Impatients Are Out This Year And Next Year, Do Not Purchase Any This Year.

originally posted by: kosmicjack
Anyone know if this is for certain an issue this year?

Nursery's are selling them and I haven't heard an update. I've asked the nursery workers about it, but they dodge a firm answer.

Ok I found this link from 2014 and they are still saying as of last year the disease is rampant and not gone. Its a short read with interesting information.
We ourselves are going to skip them again this year the risk is not worth it if you love your gardens.

www.extension.umn.edu...
www.provenwinners.com...

Regards, Iwinder

a reply to: Iwinder

Today, I was at a VERY reputable nursery near my home.
They said they're having trouble keeping begonia in stock....because of they aren't risking their reputation by stocking impatiens this year....too risky, according to them.

If it were for a small porch pot, I might risk buying if I could find some.....as I did last year.
But I would not plant them in the ground.

What about hybrid impatients are they also effected. They are prettier than regular impatients in my opinion and are more tolerant to the sun than regular impatients.

For me color is not a problem I have three varieties of plumeria on my patio getting ready to open their flowers. Red Hibiscus in full inflorescence and some heliconia I am preying bloom this year.

originally posted by: DontTreadOnMe
a reply to: Iwinder

Today, I was at a VERY reputable nursery near my home.
They said they're having trouble keeping begonia in stock....because of they aren't risking their reputation by stocking impatiens this year....too risky, according to them.

If it were for a small porch pot, I might risk buying if I could find some.....as I did last year.
But I would not plant them in the ground.

Thanks for the information and the wife is going out tomorrow to get 10/12 flats of them. We have noticed in our garden center flyers that they are all showing Begonia's on the front page and not one ad for Impatiens to be seen so we think that says it all.
Good luck in your search and we will need some luck too. It's still pretty cold at night here so we are not stupid enough to plant them yet. Too many springs with the flats in the garage with a heater running all night to count :-)

Regards, Iwinder

a reply to: Iwinder

I guess that's why I didn't see any Impatients at our local greenhouse thus far. I was looking for some Double Impatients to fill in some spaces here and there... the Double Impatients is a gorgeous flower, twice the amount of flowers that grow to twice the size.

We just finished planting a whole bunch of perennials on Monday, I'm tired of spending a fortune on annuals only to enjoy them for the few warm months we have in Manitoba.

But we bought some beautiful perennial shrubs to make up for it:

Rose Glow Japanese Barberry - gorgeous burgandy coloured bush that grows to about 5ft by 5ft with tiny fuschia flowers from spring to mid summer.

Sugar Plum Fairy Lilac - will grow to about 5ft by 5ft, the flowers are a very pale pinkish purple... and who can't resist the beautiful fragance of a lilac bush wafting all around the yard ?

Incrediball Hydrangea - I picked these because they were bred specifically for zone 3 (the zone I live in), whereas most hydrangeas are for zone 4 and thus it's iffy whether or not they can survive in zone 3, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. What's cool about these plants is that the flower balls grow to almost the size of basketballs... they're huge ! It'll be interesting to see how these ones turn out.

Mango Tango Potentilla - a great 'fill in' shrub that grows to only 2ft by 2ft, so it's perfect for the raised flower bed that borders all around our back deck - this way you can still see over the plants when you're sitting at the patio table. Beautiful orangey yellow flowers that are in bloom from early spring right through to mid fall. The shape of these are a perfect compliment to the dwarf globe cedars I planted a couple of years ago in the same flower bed.

Blackberry Bushes - We have a couple of raspberry bushes in our yard, but I wanted to add a variety of berries to mix with the raspberries we get every year for jams, pies, etc. Big juicy blackberries, yum !

Rhubarb - Another fruit plant that requires literally no maintenance and comes back every year and it's super hardy for the zone we live in. Raspberry/rhubarb pie !


With everything being perennials, I'm not worried if we still get some cool nights before summer fully kicks in (we actually got 2 inches of snow over the long weekend before we planted everything)... this way all I have to do is plant a few annuals here and there to fill in the empty spaces. Huge money savings for us this year.

a reply to: Iwinder

Wait! Bananas too?
In central Texas, I had a clump of bananas for thirty years and no problem except for their spreading. In my new house I transplanted one three years ago. It grew quite large and died at the end of last season. The roots at the surface all were snow white. I remarked upon it as evidently being a mold. This thread seems to confirm it. Hard to believe that a large, thriving plant such as a banana can have a wide-ranging problem.

I guess I should not think about replanting in that area for awhile if ever?

a reply to: CranialSponge

Your plan is quite similar to what I have done....less work, and less expense is my new gardening motto....just some petunias and nicotinia for color, maybe some marigolds.

I also used to have quite a few rose bushes.....too much maintenance, too fragile....I've replace most of them with smallish flowering shrubs.
My newest acquisition is a Coral Berry
www.monrovia.com...

I'll have to check out the Mango Tango Potentilla....that could fit nicely in my garden!

The wife (YogaGinns) here on ATS just got home with our Begonia flats and the nursery had a half green house just for them.
She found they had one table of impatiens for sale and they were at the back in one of their green houses. This a very large family run place that has been in business for almost 60 years. They normally stock one entire greenhouse with impatiens but not this year anyways.
The wife asked them about the mold situation and they told her if you want you could try one or two and see what happens but they recommend not to do so. She never got a real direct answer to her question, just the fact its a chancy thing so she did not get any.
No sense in contaminating the soil for two more years.

Regarding a couple of posts above about Perennials 95% of our gardens are just that, and we agree they save work and money. About every 3-4 years we divide them up and end up trying to find homes for the extra ones.
Regards, Iwinder

Just to let everyone know in this thread that in our area anybody who planned on planting them would have by now and after driving around town we have seen zip zero and none of them.

So we assume its still a no go with these beautiful flowers, People took note of the risk and the cost and that is good.
Regards, Iwinder