Projo Garden Blog

Impatiens are the most popular bedding plant in the world.

I grew impatiens every year in the late 80's and all through the 90's.

The usual impatiens (I. wallerina) have flat flowers with large petals and tiny spurs. They come in varieties of color.

Impatiens is a genus of about 1000 species, in the family Balsaminaceae.

Impatiens is a Latin word for impatient. It was believed that the seed pods were impatient to explode when ripen. It was also called "touch-me-not" -- or it would explode.

Double-flower impatiens are hybrids of I. wallerina, which have become more popular in the past 20 - 30 years.

10.7.07

New Guinea impatiens (I. hawkeri), native to New Guinea, were introduced to the US in 1970 by American horticulturist Claude Hope (1907-2000), who discovered the plant in Costa Rica and successfully produced the plants with profuse blossoms through breeding and hybridizing. New Guinea impatiens have large flowers with green, bronze or variegated leaves. Like other impatiens, they like rich, wet, well-drained soil; but prefer morning sun rather than shade. They can be propagated via stem cutting.

9.11.08

In the limited space in my garden, I mostly planted just very few of the double and New Guinea impatiens.

9.13.04

Earlier this year I was given the regular impatiens in a big planter on Mother's Day. They are still alive under the lacy, Japanese maple by my front steps despite the frost and cold temperature.

11.21.09

A few years ago, many of us were introduced to the Thai parrot flower, a rather mysterious, exotic flower.

Interestingly, while we were excited about this rare flower and searching various websites to learn about it; none of my friends in Thailand had ever heard of it.

As it turned out, the parrot flower is in the genus impatiens.

How wonderful it would be, if I could see this Impatien psittacina with my own eye some day!

 Tags  Impatiens

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