7 Ways to Improve Impatiens Blooms
One of the ways to quickly fill in a bare flower garden is by planting impatiens. They provide a large amount of beautiful blooms quickly and will stay that way as long as you take care of them. A wonderful flower, impatiens provide a great deal of color in shady conditions. Impatiens are also a hardy plant that can grow anywhere. They are a low-growing plant that do not typically reach more than 10 to 12 inches in height. They come in a wide variety of colors from white to purple, and even yellow. The key factor to the beauty of this species of flower is the blooms. Keeping them throughout the season is something you should be paying attention to. This can be done with a few simple steps.
1. Keep Watered
Impatiens love water. They will thrive when they are kept in a moist environment. Keeping the blooms rich, vibrant, and very bright requires moisture in the soil.
2. Impatiens Love Shade
Impatiens do very well in shady areas. They will bloom in direct sun (if watered regularly), but love to be in the shade.
3. Enrich Soil with Humus
Keeping blooms all summer takes a lot of energy. That means the impatiens need to be in soil that is rich with nutrients. While you can do this with fertilizers, using organic material such as humus will provide incredible boost in in the soil.
4. Pinch Back Blooms
The process of pinching back gives the plant more energy to focus on growing new blooms. Pinching back the plant will keep the plant shorter, thus giving it room to fill in. New blooms will sprout from new buds and give your impatiens a much fuller look.
5. Reapply Fertilizer
Using a water soluble fertilizer a few times during the summer months will also give your impatiens a boost in providing large, colorful blooms. You do not want to do this every week when you water the flowers. However, it should be done every third or fourth watering.
6. Prune Off Top Third of Plant
When you get late into the season and begin to see that the plant starts to look a little weak, or the blooms are beginning to get a little dull, it is time to prune it back. Using some shears, take off the top third of the plants that have already been in bloom. Do not worry about the loss of the plant. This is a necessary step to reinvigorate, and stimulate, new growth in the impatiens. You will notice that new blooms will spring out and be much more colorful.
7. Prepare for Next Planting Season
Once the blooming season is over for the year, tear out the old plants and put them into a compost bin. When the spring comes around, you can use this organic material mixed in with the soil. The new impatiens plants sown in the spring will get a tremendous boost in growing energy for brilliant blooms quickly.