Busy Lizzie
Sources last read 14 September 2026.
Middling It gives warning, with time to act.
Also called Bizzy Lizzy, Busy Lizzy, buzzy lizzy, Common Impatiens, Garden Impatiens, Impatiens, patience plant, Patient Lucy, sultan's balsam, sultan's flower, sultan's pride, sultana and Zanzibar balsam.
Toxicity is partly unassessed
What the sources say about its care
Sources file this plant under other names: Impatiens spp (ASPCA, genus only). Citations below point at the name its source uses.
- Light
- Full shade, Full sun, Partial shadeRHS · read 13 September 2026
- Water
- Moist but well-drainedRHS · read 13 September 2026
- Humidity
No source read publishes a humidity figure for any plant on this site. What follows is general guidance for foliage plants.
ASHRAE recommends indoor relative humidity between 30% and 60% 30–60%Penn State Extension · read 13 September 2026- Temperature
How cold this tolerates, not what it prefers. No source read for this site publishes a preferred range for a plant indoors.
H1B — 10–15°C 10–15 °CRHS · read 13 September 2026- Soil
- Chalk, Clay, Loam, Sand; pH Acid or Alkaline or NeutralRHS · read 13 September 2026
- Toxic to cats
- Listed as non-toxicASPCA names the genus (Impatiens spp.), not the species.ASPCA, filed as Impatiens spp. · read 13 September 2026
- Toxic to dogs
- Listed as non-toxicASPCA names the genus (Impatiens spp.), not the species.ASPCA, filed as Impatiens spp. · read 13 September 2026
- Harmful to people
- No statement of harm to people is published for this plant; that absence is not evidence it is safe.RHS · read 13 September 2026
How it usually goes wrong
- Brown brittle margins with a green centre
On a busy Lizzie the browning starts furthest from the midrib and works inward, and it crumbles rather than smears. The centre of each leaf is untouched.
Transpiration rises as the air dries, and the tissue furthest from a vein loses first. Penn State Extension notes there is no single humidity figure that suits every indoor plant, which is why this site publishes a range rather than a number.
Telling it apart: When it started. Edges that browned as the heating came on point at air; edges that browned through a wet summer do not.
Penn State ExtensionDiagnose brown tips and edges on this Busy Lizzie- Flower buds shed while still closed
Buds on the busy Lizzie stop swelling, turn pale at the base and fall, usually a few at a time over a week or two.
Sudden changes in light, warmth or watering cause buds to be abandoned, because a bud is expensive and the plant cannot tell whether conditions will recover. Its source describes full shade, full sun, partial shade.
Telling it apart: A fallen bud under a magnifying glass. Insects or scarring point at pests; a clean bud points at a change or at water.
RHSBusy Lizzie leaves falling off: causes- Whitened areas where the sun falls longest
Scorched leaves on the busy Lizzie turn from pale to brown and brittle, and the damage stops where the shade of another leaf fell across it.
Anything from full shade to full sun is what its source names, and outdoors that sun comes with moving air that cools the foliage. Behind still glass the same light heats the tissue well above the room, and the exposed patches dry out first.
Telling it apart: Which side. Damage confined to the lit side is light; damage spread evenly is not.
RHSBusy Lizzie leaves falling off: causes- Yellowing that begins at the lowest leaves on each stem
A sour smell from the compost is common on a busy Lizzie, and the lowest leaves on each stem come away when pulled. The surface may look dry while everything beneath it is not.
Its source describes soil that is moist but well-drained. Roots held below that are short of air, and roots short of air stop moving water, so the plant wilts in a wet pot.
Telling it apart: Whether new growth is affected too. Root damage shows up everywhere at once; ordinary leaf loss shows only in the oldest leaves.
RHSBusy Lizzie leaves turning yellow: causes
Not sure which it is? Ask the diagnosis questions for Busy Lizzie.
Routine care
- Watering
- Given enough water they can grow in part sun, though strong sun may scorch leaves. They cope with humidity but are sensitive to heat, looking wilted in hot, dry spells, when they need extra water.NC State Extension · read 13 September 2026
- Propagation
- Cuttings taken in fall root easily and can be planted out in the garden in spring once the last frost is over.NC State Extension · read 13 September 2026Increase from seed or softwood cuttings.RHS · read 13 September 2026
- Pruning
- Pinch out the growing tip on young plants so they branch well and stay balanced. Deadheading carefully and often can extend flowering well into autumn.RHS · read 13 September 2026
- Pests and diseases
- Diseases: southern bacterial wilt, southern blight.NC State Extension · read 13 September 2026Usually free of pests, though vine weevil, aphids and glasshouse red spider mite can occur. Diseases: downy mildew can occur.RHS · read 13 September 2026
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Photographs
About the plant
Impatiens walleriana, also known as busy Lizzie, balsam, sultana, or simply impatiens, is a species of the genus Impatiens, native to eastern Africa from Kenya to Mozambique. The Latin specific epithet walleriana honours a British missionary, Horace Waller (1833–1896).
From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · read 13 September 2026
- Native range
- SE. Kenya to S. Trop. AfricaWorld Checklist of Vascular Plants, June 2026 release, CC BY.Kew WCVP · read 13 September 2026Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, and ZimbabweNC State Extension · read 13 September 2026
- Climate
- wet tropicalWorld Checklist of Vascular Plants, June 2026 release, CC BY.Kew WCVP · read 13 September 2026
- Growth form
- subshrubWorld Checklist of Vascular Plants, June 2026 release, CC BY.Kew WCVP · read 13 September 2026Annual, Herbaceous Perennial; habit clumping, dense, erect, mounding, rounded, spreadingNC State Extension · read 13 September 2026Bushy (evergreen)RHS · read 13 September 2026
- Size
- Height 6–24 in; width 6–24 inNC State Extension · read 13 September 2026Height 0.1-0.5 metres; spread 0.1-0.5 metres after 1 yearRHS · read 13 September 2026
- Flowering
- Flowers orange, pink, purple/lavender, red/burgundy, white; blooms in fall, summerNC State Extension · read 13 September 2026Flowers white in summer; red in summer; purple in summer; pink in summerRHS · read 13 September 2026
- Uses
What sources record people using this plant for. A traditional or medicinal use listed here is a record of use, not advice to eat it or treat anything with it.
Where it grows natively it is used for medicine and food.NC State Extension · read 13 September 2026
Common problems with Busy Lizzie
Other Impatiens
Plants with similar care
African violetBrown tips on the newest leaves first
Bigleaf hydrangeaA thin dry rim that crumbles between the fingers
Bird of paradiseCrisp margins that appear in winter
Calla lilyEdges of the leaves brown while the middle stays sound
CamelliaBrown brittle margins with a green centre
Cape leadwortCrisp margins that appear in winter
Sources
- ASPCA · read 13 September 2026
- Kew WCVP · read 13 September 2026
- NC State Extension · read 13 September 2026
- Penn State Extension · read 13 September 2026
- RHS · read 13 September 2026
- Wikipedia · read 13 September 2026
What this does not cover
The figures above are what published sources say, not measurements of the plant in your room. They say nothing about your pot size, your water, the season, or how far from the glass the plant stands, and those decide more than any figure here does.
Humidity has no species figure because no source read for this site publishes one, and the only temperature published for this plant is a cold floor. The simulator fills those gaps with general figures for its kind of plant, marked as general and listed on how we read sources. Where a toxicity row says the plant was not assessed, that is the absence of a finding and not a finding of safety.
If something is already wrong, the diagnosis tool asks about the soil, the window and the watering, which is where the answer usually is.