The versatile impatiens: Garden flower, wildflower or weed?

By Lee Reich
Associated Press

Sometimes weeds receive praise.

Many people admire, with good reason, a certain tall wildflower that thrives in shade, sports yellow blossoms, and has the amusing characteristic of exploding its seed capsules at the slightest touch.

This weed is easy to identify; it's jewelweed, a relative of the garden flower impatiens. They're all kin, in the genus named Impatiens.

Yet not all jewelweeds are alike. There is an orange-flowered jewelweed, often looked upon scornfully by some people, also known as spotted touch-me-not. There is also a jewelweed with pale yellow flowers, appropriately called pale touch-me-not. Many people look upon this latter species with affection.

These two plants -- no, the whole Impatiens genus -- highlight how arbitrary we can be in our judgment of plants. The outstanding quality of this genus is the ability of the plants to deck themselves out in bright, colorful flowers even when growing in shade. Their "impatient" method of seed dispersal might also be looked upon as a good quality if you want an annual plant that spreads and returns every year. Of course, a plant that is too good at this may become a weed -- like the spotted touch-me-not.

Jewelweed is stigmatized from the outset by the "weed" in its name, yet both species mentioned are pretty enough and occasionally have been offered by dealers in native plants. In his book, "Annuals for Connoisseurs," Wayne Winterrowd praises another jewelweed, Himalayan jewelweed. This one has flowers that range in color from pink to red. This plant has been described elsewhere as a "coarse garden annual" that tends to naturalize in this country. Hmmmmm. A garden flower or a weed?

And then there are the more highbred, hybrid Impatiens species. The upright stems of garden balsam, a plant more popular decades ago than today, are studded with double flowers resembling miniature roses.

You undoubtedly know the most famous member of the genus, simply called "impatiens" -- never jewelweed. The bright flowers of this widely planted annual brighten shady gardens from the Atlantic to the Pacific with dazzling flowers that are either white or some shade of red.

A few years ago, a yellow-flowered variety of impatiens, dubbed African Queen, was introduced with much fanfare. If you look beyond the ballyhoo, you might notice that African Queen is very reminiscent of the spotted and pale jewelweeds.