I am very partial to my potted, indoor impatiens. They're members of the family. So when both of them started losing leaves and flowers, I was upset. Both these plants were thriving for months. Then the leaves started turning yellow and dropping. Green leaves also drop. New or old. Open thriving flowers or unopened buds. Some of the leaves have some whitish flecks on them, but I don't think it is any kind of insect infestation. I have examined the plants carefully looking for pests. ALL the leaves that drop seem to be a bit on the damp and limp side and STICKY, top and bottom. The stems then shrivel and either drop off, or turn stiff. At a rate of loss of 7 to 10 leaves per day, it is destroying my precious girls. The one plant however, is finally fighting it off, although still in danger. I don't know what this is. Is it downy mildew? Over watering? Root rot? Some kind of nutritional deficiency? They get sun through the window from morning to about 3:00PM, when the sun goes behind the tree in my front yard. Over the past three months I have tried a lot of different things.. I have tried reducing their watering. I have tried anti-fungals like captan, phosphorous acid, myclobutanil. I have tried Neem oil solutions. I have used a biofungicide/bactericide (Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strain D747) I'm just taking shots in the dark. Has anyone here ever seen anything like this?

How long have you had the impatiens growing indoors? I didn't think they were suited for indoors other than possibly over wintering.

Are they New Guinea Impatiens or the regular old fashioned ones? I've had that exact thing happen to New Guineas when I tried them on my (very shaded) front porch one year where 1 of 4 in the container would do that near instant wilt, droop and dry up over just a few days' time. I never did figure out what it was, but I now stick to the original old impatiens and it's never happened again. I never noticed bugs on them, but then I never looked that good, just replaced the dead ones here and there.

Impatiens are grown outdoor as annuals here. They fade away in Fall. Back in the nurseries when it warms up in Spring, time to start a new batch.
Repeated treatment with chemicals and neem can cause phytotoxicity. It's best to figure out what you're treating, then target it with correct use of the appropriate pesticide. Shots in the dark can damage the plant--causing or worsening all the symptoms you describe.
Sticky leaves are suspicious for aphids, scale or mealybugs. Are you familiar with what these little critters look like? They're common plant pests.
It would be helpful if you could post a picture, including the white specks you're seeing.

Murky said: How long have you had the impatiens growing indoors? I didn't think they were suited for indoors other than possibly over wintering..... Are they New Guinea Impatiens or the regular old fashioned ones? .

They are regular impatiens. I believe I've had them indoors since the fall of 2021. I had bought two for the cemetery. Re-potted both immediately. but only took one to the cemetery as the other did not take well to the transplant. . Too much light at the cemetery, so I brought it home in a couple daya. Both thrived indoors. One had as many as 50 flowers and the other 40 or so. Then some leaves started turning yellow and dropping off. Others remained green, but shriveled a bit and then dropped of. Healthy looking flowers and flower buds started dropping off. The leaves, whether yellow or green are usually sticky. Eventually the stems crumble or constrict in spots and "self amputate" I have not detected any insects and I think I know what to look for. I have been fighting this disease for over three months. Kind of tough to treat it when I don't know what it is.

Below are some pictures. I get very attached to my plants and hate to give up on them. Sad to see my plant get defoliated like this. You can see the white flakes in some views.

If you're positive you don't have aphids or whitefly (both should be visible), then it's most likely thrips. Much smaller, almost microscopic. The white bits are discarded exoskeletons. The pale scratch markings on the leaves and the stickiness are both evidence of sap sucking insects. The stickiness is the characteristic excretion of honeydew. Here is info
https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PEST....

And another about pests in general
https://hgic.clemson.edu/facts...

I recall a conversation about this indoor impatiens a few months back, with the same issues. Most every respondent emphasized that these are plants better suited to outdoors and gave you suggestions for propagating new healthy plants. Their continued poor health suggests that they are not happy in their environment. The applications of various 'cides and chemicals have further debilitated them. Weakened, unhealthy plants are especially vulnerable to insect attacks and lack the resources to fight them. How might you combat the thrips? Least harmful is just washing the plant with water. Next step is insecticidal soap, but your plant is so fragile I'm reluctant to recommend more applications of anything.

I'm so sorry, I know you explained that this plant holds sentimental value. But you are trying to grow a plant unsuited to your situation. Yes, originally it bloomed profusely; it was young, fresh from the nursery with lots of fertilizer in the soil, and it lived for several months on its innate reserves. It has struggled for a long time and is very weak now.

I don't know what to suggest. I hope you can glean some helpful information from the articles.

Great advice given, but it will likely still be a struggle.
May I, gently and with true sympathy, suggest that you consider 'keeping' your impatiens by buying new plants now and then when older ones fail?

We get many questions about sick plants that were bought or received in tribute to a loved one. I hate to hear those folks so distraught that a particular individual plant fails, when another individual of the same species can be bought. And since some nursery plants are tissue cultured (cloned) you might even convince yourself it is 'the same plant.'

I know you're all trying to be helpful by suggesting I buy new plants, but consider I got into this "hobby" by trying to rejuvenate plants that I put out at my parent's grave and didn't do well there, due to excessive sun and my inability to water them as often as needed. Now I know that the plants are no longer at the cemetery, but I did get very attached to them. I live alone. I don't have any family here. I can't handle a dog or cat due to my health problems. Sad or looney as it may sound, my plants are my family members.. Thee impatiens have been with me for at least a couple years. The Pelargoniums (also removed from my parent's grave) are almost three years old. Some have said impatiens should not be kept indoors. They did not explain why. I don't operate like many other people do. For instance, most people cut geraniums back. I've got plants that are 5 feet tall and 3 feet wide. I prop them up with sticks when I think they are in danger of breaking. I like to see how they are going to grow.

Anyway, I can't find any evidence of thrips on the impatiens, but I have been hitting them with a thorough neem oil spray every few days. I did notice something unusual yesterday for the first time. One of the stems that I watched get constricted by the "disease" has anchored itself in the potting soil on the other side of the constriction. This caused me to wonder. Is this normal behavior for a bedding plant? Does the plant itself initiate the process to sever the stem? Is this why several people told me not to put "bedding plants" in pots?

Good luck with your endeavors

Impatiens are rain forest edge plants. Give them those conditions and they will do better. That means as much sun as you can give them indoors (it's much less intense than outdoor sun), as much humidity as you can stand, temperatures in the 80s, and a good breeze every now and again. You may also have mites which are more difficult to control than insects. They hide underneath the leaves so you have to spray there to get them.

If this was my plant, I would cut the stems off a few inches from the soil level. That should get rid of any pests and allow healthy new foliage to grow. Then water well and put it by a sunny window. I had similar problems with some of the individual plants I brought inside for winter and that treatment helped.

Thank you for the replies and encouragement. I didn't know they are rain forest plants. I've been very careful to spray the neem oil solution on the bottom of the leaves and flowers as well as the tops. I may just cut the bare stems off. I've never cut all a plant's leaves and stems off that short. Scary. Doesn't the root ball need some leaves to feed it nutrients?

Yes, so new stems should grow. The new growth should look amazing, fresh. Are you seeing any signs of this starting to happen yet?

What neem product did you use? Not all neem products are created equal - far from it. Very often, plants have a poor reaction to the vehicle that holds the neem oil, and neem oil itself is not a particularly good insecticide or fungicide unless it is a pure product extracted by cold-pressing. By "vehicle" I mean the part of the product that holds the neem oil. Linseed oil or mineral spirits would be the vehicle that holds paint pigments and other ingredients. Many insecticides are water soluble, so water would be the vehicle that holds the insecticide.

Doesn't the root ball need some leaves to feed it nutrients? No. Nutrients are taken up via the root pathway, then moved to various plant parts (sinks) in the nutrient stream which moves through xylem tissues. Nutrients are the building blocks from which new growth is created. Leaves produce the plant's food (photosynthate/sugar/glucose) during photosynthesis and transport the photosynthate to various plant parts via phloem tissues. Leaves do take in CO2, which contains carbon and oxygen, and hydrogen/ oxygen is derived from the water taken up by roots. Hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen are essential to formation of the basic hydrocarbon chains which make up both the plant and the plant's true food - sugar.

I've noticed that fleshy or more herbaceous plants (like impatiens) are more likely to react poorly to the vehicle that contains the neem oil than woody plants. Also, how you mix and use neem oil products has a major impact on how well the product(s) work(s). Pure cold-pressed neem oil should be mixed into acidified water with an appropriate emulsifier. Water with a pH >7.0 causes alkaline hydrolysis, which essentially breaks down large molecules with insecticidal properties into smaller molecules with no or very little in the way of those properties. Whenever you do mix up a batch of any neem product, it should be used that day or disposed of; this, because it quickly degrades in water and/or sunlight.

Al