What’s the Difference between New Guinea Impatiens and Sunpatiens?

New Guinea and SunPatiens are favorite impatiens to grow among many gardeners.  But why?  Why plant impatiens at all?  What’s the difference between New Guinea impatiens and SunPatiens?  How do you grow and take care of impatiens?  Well, our dear curious reader, let us tell you.

 What are impatiens and why grow impatiens?

Impatiens are also known as “Busy Lizzies,” because they seem to always be growing or blooming.  These annual flowers are easy to grow and maintain, and they make for good bedding flowers, edging flowers, border flowers, container flowers, window box flowers, and porch flowers for Michigan gardens.  Impatiens are bushy, which helps them be great mounding plants.

Impatiens have showy flowers that look like small flattened rosebuds.  Their blooms can be single or double-flowering, and they have a variety of pink, purple, red, orange, white, and yellow flowers available for growers.

Impatiens are great for whimsical gardens and for gardeners who want vibrant color and long-lasting blooms in their garden.  Michigan gardeners often plant impatiens because the flowers attract pollinators.  For example, butterflies and hummingbirds love impatiens in the Downriver region!  Gardeners also plant impatiens because they are low-maintenance plants.  You don’t even have to deadhead impatiens.

For Michigan gardens, impatiens are annual plants because of Michigan’s cold winters.  But, if you can bring in your impatiens during the winter, then you may be able to trick them into thinking that they’re in a tropical environment and should live as perennial plants.

Now, let’s talk about how New Guinea impatiens and SunPatiens are similar and different.

What are the similarities between New Guinea impatiens and SunPatiens?

Both New Guinea impatiens and Sunpatiens are hybrid flowers that are popular bedding plants and filler flowers.  They also have vibrant and colorful flowers as well as interesting and variegated leaves.  These varieties of impatiens have longer-lasting blooms, more disease resistance, and more sun tolerance than standard impatiens (a.k.a. the original impatiens).  They are also larger plants and produce bigger blooms than standard impatiens, and these blooms last throughout the spring, summer, and fall.  Finally, the flowers share a genetic link because SunPatiens are a hybrid of New Guinea impatiens and a few wild impatiens.

What is the difference between New Guinea impatiens and SunPatiens?

Let’s list out the differences between these flowers.

• New Guinea impatiens do best in partial or full shade whereas SunPatiens can grow well in full sun.
• New Guinea impatiens are heavy feeders, whereas Sunpatiens require comparatively light fertilization.
• SunPatiens produce more flowers than New Guinea impatiens.
• SunPatiens produce bigger flowers than New Guinea impatiens.
• SunPatiens are more resistant to diseases than New Guinea impatiens.

Which impatiens flowers are right for your Detroit garden?

Plant standard impatiens if you have partially shady areas available, have limited space, and like petite flowers.  Some people also plant standard impatiens because they don’t want hybrid plants in their gardens and like flowers that are as close to the natural variety as possible.

Plant New Guinea impatiens if you love the look of standard impatiens but want something more disease-resistant.  You may also want to plant New Guinea impatiens if you have fully-shaded or partially shaded-areas in your garden that need bedding plants, ground cover, edging plants, or border flowers.

Plant SunPatiens if you want impatiens that thrive in the sun, high humidity, and Michigan’s summer heat.  SunPatiens are perfect for low-maintenance gardening and for quickly adding flowers to your landscape.

How do you take care of impatiens, New Guinea impatiens, and SunPatiens?

Even though these flowers are of the same family, they require different care.

Standard Impatiens

Standard impatiens need partial sun to produce their showy flowers.  Keep their soil moist as they require a lot of water, but watch for downy mildew.  Fertilize your impatiens every fourteen days with an all-purpose, water-soluble fertilizer.

New Guinea Impatiens

New Guinea impatiens need full or partial shade.  They love morning sun and afternoon shade.  Keep these flowers moist, because they require a lot of water.

Add a slow-release fertilizer to your soil before planting them outside.  Then, fertilize them monthly with an all-purpose, water-soluble fertilizer.  If you’re using New Guinea impatiens as container flowers, then fertilize them every fourteen days.

SunPatiens

Ensure that your SunPatiens get full sun exposure, because they are sun-loving plants!  When watering, fully saturate the soil and then let it dry to the touch before watering it again.  For fertilizing, give your SunPatiens a once-a-month feeding with an all-purpose, water-soluble fertilizer.

Visit us at Schwartz’s Greenhouse!

Schwartz’s Greenhouse has been growing New Guinea impatiens since the 1980s, and through all these years, we’ve discovered exactly how to grow them to be their most beautiful and healthy selves.  Come on by and check them out!

We also sell other healthy and high-quality plants and gardening supplies, and we have a flattened rosebuds that is ready to help you with your Downriver region garden.  Simply stop by our greenhouse and garden center in Romulus, Michigan or give us a call.  We’d love to help you!  We’re Michigan proud, and we want to make everyone else green with envy over your Michigan garden.

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