A most impressive display in your greenhouse might be this scarlet Balsam. Unfortunately the photographs cannot convey the brilliancy of flower colour, a wonderful day-glow in the flesh, and with this variety enhanced emerging from deep purple-green foliage.
The Balsams or Impatiens family offer many excellent choices for inexpensive impact; easy to grow, continuous flowering and brilliant colours. Apart from our native Noli-me-tangere almost all were introduced during the reign of Queen Victoria.
One species often grown as houseplants, sometimes even as garden annuals, are Busy Lizzies, I. walleriana. Remarkably easy to grow and propagate these have now been crossed with I. schlekteri from New Guinea to give even more impressive plants, both bushier and better coloured.
However this has been at the expense of making successful culture a tad trickier. The results can be superb but with several pitfalls to be aware of. It’s not these are difficult so much as demanding. When they get what they want then they respond magnificently, otherwise they can sulk, mind you even sulking they’re still pretty good, just not stunning.
The finest examples such as this ‘Clockwork Orange with dark leaf’ are only available as small plants, usually sent out in spring or early summer. Pot these on, keep warm and moist, feed lightly, and keep an eye out for common greenhouse culprits.
Free draining compost rich in humus suits as waterlogging can be fatal, drying out is bad, but too wet and roots may rot. Particularly beware of ‘not watering without checking if they wilt’, the compost may be too wet already, or maybe the plants are too hot!
For although needing warmth these do not like it too hot, nor too bright. Busy Lizzies are good houseplants as they can give pretty flowers in shade, however they still do fine in sun. These new hybrids have forest ancestry for they like sun but only when it’s for part of the day and partly shaded the rest. Too little light and they grow slowly and flower shyly, and perversely if too bright they may also flower less with smaller blooms. And even more specifically they prefer full morning sun and shady after noon not the other way round, odd. So positioning is almost everything. Get this right and they’ll do you proud, if not simply try moving them.