I was observing the longest lasting flowers last summer/fall.
Impatiens win hands-down. They just never stop. *Everything* else
dries up, dies, shrivels, turns brown, and way into the fall,
impatiens are still going strong.

I used to think they are boring little flowers...but I changed my mind.
They seem amazingly hardy, strong, resilient and long-lasting. And when
everything else is dead or dying, and colorless, impatiens give you a huge
burst of color that lasts and lasts and won't quit.

This year I am going to plant a lot of them.

I am ready with my 5 bags of Burpee Impatiens seeds. I'll try to start
them indoors. 

they *ARE* annuals, and as a rule I hate planting annuals because you
have to keep doing it. but heck, they're worth it for just one season.

9 responses total.

Yes, they are lovely, wish they were also frost-proof as well as
shade-tolerant.  Snap dragons are less impressive but more cold tolerant. 
If you get more impatiens seedlings than you can use, let us know.

The flowers are upto 2" across. Red, pink, salmon, white. 
 
They do beautifully in big pots (I drooled over my neighbors' potted
impatiens last summer/fall). I think I'll try to start them indoors.
(6 to 10 weeks before May 15 i.e. frost free date) 
They need shade or part-shade.

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Can you bring potted impatients indoors in the fall?  Will they keep blooming,
or are there problems with too little sun, or bugs?  

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No, never looked that close.  Our sweet peas are catapults, tho.

I've been taking potted begonias and impatiens indoors.  They bloom all
winter.  They get pretty ragged looking by spring, 'cause I sometimes forget
to water them.  Sometimes, if I treat them well, give them phosphorus, they
blossom and produce seeds.  When I come home I find little exploded seed pods
that they've shot all over the room.

That's what I'll do - I'll plant the impatiens in planters to be taken
inside in the winter, and back outside next spring. Better get started.

Pansies were the flowers I changed my mind about last year.  Thought
they were too common to be interesting.  Then I bought a clay pot full
of pretty blue pansies in the fall, and because we had a mild winter,
they bloomed right on throught to spring on my porch.  Pansies are
actually perennials, given the right climate, cool but not too
cold, and definitely not hot.  In fact that same pot of blue pansies
was blooming right up until the hot spell that started a week and
a half ago.  They're not actually dead, but the heat has stopped
all signs of blooming.

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