Gita - Fuzzy leaves attract mites? I bought the Lochinch because I read on another website (I think it was on one of those college-type botanical sites - ?North Carolina?) that buddleias with greater pubescence had far fewer mite eggs on them, so presumably greater resistance. At any rate Alan Summers ordered one for me thru Ace in Edgewater. Like I said, I'm gonna keep it in the pot this summer, so we'll see how it does. If worse comes to worst, I'll just have to buy a new buddleia every year. I have a lot of stuff that supposedly attracts the good bugs, & I've spent a small fortune on lady bugs, lacewing & mantis eggs. And I've been known to "borrow" any baby mantises I find at garden centers! lol I have a Lo & Behold buddleia in my BF garden that so far (fingers crossed) has been unaffected but I want a bigger one for elsewhere in the yard. I'll either beat those little buggers or go broke tryin'! (I'm bettin' on broke). I had a white buddleia years back - I think it was one of the much older varieties. It was always COVERED in BFs in the summer but it was much taller than what I want now. I don't remember it getting mites but Hurricane Floyd did it in.
SHOPPING LISTS, Spring 2014 What are you getting? PART DEUX
Carol, I think I saw your Butterfly Bush at Edgewater Ace yesterday! Good size! They are planning an entire section devoted to Maryland native plants! They have some deciduous azaleas in and will be getting more. The weeping Red Bud is still there. I love to look at the structure of trees pre leaf out. They have Paw Paw trees! Greg King the really knowledgable tree and shrub and insect/disease guy so many of us have met at end of season sale says"Hi" and hopes all of our goodies are doing well.
Maybe we could meet up there sometime! Gita and I used to listen to Alan Summer's radio show all the time early Sat mornings. I just missed him this Sat.
There are a lot of herbs you can use to attract the lacewings and other beneficial insects. This would save you from having to purchase them! I have also found that having lots of plants that attract pollinators will eventually attract the praying mantises without needing to buy them.
Carol--
I may have been mistaken ---
Hairy/fuzzy leaves attract White Flies---not necessarily Mites....
Of course--"Mites" is a sort of catch-all name for many different Mites.
Spider mites--Broad Mites--Cyclamen Mites--etc.
I hate them no matter wha their names are--as you cannot always see them
until after the damage is done.
G.
http://ferncreekdesign.org/beneficialinsects.pdf
Wonderful resource that describes different beneficial insects that different plants (a lot of them are herbs) attract. Specifics on plants and which insects they attract begins on p 7.
E.g., ladybugs, lacewings, and pirate bugs all eat spider mites. So it tells you all the different herbs you can plant to attract ladybugs, lacewings, and pirate bugs to help keep the spider mites in control.
Nice list. But also garlic chives- another of those flower heads made of many small flowers, the tiny wasps love. And if you have room for something crazy- Devil's walking stick, native tree, attracts A BA-ZILLION wasps and bees when in bloom in late summer.
Sally, good point about the garlic chives. By the way, is garlic chive the one with the tiny bulbets that multiply like crazy and are impossible to get rid of? One of my rose beds has those (came that way), and I'm not sure yet what it is. I never saw it bloom last year...
I had always grown up thinking of all bees and wasps as potentially dangerous, and I was amazed to discover last summer that most of them were nonaggressive, focused on the plants and unconcerned about me. I guess yellowjackets (and maybe a few others that defend their nests aggressively?) are an exception.
Thanks for that helpful link Cat! I too am amazed by how unconcerned bees are by my presence in the garden. I love watching them do their thing while I'm deadheading in the garden. Sometimes the big bumbles will get startled if they come out of a penstemon type flower and I'm right close to them...it's cute to see.
Cat--
I think you are thinking of the wild onions that row in your lawn and beds
and everywhere--and are hard to get rid of. Yes?
Garlic Chives grow like regular chives--in small clumps. They are edible.
And--they taste just like Garlic. The difference between the two Chives is that
the garlic Chive's leaves are FLAT--whereas the reg. Chives are rounded.
Garlic chives have very pretty blooms--made up of many individual, white blooms.
Each little bloom will make seeds that, if not dead-headed, will spread
to nearby areas. The small plants can be dug up and moved--or potted up.
The seeds are good-sized and black. About 1/2 the size of a MG seed.
You can control the spreading by dead-heading the blooms as they start to fade.
Overall--these Chives look pretty....Use them chopped in salads and cooking
to add garlic flavor. It is often used in Oriental cooking .
http://www.burpee.com/herbs/chive/chives-garlic-prod000468.html
Gita
Ditto Gita on the chives, I bet your things under the rose are the same wild garlic that gets in the lawn, and that I was pulling from my path. Rarely blooms and blooms are small. Garlic chives are growing nicely right now for cutting fresh to eat.
Yellow jackets are EVIL- when nesting too close to humans. We feel we must kill them when they nest right next to the house. Wasps are GREAT when I can actually observe them flying around asparagus and examining each frond for caterpillars. So cool! On Patrol.
My neighbor in back has a GI NOR MOUS colony of some docile ground nesting bees. Zillions of holes in an area like 8 feet by ten feet, incredible. The grass is thin and the soil dry and sandy and sunny exposure. They never sting or act aggressive, just in and out of the holes.
sally--
do ground bees bite if annoyed? Are they beneficial in the garden?
What, if any, is their main function? Contribution?
I ask, bc my Pakistani neighbors have had them...and--they all freak out.
They freak out about everything that moves or flies.
The saddest thing is that they have SO ingrained fear of any living critter
in the little boy (Hamsah) now 4-- that he runs screaming even from a bird or an ant--
or a bug in the grass..
He is not allowed to run barefoot in the grass--because they used to tell him
that "he is allergic to grass..."
He seldom goes outside in this weather because "he will get sick....."
Geez! Fresh air good and cleansing...
The G-Mother has been gone for months now to Pakistan, so there has been no gardening.
Usually--she is out there every day and Hamsah is right there with her...
Each to their own....
Is this wild garlic in bloom? I thought it was so beautiful last year and it was a weed in the grass!
Jeff--
That looks like a white version of "Star of Bethlehem".
If it is-(???)--it is very invasive and will show up everywhere....
My neighbors have it all over! Theirs is blue.
http://www.easytogrowbulbs.com/p-405-ornithogalum-umbellatum-star-of-bethlehem.aspx
Gita
Cat, sounds like you may have had a wise former gardener at your place ! Or that Mother Nature did a balancing act for your roses and aphids by scattering 'onions' amongst them.
"Plants that are university field-tested with proven results of being able to keep aphids away from roses include onions, garlic, some herbs and certain other flowers."
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/companion-plants-really-keep-aphids-away-roses-31294.html
If you are bound and determined to pull them all out maybe whirr the bulbs in a blender and freeze the concentrate for a repellant spray when the bugs do come....
Yep Star of bethlehem. Ditto to Gita.
Gita- the bees that live here in the big colony have never seemed aggressive to me. I agree it is a shame to raise a child paranoid about the outside world and nature. So much healthy curiosity and mental stimulation can be found in nature! As well as fresh air and activity.
At least he does get outside some and seem close to her and has not yet been parked in front of the TV all day.
I'll have to go buy a pruning shear- because I will then immediately find the two I cannot locate anywhere in my house or shed.
Thanks ladies. It's really pretty and coming up again this year in the same spot. Maybe I'll dig it up and put it in the garden. I'm getting my lawn sprayed for weeds this year. Do you think that will kill it if I leave it in the grass?
Gita the main function of bees is to pollinate plants. A lot of bee species nest in the soil. Most are not aggressive. Like Seq and Sally I really enjoy watching them go about their work in the garden.
I need to get a good sniff of these little bulblets with the rose bush to see if they have an onion smell. They are separate little bulbs not a clump. I wonder if they are star of Bethlehem?
This message was edited Apr 7, 2014 5:05 PM
Catmint a picture can easily determine which of the three things we have talked about. Star of Beth will have no onion scent and will have soft limp foliage kind of like grape hyacinth. Wild garlic is darkest green, some very stiff and others at this time of year actually curly.
thanks, Sally. I pulled up a couple baby stalks. As you can see as a baby it looks like grass, with each piece of grass connected to a tiny little bulb. The bulbs multiply in the soil.
To me, it does not have a strong scent, but then my smeller doesn't always work too well... :-(
I think wild garlic is most likely.
Stopped at my Home Depot, browsed and shivered in the flowers, and bought a pruning shear. Let's have a New Tool Pool. Everybody pick a date on which I will leave my New Tool out in the rain for the first time. I am badddd about that, and this tool didn't even have a hole where I could have a loop to hang it up. Sigh.
thanks, Sally. I hope you are right as I would rather have wild garlic with my rose bush than star of bethlehem!
good luck with that new pruning shear! :-)
Okay Sally, I pick 10 June!
The bumblebees buzz around me when I'm around my flowers and are very well-behaved. They weren't so nice when I opened a bird house only to find their hive, however! Boy did they storm out of there towards me. I got the message and left. Funny thing was that there was no sign of their hive by winter. It's as if they cleaned it out before vacating.
Sally, I pick April 27 ha ha ha. When Mike and Lowell were cleaning up leaves over the weekend, they found a pair of pruners and a dandelion digger. I'm badddd about leaving tools outside too. I saw something on Pinterest for cleaning rust off of them, but I forgot to pin it and now I can't find it :( My poor pruners....
I like seeing the bees hovering and feeding on the flowers too. I just need to be watchful of yellow jacket nests in the ground. I've stepped in more than my fair share over the years. Always got stung, multiple multiple times, but the sting isn't that bad - within 10 minutes the sting is gone and replaced by itching for me - similar to mosquito bites. I once got stung on the back by a white faced hornet. That one sting hurt MUCH more than 15-20 yellow jacket stings ever did.
That sounds awful, Aspen. I've been trying to stay away from certain plants that attract yellowjackets or hornets. My native pollinator guide says that Asclepias incarnata attracts yellowjackets. :-(
Came home to a nice big Bluestone box on the porch today. I unpacked it and all the plants looked nice but one, hopefully that one grows though. The one primrose was blooming, exciting!!
What did you get, Sequoia?
Nice loot! Yes, what is it all?
Well specifically:
Geranium phaeum Samobor
Geranium Ballerina
Prunella Summer Daze
Dalea purpurea Stephanie
Penstemon barbatus Rubycunda
Anemone multifida Annabella Deep Rose
Anthemis tinctoria Kelwayi
Papaver orientalis Brilliant
Heliopsis helianthoides Summer Nights
Lychnis Chalcedonica
Lychnis coronaria Atrosanguinea
Primula denticulata Cashmeriana Ruby
Chrysogonum virginianum Pierre
Geranium Johnsons Blue
Geranium Purple Who
Lobelia gerardii Vedrariensis
Bergenia Bressingham Ruby
Trollius Ledebourii
Geranium Dilys
Today I should be getting a decent order from Munchkin Nursery and perhaps tomorrow an order from New Garden Plants. I'm a little bummed that my xeric plants coming from Blackfoot Natives will be delayed two weeks due to snow there. I'm going to create that garden this weekend so everything will be all set for them to drop in later. This is the garden I'm most excited about and I'll take plenty of pictures so you can see :)
Sequoiadendron
Isn't Blue Stone the best?! I got my box on Saturday and the Helibores were worth every penny they are so beautiful. I couldn't help myself there is a new one called Jade Tiger. My son's Chinese name is Yu Hu. It means, you guessed it, Jade Tiger. What mother could resist? I've always had great luck with Bluestone and hope you do aswell.\
Yehudith
Yeah I'm excited about the pots because you can just plant them right in the ground. The primrose had some pretty hefty roots on it so I potted it to retain water around them.
Jeff---
Maybe I do not need to tell you this--you seem to be a very savvy gardener--
BUT--when planting the peat pots whole--please remove the bottom of them and also
open up the sides a bit. Roots really need the freedom to grow w/o any obstructions.
AND--never leave the tops of the peat pots above soils level--they will wick out
all moisture from the rootball/soil below.
Now--I shall shut up! G.,
Thanks Gita. I don't know if there's much difference but these are coconut fiber pots. About half of these already have roots coming out of them. Their instructions just say to take of the plastic ring around the top and put right in the ground. Do roots grow out of peat pots before they are planted? I've never really used this sort of pot before so advice is helpful.
That's very good advice about not allowing any of the fiber pot be exposed above ground.
Seq, I've ordered from Bluestone before, but all the roots were contained inside the pot so I just removed the rootball. Your order looks really good! Very healthy plants.
Oh, I'm now remembering that my plants were poorly packaged and tossed around during transit. The pots were actually removed during transit! It looks like their packaging has improved.
Oh my gosh yeah. These were some of the best packaged plants I've ever seen. They had little cartons for all of them and there's no way they could have moved in the box.
I just received an order from Munchkin Nursery yesterday and they were packaged terribly. They removed the pots for some unknown reason and put the plants in a plastic baggie then wrapped them in newspaper and put them in a box where they could jump around and crash into each other during shipping. Some of the root balls are falling apart. Terrible.
Jeff---
call them and ask for a refund! Take some pictures and send them to them to
show how bad a condition they arrived...
I am sure they won't ask for you to send them back--so--you will have your $$ back
and most of the plants that made it Ok as well.
Remember----"The customer is always right'........keeping them satisfied and happy is
the ultimate goal of any GOOD business...
Re peat pots and roots--
Yes--eventually the roots will grow through them--but , honestly, it is a barrier.
By the time you plant them, the coco or peat pots will be totally soggy anyways.
Just peel them off the soil and plant. A small effort towards a better end...
I can't believe how many beginner seeds and plants are sold in thick peat "pods"!
Kind of--"Soak and plant and watch it grow"??????
There are these small cone-shaped bone dry peat "balls" among the seed supplies at the HD.
A novelty--.kids love them...you can throw them around like balls...
I'll have to take a picture next day I work. (Sunday) G.
I sent them an email and we'll see how they respond. All but one of the plants should be fine. The questionable one is an anemone that has been roughed up pretty good and the root ball is no longer a root ball but a pile of soil and roots. It just doesn't make any sense to me as to why someone would remove the pots before shipping. You'd think a place that does this daily would know that. The only thing I can think of is they were trying to save shipping but I could care less about that if my plants arrive banged up.
Coleup - sorry for the delayed response. Geek Squad had my computer (virus - couldn't get Adobe Flash to work). I went to Edgewater Ace last week & Lochinch buddleia wasn't in yet; Greg said another 2 wks. I'm looking for another Rue plant. Anyone seen them anywhere?
Oh yeah Gita, I forgot to follow up on this thread about Munchkin Nursery. I emailed them and told them how disappointing their packaging was. JoAn got back to me and said that she was sorry and that was the way she's packaged plants for 15 years. She said if the plant dies to let them know. Not the warm and fuzzies I was hoping for but oh well. That still boggles my mind: why the frick remove the pots??? Makes no sense to me whatsoever.
Sequoia: $$ ?? < =/
We went out to Home Depot this afternoon, since Jim needed something to fix his grill. He dropped us off at the garden center... I was only going to browse (as if), but took advantage of a couple of their "special buys." They had some quart perennials for $2.50... mostly gone already, but I found a 'Rose Queen' salvia, a 'Lipstick' decorative strawberry (mine may have disappeared, and those bright pink blooms are too cute), and something tiny-leafed and flowering whose name I can't recall haha.
I also got a nice sized red azalea for $12, not a steal but a good price. And I found a new apricot tree for our orchard area... paid full price for that one, $40, but no more than I'd have paid Stark Bros since I'd only have been ordering 1 tree, and it had a nice shape to it. I think it and the new Montmorrency (sp) Cherry will go in near where the pear and plum trees were.