Impatiens

If there was an award for the greatest shade plant ever, I’d probably vote for impatiens. These colorful annuals never stop blooming, and you can find an impatiens to fit almost any color scheme you can think of. This makes it fun to mix things up in your shade garden from year to year. Here you can see Beacon^® Bright Red and Beacon^® Coral bedding impatiens in containers and repeated along the path at our test garden last year. Maybe we’ll go with an elegant all-white look this year!

Need a pop of color along a path? Can do. How about an impressive hanging basket for shade? Impatiens are your plant. Let’s take a look at which ones might fit your garden best.

Meet the Impatiens Family

Bedding Impatiens

Impatiens walleriana

Bedding impatiens are usually sold in multipacks and flats at the garden center. They’re often grown from seed, which makes them an economical choice if you want a long ribbon of color along the edge of a border or if you buy your annuals by the flat. They’re also great in containers—try setting a few pots under mature trees when you need a pop of color in shade.

One big reason bedding impatiens are such must-have plants for shade gardens is that they’re covered in flowers from spring to frost. These tender perennials that are usually grown as annuals grow best in part to full shade. In too much sun the foliage will scorch. Most are part of a series and have single flowers and Impreza ™ are some popular series you’ve probably come across at the garden center. Bedding impatiens have a range of sizes you can work in almost anywhere, from the petite Xtreme ™ series that grows 8 to 10 inches tall at the front of the border up to the 20-inch-tall Rockapulco Coral Reef at left. Those gorgeous