How to grow your own Impatiens from seed for free

If you're unhappy plunking down good money to buy annuals at your local garden center, there is another way.  Scary as it sounds, you can grow your own.  I know, I know...this is crazy talk - anti-capitalist blasphemy...but hear me out.

If you have impatiens that you have kept alive all summer, go take a look at them.  There's a good chance that if it's early autumn, they have a new structure dangling somewhere near a blossom.  It's a seed pod, and they are the source of the plant's name.  Impatiens is Latin for "impatient," and these seed pods are very hasty fellows.  Don't touch the seed pod, but pick it by the stem.

These puppies are translucent, and you can see a dark center.  Those are the seeds.  If you're gentle as you pick them, you can carefully hold a bunch of them in your hand.

I take them in the house and set them on a piece of white paper.  Now the fun begins, unless you've already discovered their special surprise.  If you gently squeeze a seed pod, it will curl up with a snap and launch seeds into the air.  My sons, jaded and crass as they are, were even impressed by how cool it is to pop these seed pods.  They are capable of launching seeds a yard or more away.  However, if you pop them in a closed fist, or smash them flat with your hand, they won't be able to send seeds flying, and you'll find little brown seeds mixed in with the fleshy green pod parts.

Separate the seeds from the "popped" pods.  They ball up into little fists, and squeeze seeds out of the ends. At this point the white paper is just to help you see the seeds.

But once you've separated the seed, the paper is great for funneling the seed into an envelope for storage.  In the late winter or early spring, tear open the envelope and sprinkle them into damp seed starting mix.  Cover with plastic, and put the pot in a sunny place, and they will sprout.  Once the weather has warmed some, and the impatiens are large enough to survive the stress of it all, you can transplant them into shady or semi-shady parts of your yard.  They also do well in pots, and as long as you keep them watered, they will last until it gets cold.  Almost all of our impatiens this year were grown from seed.  It's easy, and you can do it too.

So, go see if your impatiens have seed pods, and get popping.