himalayan balsam

pic. source; wikipedia


Such a pretty flower...
Any of you cultivating it?

 

Oh, no.

Just one of those could lead to thousands of plants all over the garden.

They have explosive seed pods which go off when you pop them in your mouth, because of the warmth.

Very nice Mira, but just stick to eating the pods

 

Quite agree... No..no..no. You would not believe how this stuff spreads and gets in the way.

 

Yes it's a 'bit' of a thug alright...., growing to well over 6ft it's completely taken over some river banks in Cheshire, smothering all the native wildflowers, such a shame...

If you want to grow some in the garden there are alternatives;

IMPATIENS CANDIDA
IMPATIENS CANDIDA - Buy Flower Seeds,Vegetable Seeds,Garden Seeds - Secure Online Seed Store - Plant World Seeds

IMPATIENS 'RED WINE'
IMPATIENS 'RED WINE' - Buy Flower Seeds,Vegetable Seeds,Garden Seeds - Secure Online Seed Store - Plant World Seeds

and my favourite of the lot is the little fella' - IMPATIENS BALFOURII
Seeds: (I) Iberis to Ixiolirion
This one only grows to about 2ft, but it is bushy, the bees love it and although it self seeds it's easy to control; just pull up what you don't want...:thumb:

 

Bilbo - you are really getting into this Impatiens thing - good for you. I had not seen those offered.

I understand that Himalayan Balsam was originally introduced as a garden flower. But it has now escaped, and is very common round here in the wild.

 

Agree with others, don't encourage it! As Bilbo says, it's spoiling river banks. Even though it's easy enough to strim or chop down and only annual...in places where it seeds first or anywhere it is left alone it is now taking over! Before the seedlings come up in late Spring, you realise how little of anything else is growing there. I know a little churchyard that now looks almost barren until the Himalayan Balsam appears!

 

My Bees love this soooo much , plus lots of late summer honey for me always a upside :yess:


Spruce

 

there you are...:yess:

 

Hi Peter, yes I guess I am :D, although I've always admired the Himalayan Balsam from my days of fishing the rivers in Cheshire; I say admired in that it has an attractive flower and a 'heady scent' and attracts lots of bees, but I was always aware too of the damage it was causing to the river banks in that it was smothering out the native wildflowers and vegetation. The knock on affect being that when the balsam wasn't there the banks were pretty void of decent vegetation to knit the soil/sand together, so everytime the river floods lots of mud gets washed into the river which then settles on the gravel areas where the fish spawn; making life more difficult for them!!!

Out of the thousands of plants that I saw over the years all were pale pink to dark purple, but I did come across one pure white one once, even the leaves and stems had no hint of pink colouring; I collected a few seeds and had it growing next to my pond it was stunning to be honest and didn't self seed that badly at all, in fact it faded out after a couple of years; just wish I'd saved some seed because even the self set plants were still white.

 

..still in the subject of Himalaya...what colours!!!


pic source: Per Ola Wiberg ~ powi on flickr

 

yhe honey from balsom is very pale ,not much flavour I find.

 

Allright I see what you mean!