Sunday, January 13, 2008

Something to do with Impatiens at the End of the Season: Bring Them Indoors

In the front of my home, I have a small covered porch that I decorate with hanging flowering baskets. Because of their shady location, impatiens are the perfect plants for the baskets. In prior years, I have just added the impatiens to my compost pile at the end of the season.


This year during my autumn cleanup, I took some of the impatiens and re-planted them in pots and brought them indoors. I have done this for several years with other non-hardy plants, such as elephant ears, that I return outdoors in the spring. Placed next to a window, I expected the impatiens to last maybe for a few weeks, or if they did continue to live, to stop flowering. Much to my surprise, they have now been indoors for over three months and they are still going strong. They are not the most beautiful flowers, but they do provide some sign of life during this period between the fresh cut flowers and the forced bulbs and branches. Also, given how leggy they become, I don't think they will be worth re-planting outdoors.

A word of warning: they drop leaves and flowers almost every day and you constantly have to pick up after them. Because of this, I'm not sure if I'll do this again next year.

1 comment:

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Your amaryllis is lovely.

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