Busy lizzies are back in business!

At last with new disease-resistant varieties you can plant again with confidence, but which should you choose? Graham Rice considers the options

- Graham Rice

JUST over ten years ago, busy lizzie (impatiens) plants across the country were wiped out by a disease that most of us had never heard of. Impatiens Downy Mildew (IDM) was first found in Britain in 2003 but it had been kept under control by the use of fungicides.

Resistance to fungicide

However, the mildew adapted, developed a resistance to the fungicide, and the result was that in 2011 busy lizzies in gardens, parks and town centre hanging baskets were wiped out.

“The UK Impatiens market, estimated to be in excess of £40m a year, contracted by 80% leaving home gardeners with a huge loss of this great garden favourite,” explained Stuart Lowen, Marketing Manager of BallColegrave who supply impatiens seed and plugs to commercial growers. The mail order companies stopped listing them, garden centres stopped selling them. They all but vanished from our gardens.

Breeders worked to solve problem