I had some fantastic results with impatens last year using them in nearly every
flowerbed. They grew early, stayed flowered the entire season and bulked up
nicely to form a beautiful wall of color and then winter came and, of course,
they died.

I would like to find a perennial that can come close to the benefits of the
impatens. For me that means that they'd be in bloom most of the season, require
little maintenance and fill out solidly. The basic colors are nice as well.
Whites, reds, etc.

I'm no gardner so this is all pretty new to me. The closest I have come to this
is a dianthus. I have one I love but it's still very small and I have not seen
its coloring on any other dianthus.

This is for Southern NJ. I'd go with impatens all the time but to do it the way
I'd like would require a yearly outlay of roughly $1,500 which is WAY too much
in my view to spend on annual flowers. The landscaping is already enough of a
small fortune without that cost.

Can anyone recommend a good solution or am I asking for the impossible?

*** RTH ***