We kept running solely after one hare, and as a result, we caught two!

The beginning of SunPatiens® dates back to about ten years before it was born. In the early 1990s, we often heard news that we would eventually face "global warming" but our breeders were skeptical about it. Several years later however, our staff at the sales department started reporting that the color of flowers faded or plants decayed in many summer flower bedding crops because of the rise in temperature over the past few years. So we set a goal of developing flowers that could not only be easily taken care of and withstand the heat of summer, but also blooms and beautifully decorate flower beds from spring to autumn. We knew that such flowers did not exist in those day.

So we were determined to produce them. With such commitment, we repeatedly crossed the Impatiens genus, and we came to create a plant that had surprising characteristics.

It had exceptionally high growth power and heat tolerance, beautifully decorating flower beds from spring to autumn. And so SunPatiens® was born.

Thus, in 2005, it was announced in public as the epoch-making flower bedding crop. It was immediately welcomed in the market, with steadily-growing sales. However, we wondered why SunPatiens® showed such unusual growth power. Did it have special powers?

In order to seek a solution to this mystery, we undertook a collaborative study with Dr. Yutaka Urano, Ph. D. of Agriculture, The University of Tokyo and the result were amazing. "SunPatiens® absorption ability of NO₂, formaldehyde and CO₂ is extremely high in comparison with other gardening plants." (* its absorption ability is 5 to 8 times greater than other plants for NO₂, 3 to 4 times for formaldehyde, and 4 to 6 times for CO₂)

We also found that SunPatiens® has a sprinkled water effect due to its high evap.‐transpiration. As a result, when the temperature is high, the ambient temperature of SunPatiens® is lower than that of other garden plants. (* This was found in collaborative study with Dr.Y.Urano and National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences.)

In this way, SunPatiens® has enabled us to obtain two hares: beautifully colored scenery and a positive contribution to the environment.

In 2012, we found another benefit of SunPatiens®. Our collaborative study with Prof. Yoko Oki, Dr. at Vegetation Management Laboratory of Okayama University, proved that SunPatiens® has the ability for quality of the water purification, which is comparable to that of reeds that grow in rivers, and it helps improve water quality.

Over 10 million SunPatiens® are planted a year worldwide and they are loved by people because of their beauty as garden plants and their contribution as phytoremediation plant.

We believe that SunPatiens® is healing someone's heart and body somewhere in the world at this moment.