The National Garden Bureau has named this the Year of the Impatiens. I could not be happier. Very few flowers provide nonstop blooms from spring until frost in the deep South. From impatiens that look like a rose to riveting color in the shade garden and in full sun, the impatiens can do it all.

Let’s go basic, and that is the bedding impatiens. I can remember a time in my horticultural career when they were No. 1 at all garden centers, and then the plague set in with a spiteful mildew. But that has changed and toughness and resistance has been put back in.

I plant the Soprano impatiens every year and love mixing the Soprano Red, Orange and Salmon, creating what I consider a Santa Fe mix. The color is nonstop all summer and these vibrant colors light up the shade garden.

I love mixing the Soprano Violet and Salmon shades around colorful Shadowland Autumn Frost variegated hostas. But I like them with Heart to Heart caladiums. Chartreuse colored foliage plays well with any color of Soprano impatiens. I will always use them with Golden Delicious pineapple sage and Shadowland Coast to Coast hostas. Then I like to use them in proximity to the shocking blue blooms of Let’s Dance hydrangeas.

In containers and baskets, look no further than the Rockapulco impatiens. There are double or rose-form impatiens. After a stint as the executive director of the American Rose Society, I made a living — just kidding — asking how would you like a rose with no thorns, powdery mildew or blackspot? Everyone would raise their hands, and I would say, "Here they are: Rockapulco impatiens."

You could not ask for a more elegant looking flower for mixed containers or hanging baskets. Rockapulco Appleblossom looks like rare China porcelain. My favorite container of all time featured Rockapulco Appleblossom impatiens, Diamond Frost euphorbia and Silver Falls dichondra.

A couple of years ago all visitors to the Young’s Plant Farm annual garden tour in Auburn, Alabama, were treated to hanging baskets that were a feast for the eyes. They featured Sweet Caroline Medus Green ornamental sweet potato, Rockapulco Coral Reef impatiens and Summer Wave Large Violet torenia or wishbone flower.

But now we are coming to the hot summer sun champions and that is the SunPatiens. Proven Winners offers 22 varieties under their Proven Selections label. When these first came out, everyone snickered, including the industry. At the time I was a horticulturist with Mississippi State University.

In the trials, visitors were amazed. At the Fall Flower and Garden Fest, I would just stand by the flowers and say, "SunPatiens." SunPatiens with yucca for sure, SunPatiens with lantana—sure, why not? So now years later I am planting them with Rockin Blue Suede Shoes salvia. Some with Luscious lantanas. Son James uses them with Heart to Heart, Burning Heart caladiums and ColorBlaze Wicked Witch coleus. There seems to be no combination too wild to try.

Now the one other secret. Nowhere will you find impatiens on a pollinator list, but I have photos of swallowtails and yellow sulphurs hitting on them. The sulphurs are particularly fond of both the Soprano and the SunPatiens. Fertile organic-rich beds will put you in the driver’s seat and of course water as it promises to be a hot summer. The Year of the Impatiens needs celebration at your house.

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(Norman Winter, horticulturist, garden speaker and author of “Tough-as-Nails Flowers for the South” and “Captivating Combinations: Color and Style in the Garden.” Follow him on Facebook @NormanWinterTheGardenGuy.)

(NOTE TO EDITORS: Norman Winter receives complimentary plants to review from the companies he covers.)

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