Impatiens tinctoria

I swapped a Celmisia for this hardy Impatiens with Michael Wickenden at Cally Gardens in Gatehouse of Fleet. It is a plant collector's paradise and if you are ever in the Dumfries & Galloway area Cally is most certainly a worthwhile excursion. Hardy Impatiens add an exotic almost tropical look to a garden; they also all make spectacular conservatory plants. Outside many of the 'hardy' species may well survive the winter if given a good deep leafy mulch and a sheltered shady position, having said that the position of the plant in today's image, while sheltered is not shady and I never got round to the mulching. It is very late to make an appearance, but as you can see, it is mid October and its flowering strong. I was very dubious about its chances but Michael was absolutely right about the hardiness, he also gave me a hardy ginger which I'll talk about tomorrow.