Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Found brugs in a local nursery, 1 by tropicalaria

tropicalaria wrote:
Sorry for the trick question. The answer, of course, was "All of them". However, sometimes non-gardening spouses are slow to understand the correct gardening answers, so a compromise is in order.

With more time to look them over well, I discovered that all of them had white spider mites, and additionally, whitefly. However, I purchased the shorter, wider one pictured below. It measures over 6 feet wide by four feet tall and was the healthiest of the three.

It had a good shower immediately after I unloaded it, laying it on each side to spray the undersides of the leaves heavily. All of the most heavily affected leaves were removed, and the soap is next. It will be a couple months of constant treatment before it is trusted near the other plants, but the front yard is a good spot for treatment. (I'd tell you just what I think of grass in the front yard, but I'd either be preaching to the choir or offending the traditional landscapers.)

I lost many of my hibiscus in the battle with tiny munchers last winter, so I'm a bit aggressive in my treatment strategies. The thin, pubescent foliage has me a bit cautious in what I use to treat it, though.