On Sat, 06 Aug 2011 21:10:25 +0100, Jake Nospam@invalid wrote:

On Sat, 06 Aug 2011 16:58:25 +0100, Pam Moore
wrote:

On Sat, 06 Aug 2011 11:55:01 +0100, Jake Nospam@invalid wrote:

Having spent much of yesterday digging up all my impatiens, which have
succumbed to that fungus this year, and then buying up any remaining
decent bedding in the local garden centre to fill the more visible
gaps, it was heartening to read in Amateur Gardening today a
prediction that impatiens "could die out" within five years. Seems
that T&M are researching alternatives "in case".

I've got something in my head that I've read somewhere that other
plants are also possibly susceptible to this "downy mildew" fungus and
shouldn't be planted where impatiens have been affected. But I can't
remember where I read this and what plants were mentioned. Does this
ring a bell with anyone else?

I wonder if there is something in the fact that of late the regular
Amateur Gardening emails have stopped and the publishers have started
sending me Angling Times ones instead?

Very interesting Jake, as I have just been digging up all of mine and
apologising to 3 friends to whom I gave some plants; T&M mail order.
This is the first year I have grown impatiens since the problem they
had, which must be at least 4 years ago?
I shall email T&M. Parkers have just refunded some money for some
inferior plants about which I comlained.


Pam in Bristol

The virus has been around for some time - last year a lot of people I
know had impatiens affected but I was lucky. I don't know whether
there is a case against the supplier though I have a feeling that if
the fungus was "imported" with plants, it reached me via T&M "Accent
Mixed" plug plants. I say this merely because other impatiens that are
in wall planters or baskets well away from any of the Accent plants
(and which were grown on separately) are, as yet, unaffected. But I've
lost about 800 plants and now have to think about what I'll plant in
their place next year. Hence my concern about other plants which may
be susceptible.

I have some bedding dahlias planted near the affected impatiens which
also look decidedly sick (the dahlias that is) whilst others from the
same batch growing elsewhere are healthy.

Cheers
Jake
==============================================
Gardening at the dry end (east) of Swansea Bay
in between reading anything by JRR Tolkien.

www.rivendell.org.uk

Well, I emailed T&M and they say they are sorry about the plants but
they can't refund as their plants were "not affected". I sha'n't let
it rest at that! Yes, mine were "Accent mixed" too. I had them in 4
different planters and 4 friends have had some and are similarly
affected, none living nearby.

They emphasise that soil must be disposed of and plants not composted,
but burned or buried deep. It seems these precautions only apply if
you are goiong to grow impatiens again, which I shall not.

Pam in Bristol