lilac care

I thought I'd share this link about lilacs and lilac care.

http://spi.8m.com//care.htm

That's a great site, I'm going to buy another lilac from him in the spring (you'd think 4's enough, wouldn't you?).

BTW, did you win the battle of the spiders??

I had the exterminator in today, and he sprayed everywhere, inside and out. I took the earth-friendly option, which acts more slowly, so he said that I might still see spiders for up to a month. (Eww!)

A month ago, I ventured down into the basement with Home Defense and spider traps. There were dozens of spiders, and I sprayed every one I could see. When Justin, the exterminator, came up from spraying the basement, I asked him if it was still Spider Central. He told me he was walking through spider webs.

Double ewww! Great! I have mutant bugs!

I opted to have them come back every other month to spray. It's not all that much. If I stop eating at the cafeteria at work for a week, that'll pay for it. (They've got lousy food, anyway.)

Re: lilacs. I think I might order a lilac or two from these guys, too. They have one called "Dark Night" that's a deep, deep purple, and it will go well with my pink and white lilacs (assuming any of them ever bloom!). There are so many fascinating varieties of lilacs that it's hard to choose. But I've got a pretty big yard.

Thanks for that lilac link: lots of good information. And good luck with your ongoing spider battle: like you, I'm phobic about them. Irrational but true; they simply give me the creeps, the bigger the creepier.

I'm thinking I should go for a nice pink or burgundy one, my others are white (Mme Lemoine) and wild syringa lilacs. But it must be real lilac fragrant.

It's my kids who think every spider is Shelob or Aragog! We run the dehumidifier in the basement, clean the cobwebs when we see them, and kill the critters with a tissue or a smack! with a shoe or something when they're inside (the spiders, not the kids).

My kids are horrified that I won't kill a spider that's made a web near my cordylines and tropicals growing on the patio. I told them the spider can stay there and keep the bad bugs off my pretty plants. Symbiosis at work, I call it. 'Course the spider can't move in with the plants come Labor Day, it'll have to find its own place to spend winter.

I have nightmares about Shelob.

I have to wonder if the good Professor was an arachnophobe himself. Evil moves into Mirkwood, and the giant spiders follow. And in the middle of Mordor is the biggest, baddest spider of them all.

I guess we can assume that there were helpful little garden spiders in Rivendell and the Shire, but we never hear about them. Spiders seem to be part of Sauron's domain.

I do try to be nonhomicidal about spiders out in the yard, but I will NOT have them in the house.

Good question... He was quite a brave soul, having survived orphanhood at a young age in a strange land (born in South Africa, brought to England by his widowed mum, who then proceeded to die), then was the sole survivor in a trench during WWI, was injured in the Great War. I think he tapped into the great fear many have of spiders and bugs, or else he was familiar with this quote by Dostoevsky, "We imagine hell to be vast. But what if it's merely a room with spiders in every corner?"
If I find them inside, squish! Too tricky to get them outside again. Ladybugs are a different story, I can cup my hand and get them to the roses OK. Where I tell them to eat, eat, eat!!

Omigod! I live in hell!

No, I do not try to get spiders outside. I scream and stomp on them. If they're too quick for me to stomp on, I leave the light on all night. Oh, what I wouldn't give for that little vial that Galadriel gave Frodo!

Ah, Earendil, the light of their most beloved star, the evening star.... How about Frodo's sword Sting to kill all the spiders with?
The spider living on my cordyline doesn't seem fazed by the sun though. I see it in broad daylight. Maybe it's Charlotte.

I guess I'm just weird. My tarantula happily consumes grasshoppers and other misc. things that my DS brings in from The Great Outdoors. She is only allowed out of her aquarium under adult supervision, however. As cool as I think she is, I don't think I want her turning up in my bed! ... by the way, my Miss Kim rescues from WalMart are doing well (to sort of get back on topic?). Amazing what a little water can do for a plant or six.

Oh, for Pete's sake, girls -- it's only a SPIDER!
Here's another one for you, found on my window screen. Sorry my finger is in the way, but it didn't want to hold still for the photo. Note the ruler at right for scale:

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

Spiders must die!

You put spiders on my lilac thread!

This message was edited Aug 6, 2006 6:44 PM

Yeah, but only after Kmom started talking about tarantulas!
That wolf spider is still out there somewhere, catching small rodents.
;-)

Mea culpa, I knew White_Hyd had posted elsewhere about the battle of the spiders going on in her home. Forgive me for inquiring.... but it did get to be fun to digress about LOTR and Tolkein and Middle Earth!

So what lilacs are you all ordering next spring? What should I get to go with Mme Lemoine and my wild-types? must be very fragrant with real old-fashioned lilac scent and a different color. Back on track!

I'm going to get a replacement lilac next spring from Gurney's to replace the one that died: Syringa vulgaris. And I'm seriously thinking about getting that Dark Night from SPI.

I might be replacing ALL my lilacs next year. The new growth on my James McFarlane is wilting, and the leaves on my Adelaide Dunbar are turning brown and drying up.

I want at least a couple plain, light purple, fragrant lilacs, like I used to have when I was a kid.

Anyone remember the giant spider who lived in a cave on one episode of Gilligan's Island? I have nightmares about that one. Tender young age, I was then.

And thanks for the lilac resources. I have a couple really mature ones, and now I've got some good ideas for giving them a good boost.

A friendly sort . . .

Guy you are really baaad. He's cute though. We have a bunch of what I call Zipper Spiders - in the tomatoes and my kids are forever getting right in the web to look at them. No fear!

Okay, that's it. I am opting out of this thread. C ya.

I REALLY AM terrified of spiders! I'm not kidding!

Oh, all right, party pooper, I'll stop! But I was saving my best ones for last! Now you'll never know . . .
Guy S.