Seed from Impatiens tinctoria seems to be a hit-or-miss proposition. Some people get it and some don't. When I asked around for it, I was either told that it never set any, or that "Oh NO, I ripped that horrible weed out, it was spreading all over". Probably dependent on having an insect with a proboscis capable of reading the spur to have any interest in it.

I have no seed, but a plant that I am hoping to overwinter. It froze back a bit during a severe freeze but I think it's OK. Of course winter hasn't officially even started yet. =:O

If no one else offers any, you could try hitting me up next year and I'll tell you if I get any.

Sharvey

Impatiens tintoria seed is hard to come by. My plant rarely flowers for me until the fall. I think I have only collected one pod from it and the seed did not sprout.
I really doubt that he person that atash mentioned was talking to the same plant. There are many Impatiens that are weedy but I. tintoria isnt one of those, at least as far as I know. Granted it the right enviroment it could.
Impatiens tintoria should be winter hardy for a zone 8b I think it should be hardy down to at least zone 6.
You might be better off getting a plant of it.

Mr. Impatiens, the comment in question came from the UK Oasis forum (www.ukoasis.co.uk). Quite a few of the participants are botanically sophisticated (some of them have written official monographs). It made the rounds in the UK but doesn't seem to have become extremely popular. I think it's wonderful because of the size of the blossoms and the fragrance, but some folks over there were not terribly impressed.

Mine is the right plant. It has fairly large, long-spurred white flowers with a reddish blotch in the throat. Looks just like the one in Phillips & Rix.

I don't know if mine will seed or not. At this point I am just trying to get it through a severe winter intact.

atash
I am sure your plant will survive the winter, if it can survive Scotland it should survive in your climate. I recently collected seed off a tinctoria at the San Francisco BG will are going to try to get them to sprout.
My thought that was many people think of Impatiens glandulifera when they think of Impatiens because it is a very noxious weed there.
Others that you may want to keep an eye out for are Impatiens flanaganae and rothii, both these are tuberous. The tinctoria that is floating around here in the US is a clone I got from England which is the only place I was ever able to find it.

Impatiens glandulifera naturalizes readily here too, as do I. balfouri and I. capensis. I don't mind them tho. I. glandulifera seems to be by far the most aggressive; it colonizes our wetlands and drainage ditches. We don't have any native Impatiens up here.

I am smitten these days with I. namchabawensis, which I also hope survived. All I was able to do for it before the cold hit was dump compost over it. Everything exposed froze out but I am hoping the tuberous joints survived below frost level.

I. omeiana is easy to grow here. I dunno if I will ever get it to seed as it blooms so late. This year my colony bloomed quite heavily. I was surprised.

Never heard of either I. flanaganae or I. rothii until you mentioned them. I. flanaganae is pictured on the page I linked to below.

The problem with my yard is that it is infested with several deadly fungii. They don't bother the Impatiens too much most of the time but they can kill it if it's injured. I lost the top 1/3 of the I. tinctoria to a severe early freeze, but what survived looks OK if a little pale from lack of sun. At this latitude (47.5N) it will take quite a bit of sun.

It arrived too late in the year to get established. I have seen the size of the rootstock of mature plants and suspect it would overwinter better once established. It grows astonishingly fast here. A rooted cutting to a fairly bushy 5-gallon plant from about July to frost.

Here is a link that might be useful: Photos of Impatiens species

Atash
Impatiens rothii is closely related to tinctoria but from the frozen plant I saw in England last week, it has a better habit. I is a shorter plant about on par with flanaganae. I recently had an article in Pacific Horticulture on hardy Impatiens it should still be out in the stores for the next few days. Lots of great pictures that friends took for me.
I did manage to get two small tubers of rothii so I am hoping to get that one out there soon.

Thank you. I'll look for the article tomorrow and see if I can find it. That should be an interesting one. I like Impatiens (back from when I lived in a house whose yard was too shady for much else) but I don't like having to replace them every year, and it's nice too to have some variety.