On Thu, 18 Aug 2011 10:19:54 +0100, Jeff Layman
wrote:

pruned- you can read the text in earlier posts

Sorry this is long but trying to explain my reasoning:

I've been researching the impatiens problem. My circumstances are a
bit different from Pam's as I have grown impatiens for years, though
without previous problem. Indeed, until this year, I haven't ground
planted them - they've been destined for wall planters, tubs etc.,
which are disinfected at the end of each season and then filled with
new compost before planting the next. This has been my first year of
ground planting, largely because I'd cleared a large perennial bed but
hadn't got round to replanting it so impatiens and other annuals were
used as fillers. Everything is grown from plug plants or seed.

One side of my property faces miles of open farmland (save for a strip
of disused railway embankment which is mainly Himalayan balsam
(another impatiens I've discovered but not affected by this problem!).
On the opposite side, a neighbour has some healthy impatiens growing
in hanging baskets (I gave her the plants and they're fine!). My
ground planting is on that side of my garden and is unaffected. Third
side is a trunk road with a sheltered housing complex on the other
side so no impatiens near that way. Neighbours opposite (and others
nearby) don't grow them.

The one type of T&M Impatiens (Accent mix) which I still think
introduced the problem, having been grown on from plugs in a different
greenhouse to other varieties, was then mixed in with them in wall
planters, baskets and tubs along the north side of the house.

I've only encountered the problem on that side of the house! All the
Accent Mixed succumbed fairly quickly and the other impatiens went the
same way soon after, the "disease" spreading outwards from the Accent
plants! But non-Accent plants growing elsewhere (see above) are
unaffected at the moment. Logic says to me, therefore, that the Accent
plants seem to be the culprits.

I put these thoughts to T&M, not complaining or asking for a refund
but trying to be helpful - giving them a chance to investigate. AFAIK,
the disease will not show that much, if at all, on small plug plants,
though they may carry it. Indeed, it is going to be very difficult to
check properly the little leaves on dense trays of 100+ little plants
without damaging them. I was not "blaming" T&M for my problem. Their
response was a curt denial of fault (they didn't even say anything
like "sorry you've been affected"). I quote:

"Thank you for your email.

"I have spoken with our resident Horticulturist who has advised that
there is not a fault with the product that is sent from our suppliers.
This is a widespread disease that effects plants once they have been
planted up.

"I have provided a fact sheet for you to view and I hope you will find
this helpful."

(The fact sheet is a redacted version of a former RHS web site
article. This has recently been revised and can be found at
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/....aspx?pid=205). The current
article version, like the former, suggests that the disease could be
carried in seeds. So whilst it may only show in more grown plants,
there is clearly no guarantee that it is not being carried by plug
plants!

So is it merely co-incidence that Pam and her friends have been
affected having also, via Pam, grown the Accent Mixed variety?

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

www.rivendell.org.uk