Whats happened to our bussie lizzies?

Talk about dissapointed.

My wife and I purchased a lot of them and panted them in a number of pots we have in our garden. They were coming on fine with loads of flowers and flourishing tremendously. They were just starting to overhang the pots slightly until a few weeks back.

The flowers were not being replaced and now thats all that remains are stalks with no foliage,flowers or buds.

We would greatly appreciate any advice so that if we have made a mistake, we can learn and prevent the same happening next year!

For your information we were feeding them once a week with miracle grow plus regular watering.

Regards

Olivia9801

 

Ours went the same way and on close examination it looked liked they'd got a bad dose of botyritis. Have a look at the underside of the leaves and see if there is a greyish powdery coating.
Too late now but if you grow them next year and we have another damp summer spraying with a fungicide might help.

 

It's probably this virulent fungal disease that is spreading like wildfire across the country(Impatients downy mildew)
There is deep concern amongst growers and it is advised that affected plants should be destroyed and NOT composted.
The RHS said that no fungicide available to control the disease.

We wait with baited breath.

 

Roders is correct, see this link:Impatiens downy mildew / Royal Horticultural Society

 

This is exactly what has happened to mine too - I thought something had been eating them.

 

It is certainly widespread in the North ansd South - not heard of any problem in Wales or Scotland?

 

There was an article in last weeks [ August 9 2011 ] Garden News. Gets a mention here too.

News in the Gardening World

apparently has attacked their Busy Lizzie wall!

:(

 

The BL mildew was discussed in late July , Simon K tracked down the RHS report mentioned earlier in the post. I am now down to my final Busy Lizzie , and that is really looking sickly . When you do pull them up make sure they dont go in the compost or green bin , put them straight in the houshold rubish bin.
It seems to be very widespread , my friend from Lytham St Annes , says all his are gone and the parks are decimated.
As a point of interest has anyone on GC still got a full show of Busy Lizzies
http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/general-gardening-discussion/35762-busy-lizzies-totally-gone.html

 

Wow... thanks for all the replies

Its nice to know that we havent done anything to contribute to this!

Also, I`m glad my post has helped someone who was blamed for plant neglect, when it was this fungi-(GCC3663!)

It a real shame as we find these ideal for our garden and will obviously have to skip on these next year. this leads me to my next question......

What can we use as a sutiable alternative for next year?

We are quite new to gardening, and we would love something just
as colourful, preferably rabbit safe as they roam all our garden all the way up to our house.

Answers on a post card!!!

 

What about Begonias, Mimulus or maybe Nicotiana. I'm not sure if they are rabbit safe though.

 

The Botrytis fungus only affects Impatiens Walleriana, the 'common' Busy Lizzie and fortunately not the New Guinea Hybrids with their larger growth and flowers.
As they are more expensive to buy (they require more heat) they may not be regarded as a substitute.
We (the Parks Dept here) have stopped growing them now in favour of the NG Hybrids.
Growing 5/6,000 of them a few years ago (at work) and watching them all die in the flower beds was soul destroying.

 

Funny you should mention this as all our impatiens flowered briefly and then promptly turned into stalks with a white powdery residue. Every single one gone, and luckily I removed them straight away. We bought one new guinea and it's healthy and flowering well. Maybe I should buy more of those next year if this is a sign of things to come. Thanks for letting us know roders.

 

That's a lot of plants to lose Strongy, what a nightmare!

 

Perhaps pansy would become an alternative as we lost 100 waterfall BL next year I will be replacing with pinks and pansy,the good thing is dianthus are a bit hardier and easy to propagate and also less thirsty.
I did try and rescue a few BL to take cuttings but they didn't survive either!