The two annuals every shaded porch ends up with; the table finds the daylight between them.
Shot to one scale: bloom beside bloom, from our own library.
The verdicts, line by line
Every line below is a field of the open table, not an opinion.
In the vase
Neither carries enough published cut-flower data for an honest vase verdict, so this duel is settled in the garden.
In the garden
Neither is a perennial in most of the country: both are planted fresh each year, which makes the choice a matter of the season you want, not the winter you have.
The full card
A line is marked only where one flower clearly leads. Equal or too-close values are left plain.
| Field | Begonia | Impatiens |
|---|---|---|
| Fragrance | not recorded | Not fragrant |
| Light | Full sun to full shade; adapts to a wide range of light | Partial shade to full shade; tolerates some sun if kept consistently moist |
| Water | Medium | Medium; wilts quickly if allowed to dry out |
| Hardiness zones | 9 to 11 | 10 to 11 |
| Bloom months | 6 months | 6 months |
| Deer (Rutgers) | Occasionally severely damaged (Rutgers C) | Occasionally severely damaged (Rutgers C) |
| Cats (ASPCA) | Toxic | Listed non-toxic |
We keep one table of 85 flowers, with 25 documented facts each, drawn from university and extension sources. Every ranking is a published formula worth 100 points; tap any score and it unfolds into the lines that made it. A flower that does not fit the question is not scored lower: it is excluded, and the reason is shown. When the table changes, every score and stamp updates itself. The full method ↗
Read the full profile
Everything the table holds on each of them, in plain prose.
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