Once the downy mildew sets in, it completely killed off all the plants in the area. There is a concern that there will be another widespread outbreak of downy mildew this year that could affect a much larger area of the country or that fears of an outbreak could affect impatiens sales.

Please be assured that here at Parks Brothers we are monitoring our impatiens plantings closely for this disease and will destroy any infected plants that may be discovered. However, in my opinion there seems to be an environmental element that is contributing to these outbreaks as opposed to infected plants being shipped from growers.

The cause of these widespread outbreaks is still being debated. No one can seem to agree on the cause of the outbreaks. I have attached links to more information.

Here is the latest from Greenhouse Grower

Will Impatiens Sales Be Hurt By Downy Mildew This Spring?

Isolated areas of the country had big enough problems in 2011 that even consumers were aware of the problem. Where is downy mildew likely to hit this year? Who will be spared?

February 21, 2012

By Carol Miller

Downy mildew alerts have been going out to growers around the country to make sure preventative measures are taken so the United States does not suffer the fate of Europe, where impatiens sales have dipped dramatically because of the disease.

In 2011, downy mildew was a big enough problem that news headlines like: “Disease killing impatiens, Florida’s top landscape flower” in Florida and “Impatiens Running Out In Cape Cod” in Massachusetts, two of the areas hardest hit by the disease.

Here are what two experts who have been following the disease here in the U.S. have to say:

Margery Daughtry, Cornell University:

Although Florida is having a terrible time with the disease right now, the Northeast and Midwest, etc., may see no problem this year if their plant supply chain is free from downy mildew. What I am waiting to find out this growing season is whether gardens that had downy mildew last year in the Northeast will develop the disease again on healthy plants put into those same beds. We have seen oospores forming in stems last year, which can, in theory, serve as overwintering structures. But I still need to witness whether this will indeed happen in the Northeast U.S. There is so very much we don’t know about this disease yet. But I think we have quite a few more years of enjoying impatiens ahead of us. Our climate is different from the U.K., in ways that might curb the disease in most years. Last year’s hurricanes really added to the drama.

Note that we are at the point today that the U.K. was way back in 2005, and they have had good years and bad years since. We should be careful not to overreact until we see how the disease will operate in different parts of the U.S.

Colleen Warfield, corporate plant pathologist, Ball Horticultural Co.:

The outbreaks (in 2011) tended to be late in the season in areas where there was a coastal or water-influence, periods of cool weather with fog, rain, or humidity. There has to be a source of inoculum in order for plants to become infected. If the pathogen overwinters in the affected landscape beds, this may impact beds in 2012. But in unaffected areas, unless the pathogen is introduced this season (by either infected plants or windblown spores, there is not likely to be an existing source of inoculum and the threat of impatiens downy mildew is low. With clean plants being sold at retail, the threat of buying an infected plant this season and bringing the problem into the home garden is very low.

Here are some links to some older articles on this:

Downy mildew causing problems on impatiens in the landscape

Your Impatiens Might Have Downy Mildew If…

Downy Mildew on Impatiens in Illinois

How To Overcome Downy Mildew Spread On Impatiens

Technorati Tags: disease, downy mildew, impatiens, news, Updates, wholesale plants

Here is our forward availability for Monday – Forward-aval-for-Mon-2-20.  This availability shows the items that are not currently available as of Friday but will be available on Monday. The Current Availability link to the right is a “right now” availability. On Monday you will need to refer to the Current Availability link to the right to get the most up-to-date availability.

Here is what we have in color now or will have some color showing by Monday (we also have some #6 Wave Petunias, J6 Ageratum and Celosia not pictured):

In the meantime our first planting of cole crops looks great as does our Vinca Major, Hardy Ferns and English Ivy. We also will have tomatoes, peppers and eggplant in 1204’s ready next week.

This is some of the young stuff that is oh so close to being ready and some that will need a few more weeks like the Dragonwing Begonias and Combo Deco Pots.

Also if you are interested in QR codes, here is a look at the QR code on our #6 Kong Coleus. We have added QR codes to our #4.5 and #6 sizes and a few others. Hopefully by next year all our tags will be utilizing the QR codes.

Technorati Tags: cole crops, confetti garden, dianthus, hardy ferns, impatiens, osteospermum, QR codes, salvia, snapdragons, young plants

This will be our third year to grow Confetti Gardens. We are growing 10 of the mixes. New to our list this year are these two:

Spring 2012, Afternoon Delight and Liberty

Spring 2012 with it’s vibrant contrast of yellow and blue is a new item and the new Liberty and Afternoon Delight replace the Patriot Mix and Water Colours we dropped from last year.

In addition to the new addition and replacements, will will have these popular Confetti Gardens from last year.

We have made some investments in programming and are happy to announce that our Current Availability link at the top of our right side menu will automatically update every 30 minutes (as long as everything works the way it is supposed to). So no matter when you check the Current Availability, you will know that it is no more than 30 minutes old. As we enter orders on those busy weeks, the inventory is adjusted as the orders are entered. This will allow us to improve your ordering with us by showing a more accurate inventory than previous years when I was uploading an updated availability manually. We hope you like this improved feature. Please let us know if there is any other ways we can improve your ordering experience with us.

We currently have a few items ready. The ones getting the most interest now are our cole crops and onions (I was lazy and did not get a picture of the onions. Sorry.)

We also have a few annuals and perennials available. Our dianthus will be ready in a few weeks. We also have some ageratum and impatiens ready but again with the lazy and did not get pictures of them.

Here are some more items, but that you can be looking forward to being ready in the future.

Technorati Tags: caliente geraniums, cole crops, confetti garden, hanging baskets, hardy ferns, ivy, onions, rhythm and blues petunia, salvia, snapdragons, wave petnuias, wholesale plants

Technorati Tags: parks brothers, petunias, Spring Plants, wholesale plants