Get Ready To Shine The Light On Color In The Shade!
Home gardeners can rely on Beacon Impatiens for season-long performance and fast fill in gardens.
New! Beacon Impatiens from PanAmerican Seed offers high resistance to Impatiens downy mildew for healthy gardens all season. You can rely on Beacon to thrive.
Beacon Impatiens offers high resistance to the currently known and widely prevalent populations of Plasmopara obducens, which cause Impatiens downy mildew, offering the opportunity to bring back into production a well-known, in-demand, easy-to-grow and versatile product for gardens and landscapes. These will be available in 48ct flats.
Height: 10 - 12"
Width: 12 - 14"
Spacing: 8 - 10"
Exposure: Shade, Partial Sun, Sun
"It took a team of dedicated plant experts to bring disease-resistant Impatiens back to gardens everywhere. Through their hard work, the next generation of Impatiens is ready to take the stage."
What is Impatiens Downy Mildew?
Since 2011, Impatiens downy mildew (IDM) has decimated Impatiens beds across the globe. IDM is caused by a host-specific water mold, Plasmopara obducens. When present, and environmental conditions are met (high humidity and cool night temperatures), the disease can spread rapidly, resulting in flower drop and eventually plant collapse – a loss of impatiens in your garden! Both airborne and overwintering spores meant this popular shade garden flower couldn’t be grown with confidence because of the threat of disease.
At first, gardeners planted alternatives for shade color: Begonia, Torenia, Coleus, as well as New Guinea Impatiens, which are not susceptible to the disease. But nothing could take the place of the traditional impatiens garden fill, color range and performance.
Beacon Comes To Light
The team at PanAmerican Seed began searching for a disease-resistant Impatiens soon after IDM took hold. Collaborating on the project was a team in The Netherlands, led by breeder Ruud Brinkkemper, and a crew in the United States consisting of product manager Lisa Lacy, plant pathologist Dr. Colleen Warfield, and many others. During numerous plant trials and tests, a selection of Impatiens that displayed high resistance to Plasmopara obducens was discovered and Beacon Impatiens was born.