SwingLayout Question (code snipet inside)

Question

My question pertains to the code below. I'm creating several classes which load into a cardlayout on a main form. In order to create a border on the left side of this portion of the screen, I am nesting one JPanel within another and using the swinglayout to set my distance from the WEST side of the parent JPanel.
The problem I have is that the 2 components (textfield and label) do not appear in the resulting JFrame. However, if I comment out the line borderPanelLayout = new SwingLayout() then I do get the components to appear. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why this is. Any and all help is appreciated.
Thanks,
David
    public PartMaintenance() {
        super();
        borderPanel = new JPanel();  //creates border within the cardlayout in the main application & reduces lines of code here to do the same
        initComponents();
        layout = new SpringLayout();
        borderPanelLayout = new SpringLayout();
        this.setLayout(layout);
        borderPanel.setLayout(borderPanelLayout);
        lblXXXXXNumber = new JLabel("XXXXX P/N");
        borderPanel.add(lblXXXXXNumber);       
        tfXXXXXNumber = new JTextField(20);
        borderPanel.add(tfXXXXXNumber);
        borderPanelLayout.putConstraint(SpringLayout.NORTH, lblXXXXXNumber, 10, SpringLayout.NORTH, borderPanel);
        borderPanelLayout.putConstraint(SpringLayout.NORTH, tfXXXXXNumber, 10, SpringLayout.NORTH, borderPanel);
        borderPanelLayout.putConstraint(SpringLayout.WEST, tfXXXXXNumber, 20, SpringLayout.EAST, lblXXXXXNumber);
        this.add(borderPanel);
        layout.putConstraint(SpringLayout.WEST, borderPanel, 25, SpringLayout.WEST, this);
    }

Answer 1

Any ideas? Does it have to do with creating the springs around the JPanel element? Is it not possible to attach springs to panels?