I'm new to gardening and I recently planted some beautiful yellow flowers, the tag said dahlias. They are growing fine and blooming but recently they are under attack by something. The leaves have tons of holes and the petals fall off if you even touch them. Any ideas what the problem might be and how I can get rid of it and prevent it in the future?
Yes your right, these are Yellow Dahlias, the first plant is being attacked be some insect or garden pest that looks like it might be something like either ear-wigs and, or slugs, snails or caterpillars. 2nd plant the same, but it needs dead-heading, that is the dead flowers removed to encourage the plant to make more flowers and extend the flowering season for you, IF you dont remove the dead flowers then the plant will begin to form seed-heads and this takes energy from the plant to form those seeds rather than make more flowers, the idea is to enjoy the flowers and end of season IF required, let a couple of flowers go to seeds.
Ear-wigs are night feeders and hide away in darker places in daytime, they are brown insects body about half inch long and have pincher's at the back end, they can move fast. I stick straw or shredded newspaper, put this inside a small flower-pot, stick it upside down onto a garden cane, set the cane close to the plant and the ear-wigs will crawl into this at daybreak, either drop the paper/earwigs included onto a fire or into a bucket of boiling water.
Slugs/ snails are a real pest as they eat large bits out of leaves as do the ear-wigs, all also like to nibble at the flowers so when these buds open, there are bits nibbled out of the buds before the flowers even open.
You can use pet/ animal slug pellets but please make sure they are safe to animals, AND don't throw them about the garden like a man with no arms as you really don't know where they are landing, all you need is a tint little pinch and place them around the infected plants, the slugs/snails eat these pellets and die off in a matter of an hour. When it rains you may need to replace these slug pellets, the other thing to do is go out with a torch, a bucket of boiling water and pick off the slugs / snails and drop them in the bucket.
Caterpillars are destroyed the same way with boiling water or stamp on them.
To search for all the above, look on the underside of the leaves and tip the flower heads gently to search for all the above mentioned pests.
Hope this helps you out a bit. Good luck. WeeNel.
Agreed, individual flowers don't last long. As they turn brown, I cut them off too.
It's normal for bugs to taste outside plants. It's rarely necessary to do anything about it, the plants will still grow just fine, and almost always much faster than they are being sampled although there are exceptions in which I would intervene in some way. This plant looks quite happy and vigorous to me. I see no need to attempt to prevent bugs since I have no idea what bugs might show up, and it seems easier to address an actual issue if it arises than all possible issues that might not.
Thank you so much for all the information and advice! I will check the flowers for any signs of the mentioned bugs, and I will make sure to remove the dead flower heads.
Thanks again I appreciate the feedback!!
Your More than welcome, hope you have a wonderful summer enjoying your new found gardening hobby.
Best regards, WeeNel.
I read that cornmeal would kill slugs and thought, "Yeah, right." But I gave it a try- partially buried a small jar halfway filled with cornmeal in my garden by my lettuce, and within a few days it was full of little dried up slugs! Worth a try- cheap, harmless, and it works! I have been sprinkling it around my hostas and haven't had any slug damage this year.
Guess what, there is going to be a shortage of cornmeal this year ha, ha, ha.
Thanks for that info Jcook.
WeeNel.
