very tall impatiens?

sugardumpling

i started impatiens from seed and got a few flats from local home depot/lowes.

the ones from store are low to ground and spread nicely but the ones i stared from seed are about 1-2 feet off the ground and look like an open umbrella.  what would cause this to happen?

~NB~

Too much shade?

nitaw

I have no clue why that happens. The zinnias I started from seed are taller than my holly bushes (which are 4 ft tall). The seed packet stated they'd only be about 24 inches tall. Ha!

dirtyred

Agree with the pp about too much shade.  Plants grow very tall like that in their search for sun.

tmkd

My impatiens grow HUGE every year. They get fll sun half of the day, shade in the afternoon. I think it's just normal for them.

~NB~

Keep in mind that greenhouse plant production is QUITE DIFFERENT than how YOU start seeds at home. Seedlings are forced on high nitrogen fertilizers and debudded to encourage bushy form. Once the foliage is fat and fluffy, they are encouraged to bloom, and shipped off to market: Lowes, HD, your local nursery. Customers don't want to buy natural looking plants, they want to buy plants on steroids.

sugardumpling

interesting.  thanks so much for the responses.