To keep New Guinea impatiens from wilting in hot weather, place shallow saucers under 8 and 10 inch plastic containers. Water the plants daily with enough water to fill the saucer to overflowing. During the day the roots will take an extra drink as needed, and the saucer will be dry by nightfall. (Don't try this on other plants--they'd die from root rot.)

Each time you feed impatiens, select the two longest shoots on opposite sides of the plant. Cut off two-thirds of their length. The plants will remain full, well branched and bushy. When an impatiens wilts from too much heat, sun, or dryness, don't despair. Plunge the entire container up to the stems of the plant in a bucket of water. Come back in half an hour; the plant will have recovered.

Golf course superintendents often use a soil probe to determine if water is getting to the correct depth. Proper watering depth not only makes the grass healthier- it also saves water.

Since few homeowners have soil probes, the next best thing is to take a shovel and carefully cut a square plug out of your lawn. A square-bladed shovel works well for this, and makes it easier to replace the plug accurately.

The soil should be moist at the ends of the roots and slightly below them. If it is moist too deep or not deep enough, adjust your watering accordingly. Take more samples a week or so later to see if you need to make further watering adjustments.

Bougainvilleas are drought resistant, free from pests and disease, romantic, glowingly colorful, and easy to grow — but not easy to plant or get started. Use them as large ground covers on banks and have them pouring over walls, roofs, fences, and arbors. Here is the best way to plant them.

Choose plants with the color, eventual size, and growth habits you desire in mind. Some are vines and some are shrubs. Some are more vigorous than others. Five-gallon size plants make a faster start in the ground than the one-gallon size.

Choose a spot in full sun, preferably where the root run — the area where the roots grow — is also hit by full sun. (In the desert and hot areas of the country, bougainvilleas will bloom in light shade.)

Dig a hole twice as wide as the container and the same depth as the container. Loosen the soil in the bottom of the hole, and work in 2 or 3 cupfuls of bone meal. (If the soil is heavy also work in gypsum.) Cover this with enough soil that, when you set in the plant, the top of the root ball will be level with the surrounding ground. Add slow-release fertilizer tablets, according to package directions, around the bottom of the hole.

Bougainvilleas are fragile when young and often killed when they are planted because their roots and crown are broken. Turn the plant on its side. With sharp pruning shears, cut around the bottom of the container and look to see if it is well-rooted. If it is, slip the plant out sideways by pushing from the bottom. Lower it carefully into the hole while supporting the roots with your hands. Backfill with native soil.

If the plant is not well rooted, slit the sides of the container from the bottom up in several places, then tape it back together with masking tape. Lower the plant into the hole with the taped container holding the roots in place. Loosen the tape and slide the bottom out. Slip out the cut pieces from the sides as you backfill the hole with native soil.

Press the soil down around the plant with your hands (not too hard). The top of the root ball should be even with the surrounding ground.

Make a watering basin, and water deeply right away. Then in fast-draining soils, for three days water once a day; for the next two weeks water three times a week; and for the following month water twice a week. Thereafter, for the first three years, water once a week. In clay soils you should water enough to keep the root ball damp but not soggy for the first three weeks to four weeks. Thereafter water deeply after the ground dries out.

Bougainvilleas are drought resistant not because they don't need water but because their roots go deeply into the ground until they find an underground water source. When young, they take all the water they can get, as long as drainage is adequate. Feed them once a month each year between April and August.

After three to five years you can stop fertilizing in summer, stop watering in winter, and reduce the frequency of summer watering to once a month or every six weeks — or perhaps never, depending on placement and variety. (Container-grown vines will always need regular fertilizer and water.)