Help regarding Busy Lizzies/Impatiens

Could anyone please advise me on how to get Busy Lizzie seeds to germinate? I have spent pounds on these seeds this Spring to get lots of them ready for all the pots we have in our garden, but to no avail.

I dont know where I am going wrong. I have manged to get 3x sprouting and no more!

I have scattered them on a compost I bought for seeds. I lightly covered them with compost and kept the compost just moist. They were in trays in my poly tunnel. After 6x weeks and no signs of life, I purchased some more packets. This time I covered the trays with clear plastic sheeting and still nothing.

I tried again this time with a different brand of seeds, in uncovered trays, kept moist and warm.Still nothing!

Your advice will be appreciated and how you propogate these from seeds.

Regards

Olivia9801

 

Hi I have grown from seed but you need a heated propergator to get them to grow thats the secret plus start in very late March / First week April as they take ages to get going to be honest after I tried for three years I went back to buying them as plug plants , you have mentioned you kept them warm how?? as if just under cover as you have found out it just doesnt work , just thought as well you dont cover the seed with soil a fine dusting with vermiculite works best as the seed is like dust .

Spruce

 

Don't cover the seed at all, the seeds germinate much quicker if exposed to light, make sure the bed of compost is nice and moist, sprinkle them on and keep them warm, heated propagator or underneath a lamp with cling film over the seed tray.!!

Val

 

I tried growing from expensive packets of bought seeds many, many years ago and failed miserably. Then I was shown how easy it was to collect seeds by 'popping' the ripe pods into a plastic cup each day, tipping the contents into a tray lined with paper, occasionally shuffling it around so the debris came to the surface and I'd have literally thousands of seeds to sow the following year.

I'd sow them on the surface of compost in seed trays covered with a propagator top and placed on the top shelf in my heated greenhouse in (early?) March. Despite instructions about not covering them I'd put an extremely thin covering of compost over them, which probably didn't even cover most of the seeds. As soon as they germinated the cover would come off.

Germination would be much, much better than those few seeds from some expensive packet - well it would be if you sowed hundreds and hundreds of them wouldn't it? I'd have busy lizzies in beds, pots, window boxes and hanging baskets at both front and back of our house and my in-laws plus in beds at my mothers and have loads for charity sales. But I concentrate on veg, fruit and cut flowers these days.

Your probably too late to sow anything now for this year, but if you buy some trays of small plants from the likes of B&Q/Tesco/Etc. for about 15 -20p per plant you could save the seeds to sow early next year and have plenty to experiment with. Although I'd try and pick equal numbers of pods from plants of each colour to get a decent mix the next year, I never did work out if seeds from red flowers produced plants with red flowers, and so on.

 

I ditto what Scrungee said . Just buy some BL's from Tesco, B and Q et al. In late August and September the pods form . They look at first like a long thin rugby ball , note where they are and when they are a rugby ball in proportion the seed pod is ripe . I cut the pods off into a plastic container quick shake and bang there are the seeds ! They need to be deep brown colour , if they are white the pod was not ripe. It just takes a little while to get used to .

 

Bizzy lizzie, (impatiens), have explosive seed pods.

So if you leave them too long, the seed gets dispersed naturally.
I'd agree its best to use a heated propagator to get decent germination

 

Hi Olivia, I agree with the advice everyone has given - moisture and warmth are the key factors for germinating busy lizzies. Get plugs this year now and try saving seed for next year.
Seed won't come true from the F1 hybrids, but if you just want a good mix of colours that'll be fine.

When collecting your own seed, pick them into a paper bag so that even if they explode, you've got them!

Another idea...especially suitable for when you want an identical plant is cuttings. If you take little cuttings in September, they will root in water on a warm windowsill. Pot them up and they are ready for hardening off then planting out end of May.

 

Mnay thanks for your replies. You have clearly shown where I am going wrong! Will try and get a heat propogator for next year.

It such a shame, as we were really looking forward to raising lots of our own for this year!

Thanks again to thos who replied.

ATB

Olivia9801