Impatiens: Annual Workhorse of the Garden

It's not difficult to understand why impatiens have grown to become the most popular annual bedding plant in America. After all, don't all Americans love a workhorse that just continues to grow and bloom with very little care?

Impatiens walleriana, also known commonly as "Busy Lizzy," will bloom throughout summer and most of fall in California. In mild winter areas, it's not unusual for them to continue blooming through winter and become a year-round plant. In our area in Gilroy (just south of San Jose, California), it all depends on how harsh a winter we get. This year's wet, but mostly frost-free El Nino-winter, was easy on returning impatiens.

But just because impatiens come back sometimes isn't the biggest reason for their popularity. For one thing, impatiens are versatile. They look great in containers and will trail in hanging baskets, yet are ideal for garden beds, borders and big displays.

For another, impatiens are low maintenance. Unlike some bedding plants such as marigolds, zinnias and geraniums, for instance, impatiens have the good manners to drop faded flowers.. You don't have to deadhead the old flowers of impatiens. There are always more flowers coming to replace the others. In fact, that's where they got their name, which is derived from the word "impatient." When seed pods of impatiens are ripe, the slightest touch will cause them to burst open and impatiently scatter their seeds to the wind.

Impatiens are shade-loving. You already know there aren't that many flowers that prefer shade over sun. Thus, there's not as much competition. Morning sun, afternoon shade or filtered in-between is perfect for these free-flowering bedding plants. At the same time, some impatiens on the market are also more sun tolerant that older varieties.

Nona Wolfram-Koivula, executive director of the National Garden Bureau, notes that impatiens surpassed petunias as the biggest-selling bedding plant around 10 years ago. Today, impatiens are responsible for more than $250 million in sales in the U.S. alone.

Joel Goldsmith, president of Goldsmith Seeds, Inc. -- one of the world's largest wholesale hybridizers of flower seeds -- adds that there's no end in sight as far as the continuing popularity of impatiens. Goldsmith Seeds breeds "Accent" impatiens, which are among the most popular impatiens' series on the market. The company also has "Mosaic" impatiens and the award-winning "Victorian" semi-double impatiens. The latter won both an All America Selections Award and Fleuroselect (of Europe) Gold Medal in 1998 for delivering more semi-double impatiens flowers than any other variety.

The flower color range of impatiens are second to none. Colors range from red to orange and scarlet to rose, carmine, salmon, pink, orchid, violet, white and lavender blue. There are bi-color patterns with white star shapes in the middle and blush types with just a hint of white. "Mosaic" impatiens offers a soft mosaic-like pattern within the dominant flower color.

Impatiens are among the nearly 500 species in the balsam family (Balsaminaceae). They are native to tropical Africa, having been discovered in 1896 by Sir J.D. Hooker. However, it was American breeder Claude Hope who is credited for introducing them to the western world after World War II. Who can imagine that the ever-loved impatiens have only really been around for the past 50 years?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How to grow your best impatiens and avoiding trouble with impatiens are explained by Master Gardener Landscaping of Fort Lauderdale

Michigan State University Extension and the Virginia Cooperative Extensions have some basic information on impatiens.

More information about the Fleuroselect-winning "Victorian Rose" impatiens is on the Fleuroselect website .