The ubiquitous balsams
Published on: Sunday, September 22, 2019
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A cluster of the common balsam with plenty of flowers.
The ornamental is widely grown in the urban as well as rural areas where they are either set on or grown in plots, beds or lines, or simply in clusters that are distributed all over the place.
They are also grown in pots and other types of containers of all conceivable shapes and sizes including the larger-sized water bottles, tin cans, rejected plastic drums and G.I. tubs, etc.
The common balsam is much loved as it is easy to start by using seeds that come plentifully among the mature plants.
Seeds usually germinate within five to seven days the seedlings from which should attain vertical heights of 3-5cm within the next five days.
Add in another four to seven weeks and flowers should come onstream. This means that balsams should constitute a pretty entertaining and relaxing task in any garden be it on the ground or high up in apartments or condos.
Variously known as garden balsam or rose balsam, Impatiens balsamina may be common but not necessarily low class or unsophisticated. In fact, in terms of flower colour power alone, the plant certainly stands out as one of the brightest among flowering plants.
As such, greening your vacant spaces in the front or backyard, or along fences, would be a wonderful way to give yourself some physical activity without tearing your muscle or pocket, and at the same time enjoying the beautiful colour that comes along with it.
The genus Impatiens has about 900 species of small and short shrubby plants that carry fairly thick but soft succulent stems. Most of them can only grow to heights of between 30-60cm, with some outstanding ones reaching 70-80cm. It is extremely rare to find members of the genus attaining heights greater than that.
Generally, members of Impatiens are comprised of annuals, semi-annuals and some evergreens that have spread to many parts of the world. The preferred climate is one of tropical or subtropical in nature, but the plant is not averse to growing in slightly cooler zones such in the lower levels of cool highlands.
As the name of the genus Impatiens implies, there is a great tendency for the plant to be quite impatient about exploding its fruits and scattering the seeds all around. This is much aided by even light contact with surrounding stems during gusts of wind where the mature fruits with dry fruit walls become highly explosive when touched.
The common balsam has a characteristic leaf form and distribution. Leaves are long, narrow and lanceolate in shape with a pointed tip. Leaf edges are serrated with the sharp “teeth” pointed outwards and forward, much like that of the teeth of a handsaw.
The fruits that are mostly between 1-3cm in length, are hairy and shaped elliptically with a central bulge that tapers off towards the tip at the distal end. Once matured, the fruit turns light brown which is a sign that it is ready to blast off its seeds into the surrounding area.
A cluster of seedlings that is less than two weeks old.
Prolific bloomers
Balsams are prolific bloomers. They will virtually bloom until they ‘breathe their last’ while continuously producing a bewildering assortment of colours ranging from pink, lilac, while, mottled, striped and purple to red to bright crimson. And more colours are being added as more and more horticultural work is carried out.
It is, therefore, worth the effort to do some light exercise to start the plants and then tending to them. Once they are steadily growing and flowering, the seeds ejected from the dry mature fruits should be able to sustain the balsam crop for a surprisingly long time.
This allows for the gardening enthusiast to focus on his plant plans and have a cuppa or a bottle or two while taking his time to santai-santai in the garden. At the end of the day, cultivating the common balsam is indeed not a difficult task as all.
Balsam flowers may be single or double-petalled. They are borne at the leaf axils with one or more flowers at each point.
Flowers are pollinated by a number of insects including bees as well as some nectar sucking birds.
Fruits are carried at the same leaf axils in great numbers, but many of them will abort due to the problem of sustenance.
Although balsams bear huge numbers of attractive and colourful flowers in their lifetime, they are sadly not used as cutflowers for display inside homes or offices. This is because they have a tendency to droop and wilt within a short time compared to other flowers such as orchids or even Heliconia.
Similarly, an entire mature balsam plant may droop quite quickly once pulled up from the soil or pot unless the transplanting process is correctly done.
Requirements and care of balsams
Balsams are among the easiest garden plants to grow anywhere under our beautiful climatic conditions. It does not take much for the plants to swathe your entire garden in a sea of bright, cheerful colours. Just give them their due needs of air, light and space as you would any other plant, and they should be producing and blooming happily for a long time.
Even within flats, apartments and condos, it is still possible to brighten up the balconies or window ledges with blooming balsams. But care has to be taken to secure the pots and other contraptions that hold the flowering plants on window sills and ledges to prevent them from accidentally falling down and hitting someone or something.
Balsams require plenty of light to flower well. They do not fear the hot tropical sun, so there should not be any problem to grow them fully exposed to the bright sunshine and heat.
However, this does not mean they will fail when shaded but as long as the shade is partial, the plants will still flower well except that the foliage may become a little greener.
When grown under the perpetual shade of big trees, such plants become more spindly and straggly with the internode distance a little longer thus giving an appearance of lesser flowers.
As balsams are succulent to semi-hardy annuals, there is a tendency for rotting to set in once the soil is kept soggy or waterlogged for too long. As a rough guide, apply water only when the top layer of the soil begins to dry up. Also, a highly effective visual reminder is that of drooping leaves or wilting stems as these are signs that the plant needs water. However, it is always safer to be on the dry side.
For best results, balsams require a highly fertile, well-drained and friable soil that is free from waterlogging. Better still, if enrichment of the soil with organic manures before planting could be carried out, the results would be even more wonderful. Good friability of the soil is important as this adds to its porosity thereby keeping the soil particles more open and airy, and better drained.
These are what balsams need most in their root environment because if drainage is impeded to any extent and to any length of time, then there is a great risk of root rot setting in. Soils that are slightly sandy would do fine to tackle the problem of pertinent and excessive water retention.
During the early stage of growth of balsams, fertilisers should be applied on a weekly to fortnightly basis. For vigorous growth and development of the plant, a complete fertiliser should be used. However, when the plants begin to mature, a high potash fertiliser should be used instead in order to boost its flowering performance.
Balsams normally grow vertically upwards with a single stem carrying all the foliage, flowers and fruits. To encourage branching and bushiness, such stems may be detopped when fully mature so that more than one lateral shoot may issue from it. This means the possibility of seeing more flowers on a single plant when the process of detopping is neatly done without damaging the other parts of the plant.
An exploded fruit showing the curvature of the fruit walls and seeds.
Propagation of balsams
Balsams produce oval to elongated fruit bodies which taper to a blunt point at the distal end. Within the fruit bodies are the seed pods which house numerous round seeds. When mature, the dry to semi-dry fruits tend to burst open in a sort of explosion as a result of the difference in tension between the inner and outer walls of the fruit.
Such a characteristic mechanism of seed dispersal ensures the survival of the species even if there is nothing to carry them around. However, because of the little force involved, the dispersed seeds normally land within a range of 1-2m from the parent plant. It is thus not surprising to see clusters of balsam plants growing closely together in its natural state.
In human terms, this will be more or less equivalent to a shot putter hitting the gold jackpot at every throw and breaking all records.
Balsams can also be propagated by vegetative means. In this case, the upper sections of plants can be used to start new plants. This is perfect since detopping encourages bushiness, while at the same time the section taken in this way can be used for propagative purposes. That is a double bonus indeed.
Time to grab the bonus, folks!
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