Give them a little more time.

Just in case, I am trying this method: I placed a few impatiens seeds on a moistened kitchen napkin, placed the napkin on a saucer and covered it with a plastic cover. Then I placed it in a sunny window. Will let you know if it germinates by this method.

Well I put about 20 pounds of seed (ok... not quite but it seemed like it!) in the garden last spring and got maybe three plants by late October! They flowered once and quickly got hit by frost. I thought the seed was bad but this year I have about 19 pounds of impatiens coming up! Maybe yours just want to sleep a while longer

BasilB

I have been trying to germinate Impatiens glandulifera seed for three months. No luck to date. Does anyone have any germination data relating to this species?

i grew these from seed, planted them out early spring and they are blooming like crazy now - (picture is two weeks old)
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Carrie--Are those the balsam/lady's slipper variety? If they are, I also have them growing like crazy. They spread their seed everywhere! Unfortunately no flowers! I have to keep pulling them out cause they crowd out my other flowersing plants. I heard this is not the time for them to flower? They are very pretty when they do bloom. BTW yours are very pretty!

Thanks, Dazed. I like them and they are easy to grow. The seed package said Balsamina Impatiens Double Camellia - so I guess that's what it is! LOL - - They only need a couple of hours of sun in the morning and the rest of the time they tolerate the shade. Some of the ones in my part shade garden are all pink and they look really nice and light up that area too.

Dazed when they are so abundant that they are crowded they don't grow as large and they do tend to take longer to bloom. I'm not to sure but i think temp is what spurs the time they bloom. It isn't size, as a 2 inch plant can bloom as easily as a 2ft tall one. if crowded they don't tend to branch out so they look like little palm tree Forrest's. If given room they will end up looking like a bush. I had 4 that i put all by themselves in 4 spots those four got to be 3 ft tall and 2 wide the ones that had few neighbors got to 3 ft tall but not as wide, and the ones crowded didn't get much taller then a ft and didn't branch at all. it is like they build to suit their space. If you'd like i can take some photos to illustrate it. I don;t have any that have started bushing out yet, but have many 3 ft tall and a patch of crowed 11 inch ones.

for anyone who asked about germinating policeman's helmet, impatiens glandulifera...the seed must be fresh! harvest and sow them the same season. they will germinate the following spring. that's the way it worked here in zone 4. i have repeated failures until i used fresh seed.
tazetta

The mistake I made when first planting impatiens is I buried the seed too deeply. Just place the seeds on top of the soil and lightly press them in, then water. I use a bottle with a spout similar to that of a shampoo bottle to water. It has an opening small enough to allow one drop of water at a time. Check often and don't let the soil dry out. You could put plastic over the planting tray, I don't do this because I wind up too often with moldy seeds. If you plant the seeds in the late winter in an unheated room, it will take a while for them to sprout so don't give up too soon. To be honest though, some mixes of certain varieties still fail for me, so then I'll try another variety, like instead of Accent, I'll try Sunny Lady for example.

I collected seed from only burgundy colored impatiens last fall just to see what would happen. They sprouted and grew well. I got plants with burgundy flowers, but also got plants with salmon and with violet flowers too. The plants are all healthy and floriferous like the parent plant. I am satisfied with how everything turned out and am going to try collecting only white impatien seeds for next year.