New Guinea Impatiens
Impatiens x hybrida
(im-PAY-shuns)

For a while I got away from growing New Guinea Impatiens. I am not sure why as they are good performers and not too much trouble. The variations of flower and foliage colors seem infinite. I think with their performance this and last year I will start getting a few more. They are way tougher than the regular Impatiens. I looked to see if I could find out what variety this is. This one didn’t have a tag but the rest of them were from Paul Ecke’s Paradise series. From looking at their website the closest I could come up was ‘Pure Beauty Orange on Orange’. I remember when these started to get really popular and they were being sold as full sun Impatiens and that was wrong. They actually like to have some shade but can take much more sun than their counterparts.

There are about 1,000 species of Impatiens. The seed is disbursed through explosive dehiscence, which literally shoots the seed several yards away. That is why the common name is Touch-me-nots.