Featured Plant of the Week (Impatiens New Guinea)

Impatiens New Guinea

New Guinea impatiens were discovered in the South Sea Islands and first introduced to the west in 1886 when it was named Impatiens hawkeri. A compact subshrub, New Guinea Impatiens have long and narrow leaves in that come in a range of greens, bronzes, and purples. Its flowers grow up to two inches in diameter, and come in a bewildering array of colors: white, pink, lavender, purple, orange, and red. Really almost any color, except for true blue and yellow.

Although the plant has been known of for over a century, it didn’t become widely grown until the 1970s. Following its discovery in the 1880s the plant became hugely popular in Europe. Especially after the price of glass dropped and allowed gardeners to afford hot house gardens. Unfortunately, the outbreak of the First World War created fuel shortages and made it impossible to heat those gardens. Combined with its susceptibility to mite pests, New Guinea impatiens fell out of favor in the gardening world and eventually faded into obscurity. It was not until the USDA sponsored an exploration trip to New Guinea to find plants with anti-cancer properties that it was ‘rediscovered’.

Since then Impatiens hawkeri has become a very popular low-maintenance plant thanks in part to their large colorful blooms and flexibility. Usually grown in pots or baskets, they are appropriate for landscape beds, patio containers, and mixed combination plantings. In temperate zones, the plants are usually treated as annuals; in subtropical and tropical regions they are perennials.

Caring for New Guinea impatiens is fairly straightforward. They are more sun tolerant compared to other species of impatiens and can handle direct sunshine, although they must be watered more often to compensate. It’s a good idea to keep them in a place where they will be out of the sun only during the hottest hours of the day. They do best when their soil is kept consistently moist, but never soggy. However, if they dry out completely they will easily wilt and lose flowers. They will recover very quickly if given moisture again, but repeatedly allowing the plant to dry out will handicap flower growth and cause burnt foliage. New Guinea impatiens don’t require much fertilization. Fertilizing them every three weeks with the low end of the recommended label rate should be plenty.

You can find New Guinea Impatiens at BloomRite® Gardens in a variety of sizes. The largest of which is a 10 inch flowering basket that can be had at the wholesale price of $14.95. We also carry them in 6 and 4 inch grower pots at $5.50 and $2.95 per plant respectively. The 4 inch variety is sold in flats of 8 or 16 plants.