To Add Color, Don’t Wait to Plant Impatiens

Sunlight--the more the better--is necessary for growing tomatoes, peaches, marigolds and roses, but plenty of beautiful gardens have been made in deep shade.

Such gardens are dramatic, sometimes mysterious, mostly because of the dark and lush green colors that predominate. All this darkness and lushness can become too somber, though, and when that is the case, some brighter colors are needed.

A tree such as flowering dogwood or a shrub such as rhododendron or azalea could splatter some color into a shaded nook for a brief period in spring. Then the torch could be carried on into summer with some herbaceous perennials that tolerate shade.

Fluffy white flowers of false Solomon’s seal could brighten shade in late spring, and white-flowered stalks of black snakeroot could take over in midsummer, followed by fragrant plantain lilies--also white--in late summer.

Too many white flowers? Break up the monotony with fire-engine red cardinal flower, Virginia bluebell (blue, of course) or epimedium (yellow or orange flower).

Alas, like dogwood, rhododendron and azalea, each of these herbaceous perennials has its fleeting moment of glory and leaves a flowerless gap in the garden as its blossoms fade.

An annual is what is needed for a nonstop show of cheery color. Tuberous begonias are a possibility where only spots of color are desired.

But for billowing mounds of color generously splashed on the ground right through the summer, there is one plant that stands above all others: impatiens.

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Impatiens blossoms range from pink, red, orange and scarlet, as well as white. In 1970, U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists trekking through the jungles of New Guinea discovered new sorts of impatiens that led to the development of varieties with bicolored flowers and foliage and larger flowers.

There even are hybrids whose double flowers resemble miniature roses, nice if planted where the flowers will be admired up close.

(To enjoy impatiens blossoms early in the season, start impatiens plants indoors. Seeds should have been sown two months before you set out plants, so mark your calendar to remind yourself for next year, then go out and buy starter plants this year.)

Set plants a foot apart, pinching out the growing plant to make it more bushy. Some of the new hybrids are so compact that you can forego pinching.

Note how fleshy the stems of impatiens are. All that fleshiness comes from water, and impatiens need plenty.

Throughout the summer, keep an eye out for drooping leaves and water if necessary. In the shade, in a soil enriched with compost or peat moss, natural rainfall may be sufficient, but if you grow impatiens in the sun, the plants might need watering almost every day.

Those fleshy stems also root easily from softwood cuttings. If you root such cuttings in late summer, you can winter the plants indoors for planting in the garden next year. Indoors, in a sunny window, the plants will bloom throughout the winter, if kept well-fed and watered.

If you plant impatiens outdoors in shade, it is a good idea to plant only one color or blocks of colors that harmonize. Any bright color dazzles in the shade, but a riot of mixed colors can be overpowering.