New Guinea Impatiens dont normally seem to set seed. The pods look like little footballs. they are in the middle of the flower and will swell up till they explode usually about a month or so depending on the temps

My wife was given a New Guinea plant in a hanging basket for Mothers Day 2007. That thing is about as pretty a plant that I have ever seen.. It is huge and is one flowering bugger!! Ok, my question. Those little footballs, when do you pick them off?? Do they dry up and shrink? I have never watched them long enough to see what happenes to them. I thought that they were the beginning of a new flower.. Do I pick them off, let them dry or pick them and directly put them into soil or in a paper towel and baggie to let them sprout? I took some shoots off the bottom edge around the main plant last night and poked them in a 6 inch pot and put a plastic baggie over them to see if they will start. They still looked good this AM.. I have read other places where sun, water, fert., and all sorts of special things to keep these flowers blooming. MY pot, (yes I am claiming it from my wife) is on an old picnic table under a shade tree. It sees sun about 2 hrs in the morning, the rest of the time it is in the shade.. We are located in SW Mo., zone 6 and spend winters in deep south Texas, zone 9 Will these things keep blooming all winter in south Texas? Everything else down there blooms all winter.. Thanks, hope to hear from someone.. Bill

Bill
New Guinea Impatiens are very tender and will not survive a Zone 9 winter. The little foot balls are seed pods and are not the seeds themselves. When the pod is ripe it will explode and release the seeds. Normally the plants will drop them off on their own. It sounds like you have the plant in a good spot.

This is my first year to collect seeds off of impatiens. Here is what I have learned through trial and error. When the seed pods swell and look like they have absorbed too much water, hold a cup or a bowl underneath the seed pod as you pick it off the plant. Drop the seed pod into the cup or bowl. Upon impact the seed pod will usually burst and bounce whereever leaving the seeds inside the cup or bowl you are using. If the seed pod does not burst upon impact, then gently squeeze the pod and it will explode - make sure it is in the cup or bowl when you do it because the seeds go everywhere when it explodes. Hope this helps.

Happy gardening,
Quiltingfox

Thank you, quiltingfox, for the information on how to harvest seeds from New Guinea Impatiens. My question is, after harvesting in the Fall, can I store the seeds and plant next Spring...and how should I store them?

Sorry, I'm very visual - I have gotten a pod or two off a ng imp - but I had a hedge of them. This is what it looked like and it held *may be* 3 seeds:

the hedge:
{{gwi:25935}}

The pod:

not NG:
you're football:
{{gwi:17365}}

it usually 'POPS':
{{gwi:17366}}

some seeds can be white or green - they aren't ready - the dark ones are:
{{gwi:17367}}
{{gwi:17371}}

I've kept them in the refrigerator in a plastic zip loc and they've been viable the following year - they don't grow true, but it's always fun to see what you get. Oh, I do this b/c I'm in zone 5... not much would survive our winter... but it has happened... here's some volunteers that survived the winter...
{{gwi:720}}
{{gwi:722}}

Lots of luck!

My impatients keep on making pods but no seed. Can you tell me why? It's been a year already but still no seeds just empty pods.