Why is my verbascum wilting?

lol I was gonna say, call 911......

I was going to give it CPR but counldn't find Wilty's chest!

This message was edited Aug 17, 2009 6:57 AM

time to tell the sweet potato vines you did everything you could....

Oh no!!

I just made a post over on the butterfly bush thread. I DO have that powdery mildrew. I just noticed it all over my marigold leaves. Maybe that is what is killing Wilty.

Could be. Guess it is time to don your OR mask and get to the root of the problem.....sorry....grin

a near fatal misdiagnosis! somebody call an expert!

Well, I am not House for plants, grin, but I did suggest powdery mildew....poor Wilty needed a personal House call. Grin

Sorry that I ignored your diagnosis! I killed it!

Venice, Dear. Welcome to the wide wonderful world of gardening. If I had to atone for every plant I have killed through my lack of skill or my ignorance, I would be living UNDER the plant detention center....GRIN

I have never killed a plant just by me. It always has been from known outside forces like hail, apartment weed killer, etc.

If you have been over on the Butterfly Bush thread, you know how small my garden is.

Ok, I will let you know all the things I have in my tiny garden. A lot of ordinary plants.

3 double flower petunias, silver mound artemisia (a little left), butterfly bush, dwarf coreopsis (a little left), lamb’s ear, sentimental blue balloon flower (small this year), 5 small yellow celosia, blue ageratum, pink fountain gaura, yellow marigolds, autumn fire sedum, artemisia filifolia (just a little), verbascum, 5 blackie sweet potato vines, gazania rigens (3 yellow and 4 pink), orange moss roses in pot, mulberry tree (trimmed to topiary), 3 cherry tomatoes, regular tomato, pot with white, pink petunias, ageratum, and a vine, 2 avocado plants/trees in pots, a few tiny things in rock garden under gate.

Given to me: 4 hostas, orange marigolds, four daylilies, moss roses (mixes colors), 4 ferns, 2 bearded iris

That sounds like a full house. I am sure it is lovely and draws quite a bit of attention.

Like I said, a lot of ordinary plants, nothing like I have seen posted on this site.

Ordinary is in the eye of the beholder, Venice. If it looks full and colorful and attracts birds and bees, it is lovely.

The bumble bees love the yellow marigolds! The other day one was asleep in a blossom. Last year I had more balloon flowers blooming and I found a bumble bee sleeping down in the center a few times.

I sometimes think they are staking out their territory for later. I really like bumble bees....my kids called them stumble bees. A lot of people are afraid of being stung by them, but in all the years I have been gardening I have never had a problem with them. I see them as the dump trucks of pollenization.

I think of my bumble bees as friends. I talk to them but I also talk to my flowers! Kitty is usually on the patio so if someone walks by they may think I am just talking to her!!! lol She is sitting on the electrical box in the photo. There rest of her is gray.

What a sweet girl. All dressed up in gray and white. I talk to just about everything...grin. Some of it answers back. LOL

Please help Wilty! I am in the process of replacing the dirt for it. But found these very tiny bugs! They look like very tiny worms but are flat on the underside. HELP!!!

Let's see a photo of them.

1) They are too tiny for my camera! I remember seeing some bigger ones in the house. Can't see legs. Not mealy bugs, not an Indian meal moth larvae, doesn't look like a centipede. They are the color of a worm, maybe just a touch over 1/16 inch. Does that help? Make any suggestion and I will look it up. I couldn't find any thing on the Internet and need a name to look up. Please.

2) Also, that butterfly bush -- There was white mold in the b;acl mulch on the top of the soil that was left from the mulch I had last year. Should I do anything with it? I tried to remove as much as I could.

They aren't slugs? I'm not a good bug identifier so let's hope someone comes over here to help you with identification. Could they be pill bugs? Check it out on Google images.

Remove the mold in the mulch. Scrape it away from the stem and put it in the sun. You can always pour some diluted bleach over it - two cups of water to 1/4 cup bleach or soak them in the bleach solution and then leave in the sun to dry (or toss them).

No they aren't slugs! I suppose they might be a variety of pill bugs. But these have the color more of a worm, smaller, and they go fast. I couldn't find any when I went to examine one. I guess I scared them all away. Here is a photo of Wilty. This is the best photo I could get. The top part of the roots are hairy like but didn't see any lumps like in the Root-knot nematodes.

As for the butterfly bush, the mold was just on the top 1/2" to 1" of the soil. I definitely don't want to toss it.

Venice. I dunno...grin. The world of worms is huge. Could they be baby earthworms? Flat worms are some kind of tapeworm I think. Boy, your garden is just giving you fits this summer.

No, not baby earthworms because I make sure to save all of those. Absolutely not a tapeworm!!! Yuck! lol

Got some good info from Crash. He suggested using Diatomaceous Earth for both Wilty and the Butterfly Bush. I have never used it before but wish I had known about it sooner.

Thanks for trying! I appreciate it.

Hope your weather down there is getting better. I have to hurry and go get this stuff and use it before it rains. It is pretty dark out there. Later!

Venice, look at Wal-mart's pet department or one of your local pet stores as they should have small bags of Diatomacious earth for Diatom filter systems.

Use the county agent for worm ID

The County Agent is a great thought.

I'd replant the Verbascum because I see roots - you could wash it off and plant in a spot a good distance away from where you had the problem with it.

Diotomaceous earth has to be reapplied after heavy rains.

LOL - I didn't mean ditch the Butterfly Bush but ditch the mulch that has the problem if you don't want to bleach it off in a barrel!

Could be slime mold on the mulch, I have a bunch of it here. Doesn't hurt anything. Pops up when it's humid. Sometimes I toss it out, sometime I just flip it to dry it out.

I am finished!!! Because my body has had enough! I bought a 4 pound bag of DE but will return it because I am afraid the dust will blow around and that is not good for Kitty or me. Also, I am tired of hunting for stuff for just 2 little plants. I rinsed the roots and took out the moldy stuff. I mixed the new topsoil/peat, a little existing soil, the coffee grounds, egg shells then sprayed it with what I have. That will have to do. What are you suppose to do with the coffee filters? I took them out. The roots of the butterfly bush looked pretty dry and brittle, more or less dead looking. I trimmed Wilty and it has roots but to me they don't look promising. It must have stormed a bit while I was in the shower because my avacado tree was wet and blew over and it never gets wet where it is. We are to get rain tomorrow also so will wait until Thursday to fertilized my other plants. The End!

The End?

How about the beginning? Every step of the way you've learned something.

You have just learned a very important gardening lesson...When to say enough, to saving a plant.
Your verbascum has been given an excellent chance to revive itself.......If it does, good on you, you gave it what it needed to recover. if not, good on you, you gave it what it needed to recover.

It is a win-win situation for you. Grin Congratulations!

Jean

Like they say every time you fail or go the wrong way, you have learned something. I would not have learned anything if I did all of this perfectly the first time! But it is the end of that part of the story. We will see what Mother Nature can do now!

Please keep us posted. We love celebrations.

Will do!

Actually, I would have thrown out Wilty a long time ago were it not for all of you! And I would have not done anything to the BB.

Many people have astilbe that they believe is dying now since some parts of the country have had very hot weather for over a week. They probably aren't dead but just going dormant and will grow again next year. We all live and learn.

Pushy bunch of folk aren't we...grin

Yep! You ask a question and you get lots of answers! My plants thank you!

I just found a slug in my garden that was less than 1/2 inch long. So it got my curiousity up and I tried to look on the computer for a photo of baby slugs. I thought just maybe Wilty had tiny baby slugs. Couldn't find a photo but this is the info I found!

Slugs live for 7-10 years!
They lay eggs every 2-3 weeks!
They lay 30 eggs each time!!!!!!!

I might have seen at least 20 of the things I saw when I dug up Wilty. They were probably less than 1/4 inch long. I am so creeped out because I really do think these were very very young slugs!!!! SLUGS!!!!!

I am going over to Lowe's right now and get some Slugo or what ever they have for slugs!

Tiny baby slugs could certainly upset Wilty....good job on catching them before they devour your garden. Learning something new everytime you get into the garden is part of the fun.