New Guinea Impatiens From Seed ~ True ?

I always thought that in the UK climate we could not grow New Guinea Impatiens from seed. I found this link below which has 10 or so varieties/ mixes of them from seed ! Now these are from the USA which does have a hotter climate than us . Has anyone grown this NG Divine series here ? Are they succesful - i.e do you have a decent flowering plant by July ? As we can't grow Busy Lizzies because of the pox , these would be interesting.

TIA

NEW GUINEA DIVINE SEIRES IMPATIENS 20 SEEDS | eBay

 

I seem to remember buying New Guinea busy lizzie seed from T&M many years ago.
I dont think it did very well, but I doubt it had anything to do with the climate, as I grew them in a greenhouse.


Are NG busy lizzies imune from the diease then Harry?

 

Pete , apparently the new Guinea impatiens is not susceptible to the BL mildew virus. This year all my BL's succumbed to the virus . But I did grow from plug plants Sunpatiens a variety of New Guineas which performed superbly flowering through to November with no problems.

 

I've just done a bit of googling.

Never come across this disease myself, but surely "downy mildew virus" as some of them are calling it is a bit strange.
I cant work out if its mildew or a virus, as surely mildew is a fungal disease and virus is something else.

 

I have grown several thousand NG Imps in the past few years, give them a slightly higher temperature than ordinary Impatiens eg Accent or Expo and they will grow fairly fast.
Good germination isn't always easy, 25/6c is best, covered with a layer of fine vermiculite and grown on at 21c daytime and 15c night. This is difficult in a domestic greenhouse and I haven't tried (yet) only growing them professionally.
They do extremely well in our climate and flower well into the autumn taking a light frost.
They are unaffected by the downy mildew affecting the other Impatiens.

 

Thanks for the advice Strongy They do sound a little difficult . I think I will put them on my planting wish list for another year , and buy my Sunpatien plugs again this March . If anybody else does try them from seed - please keep us updated.