New Guinea impatiens
Impatiens hawkeri
A tender perennial from New Guinea grown almost everywhere in North America as a warm-season annual, prized for non-stop bright bloom in part shade — and, unlike common impatiens, in considerably more sun. It mounds 6-24 inches tall and 18-36 inches wide, carrying large, flat, five-petaled flowers in coral, salmon, pink, red, orange, lavender, and white above bold, often bronze-tinted dark foliage. Its real selling point is honest and practical: Impatiens hawkeri is resistant to impatiens downy mildew (Plasmopara obducens), the disease that collapsed plantings of Impatiens walleriana, making it the dependable shade-to-part-sun bedding plant where the common species can no longer be trusted.
Climate fit: narrow (21/100)
Filler
Border
Container
Light
Full sun / Part shade
Water
Consistent moisture
Mature size
6-24" tall · 14" apart
Lifecycle
True annual (one season)
Native in Illinois
No
Grown purely as an ornamental part-shade-to-sun bedding, container, and hanging-basket annual; it is not a food crop and has no notable edible use.
Cold hardiness
These values are location-based: this location's current hardiness is the baseline, and the 2050 value is a projected future climate for this same location.
Now
Zone 6b
Plotwright
USDA Zone 6b
-5°F to 0°F
Won't grow here
Zone 7a
Plotwright
0°F to 5°F
Won't grow here
In plain terms: This location has cold winters. Its winters are projected to keep warming through 2050.
✕
Out of range today and still out of range in 2050.
Heat tolerance
Heat tolerance values are location-based too: heat days today are observed at this site, and the 2050 value projects this same location under a future climate.
Loading AHS heat-zone data for this location...
Where this plant fits
Suitable across 17 ecoregions — 11 climate-resilient through 2070 · 6 newly possible by 2070. Best matches first.
Plant this, not that
Better fit for this place
For Chicago, IL, these are replacement suggestions: similar plants with a stronger hardiness fit now and/or in 2050.
Ageratum houstonianum
Flossflower
A compact, frost-tender warm-season annual from Mexico and Central America grown for its dense, fuzzy, thread-like ("flossy") flower clusters — most famously in soft true blue and lavender-blue, the trait that sets it apart from almost every other bedding annual, plus pink and white forms. It mounds into a clumping cushion 6-12 inches tall and about as wide, blooming from early summer until frost over soft, heart-shaped, slightly hairy leaves. It is easy and rewarding bedding, edging, and container color in full sun to part shade with steady moisture, but it is strictly look-don't-eat: the foliage and stems contain hepatotoxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids and are toxic if ingested.
Better fit now and in 2050
Now: well-suited
2050: well-suited
Tagetes patula
French marigold
A compact, fast warm-season annual from Mexico and Guatemala (despite the "French" name) grown as bedding, edging, and container color. It typically reaches 6-12 inches tall with single to fully double, 1-2 inch fragrant flowerheads in yellow, orange, red, and bicolor over aromatic, deeply pinnate toothed foliage. Blooms June to frost in full sun, is low-maintenance, and is one of the few annuals deer tend to leave alone.
Better fit now and in 2050
Now: well-suited
2050: well-suited
Portulaca grandiflora
Moss rose
A low, mat-forming succulent annual from Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, grown for its ruffled, rose-like flowers above clusters of cylindrical, fleshy leaves on reddish stems. From June to frost it carries 1-inch single, semi-double, or double blooms in red, rose, orange, yellow, or white that open in sun and close on cloudy or rainy days. Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder rates it for poor, dry, well-drained soils in full sun, where its drought tolerance lets it thrive in hot spots that defeat many other plants.
Better fit now and in 2050
Now: well-suited
2050: well-suited
Stachys byzantina
Lamb's ear
A mat-forming herbaceous perennial in the mint family (Lamiaceae), native to the rocky hills of Turkey, the Caucasus, and Iran. NC State Extension describes it as grown chiefly for its thick, soft, silvery-green leaves that are densely white-woolly and velvety to the touch, 4-6 inches long, borne in low basal rosettes about a foot tall and a foot or so wide. In summer it sends up terminal spikes of tiny purplish-pink two-lipped flowers, though the bloom stalks are often sheared off to keep the foliage compact. Deer-resistant and moderately drought-tolerant once established, it wants full sun and very well-drained soil and resents wet leaves and humid, soggy ground.
Better fit now and in 2050
Now: well-suited
2050: well-suited
Similar plants
Browse lateral options with similar roles, light needs, size, or native-range overlap; these are not filtered for a better climate fit.
Catharanthus roseus
Annual vinca
A tender perennial from Madagascar grown across temperate North America as a heat-loving summer annual — a mounding 6-18 inch plant in the dogbane family covered in flat five-lobed phlox-like flowers from June to frost. The species blooms rosy-pink to red with a darker mauve throat, and it shrugs off the hot, humid weather that wilts most bedding plants. Every part of the plant is poisonous: it is the natural source of the vinca alkaloids used in chemotherapy.
Ageratum houstonianum
Flossflower
A compact, frost-tender warm-season annual from Mexico and Central America grown for its dense, fuzzy, thread-like ("flossy") flower clusters — most famously in soft true blue and lavender-blue, the trait that sets it apart from almost every other bedding annual, plus pink and white forms. It mounds into a clumping cushion 6-12 inches tall and about as wide, blooming from early summer until frost over soft, heart-shaped, slightly hairy leaves. It is easy and rewarding bedding, edging, and container color in full sun to part shade with steady moisture, but it is strictly look-don't-eat: the foliage and stems contain hepatotoxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids and are toxic if ingested.
Petunia x atkinsiana
Petunia
The garden petunia is a complex Brazilian-derived hybrid in the nightshade family, grown almost everywhere as a warm-season bedding annual for its funnel-shaped, often fragrant flowers in nearly every color except true brown and black. Missouri Botanical Garden ranks it second only to impatiens in annual bedding-plant sales, prized for non-stop bloom from late spring until frost. It is a tender perennial hardy only in USDA Zones 10-11, so most of North America treats it as a single-season annual.
Stachys byzantina
Lamb's ear
A mat-forming herbaceous perennial in the mint family (Lamiaceae), native to the rocky hills of Turkey, the Caucasus, and Iran. NC State Extension describes it as grown chiefly for its thick, soft, silvery-green leaves that are densely white-woolly and velvety to the touch, 4-6 inches long, borne in low basal rosettes about a foot tall and a foot or so wide. In summer it sends up terminal spikes of tiny purplish-pink two-lipped flowers, though the bloom stalks are often sheared off to keep the foliage compact. Deer-resistant and moderately drought-tolerant once established, it wants full sun and very well-drained soil and resents wet leaves and humid, soggy ground.
Viola × wittrockiana
Pansy
The classic cool-season bedding plant, grown for 2-4 inch flattened "face" flowers in nearly every color, usually marked with a contrasting dark blotch and central whiskering. A garden-origin hybrid (not a wild species) treated as a short-lived perennial run as a cool-weather annual or biennial — it blooms hardest in spring and fall and inevitably succumbs to summer heat. The Missouri Botanical Garden lists it as the top-selling winter bedding plant in the deep South.
Lobularia maritima
Sweet alyssum
A low, mat-forming member of the mustard family from the Mediterranean coast, grown almost everywhere as a cool-season annual for its dense mounds of tiny, sweetly fragrant white four-petaled flowers. The flowering is so profuse it often hides the gray-green foliage entirely. It thrives in cool weather, tolerates dry soil and drought, and is a reliable nectar source for small pollinators.
Sources & citations
Cite this page
For lesson plans, articles, or research that uses this page. To cite a single upstream fact instead, use its specific source listed below.
Plotwright. (2026, May 17). New Guinea impatiens (Impatiens hawkeri). Retrieved 2026, June 24, from https://plotwright.com/plants/impatiens-hawkeri
Sources for every fact
Every fact on this page traces to a source. 18 fields cited - 18 source-backed.
NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox
University extension service
Backs 17 fields
Identity
Summary
Plant type
Light
Moisture
Hardiness
Heat zone
Size
Spacing
Habit
Design roles
Seasonal interest
Growth stages
Lifecycle
Regional guidance
Success tips
Designer notes