Can Impatiens Grow Indoors? Tips, Tricks, and How to Guide

Impatiens are one of the most popular flowering plants—and for a good reason. They are extremely pretty and quite easy to take care of. You can even pick them in a variety of different colors, allowing you to grow a variety of different flowers.

Luckily, these flowers do grow indoors with some success. It is important that they are kept warm and in a bright, sunny location. As long as these factors are met, they will grow indoors decently well.

However, because their seed pods burst, they can make a bit of a mess so they aren’t necessarily a good choice for everyone.

If you think that these flowers may be a good choice for your home, we’ve written a complete guide on how to keep them alive indoors.

Before You Begin: Gathering Materials

Before you start growing your impatiens, it is vital that you select the appropriate container, soil, and location.  Impatiens are a bit picky about their growing environment, so you should take care to start out on the right foot.

You’ll need a pot that is about five inches across to plant your flower bulbs in. You should also choose potting soil that drains well and maintains moisture. These flowers prefer damp soil, but they will develop root problems if you leave them sitting in water.

These flowers do need a lot of light, so you’ll need to place them in a bright location. They do best by a south-facing window of some sort. Indirect light is best to prevent them from overheating. However, they can handle some direct light.

Without enough light, they will not produce flowers and will grow lanky and they may not be as pretty in the winter. You can purchase a grow light to encourage their growth more if you need to.

The area should be warm, as well. You should keep them around 65–70 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the day, which is room temperature. This warm temperature will encourage them to continue to grow and prevent them from thinking that it is winter.

When you water these flowers, you should pour water until it drains through the holes in the pot. They require damp, well-moistened soil. Therefore, we recommend that you water them at least every few days.

You may need to have some fertilizer on hand, as extra fertilizer often encourages flower growth. However, this is optional. You don’t want to apply too much fertilizer, as this may encourage stem growth but not flower growth.

How To Grow Impatiens Indoors? (4 STeps)

1. Provide Consistent Sunlight

Like most plants, impatiens require regular sunlight to stay healthy. Otherwise, while they may not die, they will get lanky and not grow many flowers.

However, they are also not full-sun plants. Instead, they only need about 2–4 hours of sunlight a day. This will encourage blossoms to form without burning the plant’s leaves. Morning sun paired with afternoon shade is your best choice. Therefore, consider placing them near an east-facing window.

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2. Maintain an Acidic Soil

For a truly healthy plant, you’ll need to keep the pH of the soil between 5.5 and 6.5, which is on the acidic side. Otherwise, the flowers may be unable to absorb nutrients from the soil, which can dissipate their ability to form blooms.

If your plant appears to be producing few flowers, you should test its soil. Often, an incorrect soil pH is to blame.

There are several ways that you can increase or decrease the pH. For instance, coffee grounds are often considered an easy way to increase the acidity of the soil. (However, they can also be toxic in high amounts.) You can also purchase commercial additives that change the pH of the soil.

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3. Routinely Prune

You can’t just leave the impatiens alone and expect them to grow lots of flowers. They do need some pruning maintenance for them to look their best. After each flower blooms and fades, you’ll need to remove it from the plant. This process encourages another flower to bloom. Otherwise, the plant may never produce a flower in that location again.

If the plant grows leggy or overgrown, prune away unnecessary foliage and shape the plant. You want to encourage flower growth–not greenery. Therefore, you’ll often need to cut the plant back.

Despite what it may seem, pruning encourages healthy growth. Therefore, don’t be afraid to cut away flowers and stems as the plant grows.

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4. Water Regularly

You need to keep their soil moist to provide the perfect growing environment. However, that doesn’t mean that you need to flood the buds constantly. Too much water can make the plant quit budding altogether.

A good rule of thumb is to water the flowers when the first few inches of soil feel dry. You can stick your finger just into the soil to test this. When the soil is dry, water the flower slowly until water begins dripping out of the holes.

The planting medium should have good drainage to prevent water from sitting on the plant’s roots. Also, ensure that there are plenty of drainage holes in the pot to allow excess water to drain.

• See Also: How to Grow Hostas Indoors: 6 Tips, Tricks, and Guide

Conclusion

Growing impatiens indoors is not terribly difficult. If you have the right lighting conditions in your home, it is often pretty straightforward to keep them alive and growing. However, they do require a bit of maintenance throughout the year. For instance, you’ll need to prune them regularly to keep them flowering and growing.

If you start with the right materials, your job will be much easier. We recommend taking plenty of time to properly plant and set up these plants at the beginning. After that, you’ll need to water them regularly, ensure they get enough sun, and prune them. Every year or so, you should also test the pH and adjust it as necessary.

All of these steps ensure that the plant continues to flower throughout the year!

• See Also: How to Fix a Squeaky Car Window in 6 Steps

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Featured Image Credit: Rebecca Niver, Pixabay