in pots (number of pots, 2024)
🇺🇸 United States (national)26,792,323 pots
Maryland#15,185,960 pots
Most: Maryland (5,185,960 pots); smallest printed number: Nebraska (896 pots). Remember this is only the pot line. A state that sells most of its pansies in flats can look small here and still sell a lot of pansies.
Note: pots of pansies and violas sold during 2024, from USDA’s five-yearly Census of Horticultural Specialties. USDA’s census form asks about “Pansies/Violas” as one item, so the two are counted together. This line counts pots only — not flats, not hanging baskets, not money and not single plants. The United States bar is USDA’s own national figure. USDA NASS. USDA printed a pansy-and-viola pot figure for 41 states. Eight more — Alaska, Arizona, Iowa, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia — carry the withheld mark (D), which USDA uses when printing a state’s number would give away information about individual growers. Nevada has no line in this table at all. Everything USDA did not print adds up to 2,740,592 pots. That is less than Maryland’s figure, so Maryland’s first place is a national first place; it is more than second place, so from second down the places shown are places among the printed states only. A withheld state is not the same as a state selling none. This site re-runs those checks on every build.
Pots, flats or dollars? Say which, and then I will tell you who wins 🐾
Pansies (and violas) sold in pots (number of pots, 2024)
Rank
State
Value
Share of U.S. total
#1
Maryland
5,185,960 pots
19.4%
#2
Virginia
2,449,572 pots
9.1%
#3
Florida
2,431,234 pots
9.1%
#4
Washington
1,660,399 pots
6.2%
#5
New Jersey
1,579,557 pots
5.9%
#6
California
1,473,398 pots
5.5%
#7
Michigan
1,454,592 pots
5.4%
#8
Texas
970,817 pots
3.6%
#9
Ohio
871,376 pots
3.3%
#10
New York
723,216 pots
2.7%
#11
Alabama
701,690 pots
2.6%
#12
Oregon
655,689 pots
2.4%
#13
Massachusetts
599,531 pots
2.2%
#14
Connecticut
452,395 pots
1.7%
#15
Indiana
436,575 pots
1.6%
#16
Illinois
432,718 pots
1.6%
#17
Pennsylvania
367,760 pots
1.4%
#18
Georgia
336,017 pots
1.3%
#19
Colorado
250,898 pots
0.9%
#20
Arkansas
151,368 pots
0.6%
#21
Mississippi
134,893 pots
0.5%
#22
Kentucky
113,311 pots
0.4%
#23
Minnesota
107,761 pots
0.4%
#24
Missouri
89,325 pots
0.3%
#25
Utah
77,070 pots
0.3%
#26
Wisconsin
75,638 pots
0.3%
#27
Louisiana
57,406 pots
0.2%
#28
Delaware
54,866 pots
0.2%
#29
Oklahoma
26,875 pots
0.1%
#30
New Hampshire
26,765 pots
0.1%
#31
Vermont
24,745 pots
0.1%
#32
Kansas
23,572 pots
0.1%
#33
Idaho
9,297 pots
0%
#34
Wyoming
9,000 pots
0%
#35
Montana
8,402 pots
0%
#36
Maine
7,891 pots
0%
#37
Hawaii
7,212 pots
0%
#38
South Dakota
5,890 pots
0%
#39
New Mexico
4,454 pots
0%
#40
North Dakota
1,700 pots
0%
#41
Nebraska
896 pots
0%
🇺🇸 USA (total)
26,792,323 pots
100%
USDA printed a pansy-and-viola pot figure for 41 states. Eight more — Alaska, Arizona, Iowa, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia — carry the withheld mark (D), which USDA uses when printing a state’s number would give away information about individual growers. Nevada has no line in this table at all. Everything USDA did not print adds up to 2,740,592 pots. That is less than Maryland’s figure, so Maryland’s first place is a national first place; it is more than second place, so from second down the places shown are places among the printed states only. A withheld state is not the same as a state selling none. This site re-runs those checks on every build.
Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (2024 (Census of Horticultural Specialties))
Sources
Data as of: 2024 (Census of Horticultural Specialties)
USDA NASS Quick Stats: BEDDING PLANTS, ANNUAL, FLOWERING & FOLIAR, PANSY (VIOLA), POTS - SALES, MEASURED IN POTS, 2024 Census of Horticultural Specialties, by state↗ (opens in a new tab) (2026-09-23) — Published values only (the committed raw file holds the API response verbatim). USDA’s 2024 census form asks about “Pansies/Violas” as a single item, so this line counts the two together. USDA printed a figure for 41 states. Eight more — Alaska, Arizona, Iowa, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia — carry the withheld mark (D), which USDA uses when printing a state’s number would give away information about individual growers. Nevada has no line in this table at all. Everything USDA did not print adds up to 2,740,592 pots — less than Maryland’s figure, so Maryland’s first place is a national first place. It is more than second place, so from second place down the places shown are places among the printed states only. A withheld state is not the same as a state selling none. This site re-runs those checks on every build.
↳ In Quick Stats, pick CENSUS / Census of Horticultural Specialties, year 2024, commodity BEDDING PLANTS, ANNUAL, short description BEDDING PLANTS, ANNUAL, FLOWERING & FOLIAR, PANSY (VIOLA), POTS - SALES, MEASURED IN POTS, Total domain, and compare states. USDA’s questionnaire: https://data.nass.usda.gov/Surveys/Guide_to_NASS_Surveys/Census_of_Horticultural_Specialties/2024_Hort_Questionnaire_FINAL.pdf