Have you heard the news? Garden impatiens are back!

Beacon Impatiens is the new line of I. walleriana from PanAmerican Seed that has high resistance to the devastating disease Impatiens downy mildew. The series boasts six colors and two mixes and gives landscapers and the greenhouses that supply them confidence to once again grow impatiens.

PanAmerican Seed researchers have been working over 10 years to find and develop a resistant strain of impatiens. Beacon impatiens have the same habit, flower power in the shade, and flowering performance you remember from older commercial varieties.

What does high resistance mean? According to the International Seed Federation, plants with High Resistance highly restrict the growth and/or development of the pathogen and damage it causes under normal pressure when compared to susceptible varieties under similar environmental conditions and pressures.

While the use of fungicides either in the greenhouse or in the landscape may continue for non-resistant or intermediate-resistant series of impatiens, Beacon impatiens requires no fungicide treatment prior to landscape plantings or even in the greenhouse.

Beacon impatiens can be in an environment where the disease is present and it will exhibit minimal disease effects compared to non-resistant plants. They may show lower leaf yellowing, and even have sporulation, but they will not die immediately.

Impatiens downy mildew decimated sales and use of I. walleriana in gardens around the globe. Landscapers are typically risk averse when it comes to the plants they use in their customers’ installations. The threat of a loss of an entire bed to IDM was simply not acceptable. Most landscapers and their growers shifted to alternative plants to avoid the risk. But now you can offer Beacon impatiens “no-risk color for the shade” once again to your clients!

Talk to your grower or landscape customers about trying Beacon impatiens in their beds this fall/winter, or next summer. Watch the video below for more features and benefits of this exciting new breakthrough.

See for yourself! The following university trials are featuring Beacon Impatiens in their 2019 summer trials:
Colorado State
Dallas Arboretum
Erie Basin Marina (NY)
Florida Flower Trials/Disney World
Jardin Daniel Sequin – Montreal
Longwood Gardens
LSU – Hammond
Michigan State
Mississippi State – Crystal Springs
NC State
Ohio State
Penn State
Texas A&M – Overton
UGA
University of Guelph – Ontario
University of Minnesota – Morris