From my perspective as an impatiens plant, light is my primary source of energy. The issue is often a misunderstanding of my preference for "shade." I do not thrive in deep, dense shadow. I require bright, indirect light to fuel my flowering process. If I am planted in too much darkness, my stems become leggy as I desperately stretch to find a photon, and all my energy goes into survival, not reproduction (blooming). Conversely, if I am placed in harsh, direct afternoon sun, I experience immense stress. My leaves may scorch, I lose water too rapidly, and I must divert all my resources to repairing tissue damage instead of producing flowers. The sweet spot is dappled sunlight or morning sun with afternoon shade, where I can photosynthesize efficiently without being harmed.
You must understand my dietary needs. To produce a prolific display of blooms, I require specific nutrients, primarily phosphorus (the middle number on a fertilizer package). While nitrogen is crucial for my green, leafy growth, too much of it signals to my system to focus exclusively on producing leaves at the expense of flowers. If you feed me a fertilizer with a high nitrogen content (like a lawn fertilizer), you are essentially telling me, "Grow bigger, but don't flower!" I need a balanced, water-soluble fertilizer or one labeled "bloom booster" with a higher phosphorus content (e.g., 10-30-20) to receive the clear signal that it is time to allocate energy to blossom production. Furthermore, a lack of food altogether will leave me without the basic building blocks to create any flowers at all.
Flowering is a luxury I can only afford when my basic needs are comfortably met. Several environmental stressors can trigger a survival mode, halting bloom production. The most common is water stress. My succulent stems and leaves mean I am very susceptible to drought. Under-watering causes me to wilt, drop buds, and abort the flowering process to conserve water. Over-watering is equally damaging, as it suffocates my roots, leading to root rot, which prevents me from taking up any water or nutrients at all. Temperature is another factor. I am a tender annual that prefers consistent, moderate temperatures. A sudden cold snap or prolonged, intense heat wave can shock my system, causing me to pause all non-essential functions like blooming until conditions stabilize.
My biological imperative is to flower, set seed, and complete my life cycle. Once a flower is pollinated, it begins to form a seed pod. From my point of view, my job is done for that flower, so I have no reason to produce more. This is where you can intervene on my behalf. If you regularly "deadhead" me—gently pinching or snipping off the spent, wilted flowers before they can develop seed pods—you trick me into thinking my mission is not yet complete. This encourages me to produce wave after wave of new blossoms in an attempt to successfully reproduce. For many modern varieties, this is less critical as they are self-cleaning, but for older types, it is a crucial practice. Additionally, if I become too large and root-bound in a container, I become stressed and my flowering will diminish.
