Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Patience on the Wane for Impatiens glandulifera Royal














My patience is not truly thinning for this prolific plant. Impatiens glandulifera's flowers are lovely and offer nectar and pollen in July, August and into September for bees and my favored little jewel friends. It is a beautiful plant in many ways. My seeds came originally from North Hill, where I saw it growing over eight feet tall with thick trunks... not sure what Wayne and Joe were feeding them all those years ago. Here in my wild gardens they do not reach quite that high and their trunks are but a tiny girth. You might have noticed the soft pinky mauve flowers in my landscape photos, for it is everywhere in the gardens. This delicate plant has devised a clever way of spreading its seed and it can cast them out over twenty feet. They must be cousins to jewel weed for it has the same technique along with other similarites. I love to hold the seed pod gently between my fingers and have it release its seeds with a tiny bit of pressure. I have done this countless times but it always startles me and then I have a good laugh! This Impatiens has traveled from its native home in the Himalayans to be in my gardens. Bishops weed has nothing on Impatiens Royal... as it was once called... only this plant is easy to be rid of... should one lose patience with is rather invasive nature.
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