Too late for Impatiens?

I must admit that I usually buy most of my plants but I dream as I read all of your posts. Anyway, I usually don't plant many plants outside until mid to late May because of our late freezes. Could I still plant Impatiens seeds inside and will they be big enough to plant outside? The last time I tried this, the plants were too dinky to survive our harsh winds.

I have had good luck with Impatiens because the area I plant them in is on the east side but has a overhang so they only get good sun for about 3-4 hours.

Thanks

Hi, Jewel: I may be mis-speaking here, since I am way up in the frozen north, but impatiens are usually an early indoor crop. They grow quite slowly at first. I had a poor response from the old seed I used and may be forced to actually buy some plants this spring for my greenhouse.

I usually start them in February and they are just about right for setting out in May. Think it might be a little late for this year, from seed anyway.

Jewel: Brugie has a point there...it's late for seeds, but stem cuttings can be rooted.

Thanks for the info. I did decide not to buy any seed as the seed was fairly expensive. Yesterday, the Ace Hardward ad has Impatiens on sale 4/.88.

If you can get impatiens at a reasonable price, there's not much point in growing them from seed. Once you've got them going, you can take cuttings and root them, so it's cheaper and easier than running grow lights for two or three months!

What grow lights?? I direct sowed mine about 6 weeks ago, and they are all up and running. I'm looking at a bloom time for the first to middle of June.

"eyes"

That's one of the things you've got to love about Texas, and all the other warm states. Here they are a slow grower and definitely cannot be started outdoors. I have no luck with them outdoors, but they are beautiful in the greenhouse. If Jewel is from Nebraska, I doubt that she could have sown anything outdoors six weeks ago. I would have had to shovel three feet of snow to do it! Sometimes I forget that there are places that have long summers and mild winters. It would sure change my growing habits! lol.

They are so easy to grow from cuttings, that's true! I bought two cellpacks of various impatiens yesterday, and I purposely bought ones that are way leggier than you are normally recommended to buy; my sole purpose was to get them with lots of long shoots that I could pinch and use for cuttings.

I should be able to make at least four cuttings from each shoot of each impatien plant -- and each plant has 3-5 shoots on it. Not bad for $2.00, I think! :)

I've done this almost every year with impatiens, and it's really cost-effective; when I do start them from seed, I start them early on purpose so I can keep getting cuttings from my original flats and multiply them further that way. The original plants benefit from the pinching, and I end up with more babies.

This message was edited Wednesday, May 15th 5:21 AM

Yes, Gardenwife, that's a great idea. How do you root yours?

Let's see if I can describe this clearly...Hmmmmmm. Sometimes it's easier to do something than to write about it sometimes, you know?

Have a flat of cellpacks ready ahead of time, filled with pre-moistened potting medium; with a pencil or dibble, poke holes in the center of each cell, too.

For the potting medium, I used a combination of leftover Jiffy seed-starting mix, Sta-Green potting soil w/ fertilizer, and vermiculite. I've used perlite/vermiculite/peat before, and I've used Sta-Green by itself. The Sta-Green really worked great for seeds and cuttings last year. I had a little left of each this time, though, so I just combined them all so I'd have enough.

I didn't take pictures as I did these cuttings, here's one of the seedlings before I started pinching them:
http://davesgarden.com/journal/si/6744.html

Try to use cuttings in 3-4" sections so there's stem below and a cluster of leaves at each piece's tip. It's important to remove any flowers or buds so the plant puts its energy into rooting and not flowering. Remove any leaves along the part of the stem that will be underground. Remove any huge leaves that may drape on the soil and rot.

Dip the stems in rooting hormone/fungicide and pot them up in the cellpacks. Impatiens root so easily the hormone isn't necessary, but I had some and thought I'd use it since it was there. The reason for pre-poking holes comes into play here: this way, the rooting hormone powder does not get pushed off the stems as they're put into the medium. After putting the cuttings in their holes, tamp the medium down around their stems.

The cuttings do best in a moist environment while they're getting established. Cover the flat with plastic, using either a plastic bag or a seed-starting tray lid. If using a plastic bag, turn it inside out every day so the dry side faces in. If using a plastic lid, wipe it out daily. This will help keep mold/mildew from forming and rotting your cuttings. It's important that the moist plastic is not allowed to be in contact with the leaves for long.

In 1-2 weeks, give a light tug on the cuttings to see if they resist being pulled from the soil. If they do, they've started rooting. Yippee! At that point, remove the plastic and treat them like seedlings, fertlizing them and so forth.

I've done this with zonal geraniums, fuschia and coleus, too.

This message was edited Thursday, May 16th 3:51 PM

Thanks, Gardenwife:I'll have to give it a try. I've rooted them in water, I think, but not in medium. I never have much luck rooting geranium slips, but I'm usually pretty busy when I try this, so I don't give them the attention they need. When things slow down again, I'll try rooting some things using your method. Thanks again for giving me such a good explanation.