Meet the Obliging Impatiens…

At home indoors or out, Impatiens plants flower so freely that it seems constantly in bloom.

Do you feel lukewarm about foliage plants and pastel-flowered house plants? Do you want a splash of honest-to-goodness bright color in your window – fire engine red, say, or claret or Halloween orange, and not a handful but a whole plantful of blooms? Then make the acquaintance of a most accommodating and colorful clan, the impatiens.

Of probably 500 impatiens species, among which are balsam and jewel weed, Impatiens sultani, holsti and the rarer petersiana and the “r” hybrids are best suited to indoor culture. Tender perennials, native to high altitudes in the Far East, these three species grow to a height of from 1 to 3 feet, with soft succulent stems and pear-shape.I leaves. The flat five-petaled blooms may be 2 inches across. Each lasts only three or four days, but their great number and rapid replacement give the plant the appearance of being constantly in bloom. The flowers of glossy-leaved L sultani are scarlet-cerise, while the leaves of Impatiens holsti are duller and the flowers a cinnabar-salmon. Impatiens petersiana, like Impatiens holsti, is sturdier and more branching than Impatiens sultani, and is distinguished by handsome dark bronze foliage with purple mottling on the underside.

Two other impatiens species are 4-foot Impatiens oliveri, with large lilac blooms, often seen in California gardens, and Impatiens roylei, a rather coarse annual with light purple flowers which resembles the jewel weed in form. These, however, are not well suited to the restrictions of the average home.

Many window gardeners who know impatiens as the house plant which is most nearly everblooming are not aware of the wide range of striking colors available, besides the common salmon and cerise varieties, a discovery I made when I obtained some hybrid seed from France, Holland and Hawaii.

Subsequent crossing and selection, along with All winter long the jewel-like blossoms of impatiens sparkle on a sunny window sill, cuttings from other impatiens fanciers, Few other plants provide such a continuous display of flowers or need so little care, has given me a color range from purest white through delicate pink to fire engine red, brilliant orange and orchid lavender, with scores of gradations between. Only true purple and yellow are lacking in my collection.

Sometimes two or more shades are found in a single bloom; a light pink may be edged with a darker hue or a white set off by a dark red eye. The variegated leaf sport, however, is limited to cerise blooms. The plants may vary from dwarfs 6 inches high to sturdy uprights 3 feet tall. Some fan out horizontally and others droop, but all tend to rounded compactness.

The Impatiens holsti and Impatiens sultani hybrid seed mixtures are offered by several seed houses are exciting grab-bags from which you can separate several outstanding varieties if you plant a sufficiently large quantity of seed. The intriguing color variations are the result of heterogeneous parentage and as yet do not come true from seed. Consequently, choice specimens can be propagated only by cuttings. But you can have a continuous display of blooms for your winter windows with little difficulty.

Propagation

If slips can be obtained, select young shoots 3 or 4 inches long with at least two buds along the stem in addition to the growing tip. Inserted in water, damp sand, peatmoss or vermiculite, these will start rooting in 10 days to 2 weeks if is the temperature is kept above 50°. When 1/2-inch roots have developed in another in a week or so, they will be ready for planting in 30inch pots, using a mixture of 1/3 humus, 1/3 garden soil, 1/3 rotted manure and a little sand, or if you do not have all of these any good garden soil. After a thorough watering and a day of two in the shade, they are ready for the window, where they should start to bloom almost immediately.

Seeds may be started indoors in this soil mixture to which has been added an equal amount of vermiculite or peatmoss. If covered lightly with vermiculite and kept warm and moist, they will start to germinate in about 10 days and be ready to transplant into pots, flats or a shaded garden when the second leaves are well developed. Here they should bloom about 3 months after sowing.

The natural habitat of impatiens is cool, moist shade and they will flourish almost as well in an east or west window as in a south window if never allowed to dry out.

A daily spraying with tepid water will wash away any aphids, red spiders or mealy bugs that may have obtained a foothold. Impatiens will thrive in a cool greenhouse; even a sun-heated pit will maintain growth if the night temperature does not drop below 40°.

When spring days start to lengthen into early summer, you can count on an outside impatiens display, for these obliging plants bloom as freely in summer as in winter, with no rest period required. They are just right to brighten a dark corner of a shaded terrace or shrubbery border where nothing else will flower. When planted outdoors, the foliage darkens and becomes more dense; flower colors take on deeper, richer hues. Insects and butterflies carry pollen between the blooms, which are usually sterile indoors, and soon the unique seed pods begin to form. When swollen to ripeness, these suddenly burst – almost impatiently – scattering the seed to a distance of 2 feet or more. If the soil has been kept moist, as it should be, each plant will become surrounded with quantities of seedlings of mixed heritage.

All impatiens must be brought indoors before the first possibility of frost, as the least touch of frost will blacken them to the ground. Fortunately, transplanting is simple. We can look forward to the .day when seed of named varieties of this most versatile plant will be available. In the meantime – unless you can obtain cuttings – you can accumulate a collection of the outstanding types only through endless selection from hybrid seed mixtures. But the wealth of color is well worth the search.

By J Capen

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