The Difference Between Impatiens, New Guinea Impatiens, and SunPatiens

Impatiens are excellent plants for landscape use, baskets, and containers, with each variety offering unique benefits for home gardeners. If you’re considering adding Impatiens to your commercial greenhouse growing program, this short guide will help you decide which to grow.

You will learn:

• The differences between Impatiens, New Guinea Impatiens, and SunPatiens
• The best uses for each type
• How to help your customers succeed with their new plants

Key Differences

Impatiens walleriana, commonly known as Patience Plant, is an annual native to East Africa. We carry the Beacon series bred from seed to resist Downy Mildew. This landscape Impatien offers good heat tolerance and a somewhat vigorous upright mounding habit. Seedling trays cost less than rooted plugs. This variety does well in full or partial shade.

New Guinea Impatiens, or Impatiens hawkeri, is a cultivar of the tender perennial native to Papua New Guinea. Typically for annual use, this plant is perennial in zone 11. It’s slightly smaller and less upright than Impatiens walleriana and offers superior disease resistance. We offer seedling trays of Syngenta’s Florific series, which boast uniform size and habit across the colors. Danziger’s Harmony and Sol Luna series are available as rooted plugs, offering many colors for baskets and containers. While the Sol Luna series tolerates full sun, other hawkeri cultivars do best in full shade.

SunPatiens are hybrid Impatiens bred by Sakata to flourish in heat, full sun to full shade, and from spring until frost. They are the most heat-and-sun-loving of the varieties and the largest. The compact varieties are 14-28” tall with a mounding habit, while vigorous varieties offer a dense, bushy habit of 18-34” tall and more upright. Either variety has dark foliage, exceptional branching, and non-stop color. Vigorous varieties are more well-suited to cool regions, while compact varieties excel in warmer areas. Flowers come in a wide range of whites, reds, pinks, oranges, and purples. This plant is also unaffected by Downy Mildew.

Best Uses for Each Type

SunPatiens are the most versatile type, creating long-lasting displays of color in landscape beds or containers. Pair them with Osteospermum, Helichrysum, and Salvia Farinacea for a striking texture in a border or combination planter.

New Guinea Impatiens are especially suited to baskets and mixed patio containers. Create a beautiful show of color and texture by pairing this plant with Coleus, Ipomoea, Fuchsia, Fern, and Begonia.

Impatiens walleriana are well-suited to landscape applications in shade or part shade. Each color in the Beacon series grows well with the others, offering a wealth of vibrant colors. Create a texture-rich, shade-loving garden by pairing Impatiens with Hostas, Ferns, Heuchera, Begonia, and Coleus. 

How To Help Your Customers Succeed

When you coach your customers for success, your greenhouse business will become your community’s trusted source of plants, supplies, and advice. Much of the care is the same for the different Impatiens varieties, with some notable differences.

Spacing and Light

Space New Guinea Impatiens 12-14” apart in partial sun or full shade. The Sol Luna series does well in full sun. Impatiens walleriana needs less space, just 8-10” between plants, in full to partial shade. Sunpatiens require 14-20” between plants in full sun to full shade.

Watering

Water once or twice a week, more often in drought or containers and less in wet weather. Sunpatiens are the most heat-tolerant. 

Other Care

Discourage disease by removing plants from the landscape or containers after frost. New Guinea Impatiens are perennial in the tropical climate of zone 11.