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

tropicalaria wrote:
Here's a picture without about half the buds open. You can see the damage on the leaves which seems to have occured when I used soap on it the first day. Since then it is receiving heavy washdowns every other day and fruit tree spray (malathion+sevin+antifungal) every week when I spray the cherries. Top that off with an imidacloprid systemic and a bit of fertilizer and the plant is looking happier all the time. I don't like the chemicals, but the blooms are nice here by the front steps. The insecticides will stop in a month or so when I'm sure that all of the late hatchlings are dead, but I'll probably continue the foliage drenchings at watering time; it seems to really like them.

The big pot provides extra stability against our wind storms. The brug is actually planted in a smaller pot inside. When it's done blooming I'll repot and do some drastic pruning to start fixing the shape.