A good year for Impatiens flanaganae

The summer of 2009 was unusually cool and rainy, which suited I. flanaganae just fine. This easy to grow cousin of the more touchy I. tinctoria grows and multiplies its huge red potato like tubers quite well during even normal summers, but it flowers best when temps are on the cool side. Hot days also seem to affect pollen development, something I've noted on other impatien species as well, so prolonged moderately cool weather allows the pollen to develop properly and a few seeds can set with hand pollination. Hot spells, however, can also cause young seed pods to abort. The large pots I grow these in filled up with tubers by the end of the growing season (October here), and one made of weaker plastic actually broke from the tubers splitting the side of it. I took out those tubers, cleaned and divided them, and sent them off to the Pacific Bulb Society (PBS), an organization of cool plant fanatics like myself, where they have presumably made their way to good homes by now.