WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Starting in late October each year, Palm Beach County enters a colorful phase as millions of impatiens are planted to jazz up the entrances of gated communities and add punch at shopping centers, banks and resorts.
But this year there's trouble with the flowers known for their hues of coral, orange, pink, red, lavender, purple and white. After early January's damp cold snap, landscapers and their clients began noticing that the impatiens were dying. Now countless plants have been ripped out, costing homeowners associations extra thousands and even bigger money for a multimillion-dollar flower business that blooms when snowbirds visit.
The culprit? The impatiens were the victims of a disease called downy mildew that caused problems elsewhere in the United States last year and has been wiping out impatiens in Europe and South Africa.
The Gardens Mall replaced its impatiens with white begonias.
At BallenIsles, a country club community in Palm Beach Gardens, the 500 or so impatiens in the master areas were replaced with other flowering plants such as begonias, lobelia and osteospermum, said Carol Cloud Bailey, property manager and horticulturist for the community association.
"We had a lot of residents who planted impatiens at their homes. It has been quite devastating for them," she said.
Valerie Bass, owner of Bass Nursery in suburban Lake Worth, disposed of 8,000 infected plants last month.
"It's so depressing to have to tell people," Bass said. "I keep saying it's the end of an era. None of the nurseries are growing them for next season."
Plasmopara obducens, the type of downy mildew that's killing the impatiens, attacks only the Impatiens walleriana, which is most prevalent here. Two less common varieties that are more expensive and aren't available in as many colors, SunPatiens and New Guinea, are not susceptible.
Impatiens are the nation's and Florida's most popular bedding plant, according to the University of Florida.
"Downy mildew has been developing over the last few weeks. It's a pretty aggressive mover. You will get dieback fairly quickly," said Bill Schall, Palm Beach County commercial horticulture extension agent. The disease is detected when white spores appear on the underside of a leaf.
High humidity paired with cool nights created the perfect conditions for the disease, Schall said.
With the impatiens' failure rate estimated at 70 percent, other types of plants are being used.
"It's devastating because it's a very easy plant to grow. It's a huge business to lose," said Brad Bethurem, owner of Brad's Bedding Plants Inc. west of Delray Beach. "We're not going to grow another impatiens until they change the genetics."
Industry giants Ball Horticultural and Syngenta, which produce seeds, have assured Bethurem and other growers that they are researching how to prevent downy mildew, which has been reported by growers statewide.
Denise Feiber, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said the state issued a pest alert Thursday. Inspectors are being sent to bedding plant nurseries and big-box stores to check plants.
Brad's Bedding Plants normally sells nearly 3 million impatiens a year in 13 colors, as well as begonias, marigolds, petunias and geraniums. He has had to throw out about 150,000 impatiens.
The Home Depot is still selling the walleriana variety; plants are available in the starter size for 99 cents. Company spokesman Craig Fishel said the stores have not had any impatiens with the disease and that the one-year plant guarantee will apply if a plant turns out to have downy mildew.
We are keeping an eye out," Fishel said.
Communities whose impatiens had to be removed are replacing them with other flowering plants such as begonias, or in some cases just mulching the areas. A single planting can easily cost $15,000, and an extra one isn't in the property owners association's budget, landscape companies say.
"The key thing is everybody made the purchase decision in advance of the disease," said Tedd Annis, president of Annco Services of Delray Beach, which maintains communities such as Woodfield Country Club, Addison Reserve, Broken Sound and Valencia. "That is the crippling issue. Financially, it was a prudent decision that has now turned into a costly decision."
Annis said a few communities have replanted but most "are waiting for spring and reviewing their decision for the fall."
Peyton Price, enhancement manager for ValleyCrest Landscape Maintenance, oversees the company's territory from Lantana to Tequesta. Price said he lucked out this season because many of his clients wanted begonias or New Guinea impatiens.
At Downtown at the Gardens, for example, ValleyCrest workers planted petunias.
"This is a multimillion-dollar industry. There are big dollars being passed around this time of year," Price said. "The snowbirds want flowers, flowers, flowers. In November, I did well over $100,000 just in flowers."
At Boca West, where 12,000 impatiens had to be removed from entrances and other common areas, geraniums are being planted, said Lawson Turner, director of landscaping and maintenance operations.
Begonias, New Guinea impatiens and petunias also are planted.
"You don't get what I call that slap-in-the-face color, that when you turn the corner, 100 feet away you see a bed," Turner said. "It's a shame. It is just the latest crisis disease du jour."