fritillarias start blooming

I have no signs of any of the others that I have planted Fritillaria elwesii, pallidiflora, meleagris, ponica, acmopetala, Lutea Maxima, Rubra Maxima which is not a good thing. But I am glad that I don't have Galanthophile's culprit. Not much happening except the snowdrops still blooming and some crocus, viola and reticulated iris. But bright and sunny today so GROW. Patti

Galanthophile, the culprit looks like the caterpillar of a moth, I found some similar on my F. persica.
Look at this one which threatens to terrorize my meleagris 'alba'. I wonder if other people also have that experience that lily beetles seem to have an appetite for F. meleagris. I have them every year, and I have no lilies except for martagons which they fortunately don't seem to like.

Bonitin, Hate the beetle, but love the photograph. Stunning color. Patti

Lily beetle! Apart from 3 I found earlier when cleaning up, in the last 3 days I have squashed 26 of them, most were mating. Get a bit of warm weather and they come in droves!

Must go out and do my daily check, it's a bit colder today but the sun keeps coming out.

Yes, I understand Patti!

I have strange mixed feelings when I see it. I cannot help admiring its beauty, but really hate the damage it does to the plants it attacks, more specially its offspring that makes a kind of disgusting blackish sticky mess on the plants.
But I never managed to actually kill the beetles, I may be sentimental but I simply cannot kill any kind of culprit.

Have you ever noticed the weird sound it makes when feeling threatened, like a little shriek, quite loud for such a little thing.

Perhaps I am foolish, but the way I deal with it is taking it off the plant and deposite it in front of my house on the streetside, where I have huge climbing plants growing.

But he's not the only culprit! See the red arrows at the bottom!

I hate killing them bonitin, but last year I had 115 of them on my few lilies, that's without the offspring!

I'm afraid it's them or me in this case, or not grow lilies, if I left them I wouldn't have lilies for them to eat!

Greenfly I leave to the ladybirds.

I suppose for once it is in my advantage to have only a tiny space to control, Wallaby, and the bright red which makes them so handsome also makes it easy to track them.,

I also have great difficulty killing any culprits and have been known to take a bucket load of snails off to a new home in the countryside! If I encourage predators they normally take care of the pests. Thank goodness I have not come across a lily beetle!

Galanthophile, I used the same method for slugs and snails in the past, before I had my huge army of toads, newts and frogs that now keep it under control.
I still use it occasionally for my plants in containers on my terrace where toads, frogs cannot come.

Bonitin, I totally missed the other culprit when looking at the first photo. A favorite thought about the biological (not ethical) implications of death is from the physicist, Freeman Dyson, something like, "death allows the future to be different from the past" I think about that every time I kill a plant. Now what should I grow there instead? Patti

I have lots of frogs and newts but they won't tackle the snails shell. I'm not troubled much by slugs fortunately though :) nature is best!

I think that toads are the best predators of all! I find loads of empty snail shells! They are mainly active during the night just like the snail and slug population.

I have thrushes which eat snails, hedgehogs eat slugs, but when I find slugs or snails I can't kill them. I have some frogs and toads which will eat some, those I come across I take to the other side of my roadway, and just toss them in the grass above the water drain. That way they are still available as food for the wildlife.

Patti, I like that view on biological death, it's nature's cycle but I don't think there is a predator for lily beetle, except me! I feel sorry for them every time, but some things just have to be done.

Galanth, I had no lily beetles until 2005, then I found 12 only, last year 115, this year already 33 and it's only just started. I am also growing many more lilies this year! They seem to be travelling fast, I hope they don't get to you but keep an eye open for eaten leaves! The grubs eat the leaves from underneath, mostly from the end to the stem, laid mostly in groups of 10 red eggs. They cover themselves in their own excrement, better to find the beetles first! The beetles tend to eat elongated holes in the leaves. They seem to come from nowhere, I think they travel on air currents.

Wallaby1, no judgement from me on quashing beetles. Dead beetle = more lilies = a happier wallaby1= more pictures of her garden for me to see. Works for me. I just personally can't quash them, YET. Patti

Feel the same like Patti, love to see your lily pictures Wallaby!

I started that way when I got vine weevils Patti, I actually took one up the road when I first found them, but they reek havoc and eat all the roots of fuchsias, plus some other plants.

They lay their eggs in pots then the grubs go to work over winter, but I also found lots on Heuchera, they like strawberry roots too. I soon learnt, I still get some but I try to check pots in spring for loose stems, and I think frogs eat some. One vine weevil can lay 500 to 1600 eggs over one to two months, and they don't need a mate!

bonitin, I will be posting pics of my lilies, and other things of course!

OOPS, I think I meant to squash not quash, but maybe not, after checking for the definition. I never thought about the difference before. I think next summer I am going to have a cookout in the garden and call it a BSP or BQP (Bug S/Quashing Party) Lots of liquor and a prize for the most flattened. Wallaby!, you are invited!

Wallaby, vine weevils are really horrible!! I have them in my garden, but mostly in my plant containers, they have a wide range of plants on their menu! They even make victims among my house plants!
This year I'm going to try out the nematode system:

http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/biocontrol.htm

Mines G&T Patti! The more plants you grow the more chance of getting these horrors!

bonitin, I have thought about nematodes but they are expensive and if you have a lot of pots like I have then it's not practical. Be careful of the first one, eel worms eat potatoes, I don't know what else. The second I haven't looked into but some of these controls end up causing more problems!

I have very few vine weevils now, I used to go out in the early hours of the morning to get them while they fed on leaves, they also like rhododendrons. I hate handling them so often ended up dropping them trying to get them on a trowel! It helps checking the pots in spring, a wiggle to see if the plant is loose is telling, they also end up in 'dead' pots so it's wise to tip out old pots.

I have had vine weevils come inside in the autumn, find them on the walls, or they have hatched out from pots inside.

Vigilance is the word, the joys of gardening!

Thanks for the heads up on the lily beetles Wallaby - I will be out checking!

A welcome guest on my Fritillaria !

Wow bonitin, I have never seen a ladybird with so much pattern on it! I know there are several types but the spots are all joined up! Is this one you normally have? I think you have been playing 'join the dots'!

Galanth, check between the leaves near the top if you see nibbled leaves (the beetles also nibble from the edges), they hide there and sometimes in a gap where the stem comes out of the soil.

Wallaby, I'm innocent!! Didn't mess with the spots!
It is the first time I have ever seen one like this in my garden. I have a book about insects and in there are described many types but none of them looks like that.

You might have a 16 spot ladybird there - apparantly there are 40 different types in Britain and 100 in Europe! I've seen what seems like hundreds in my garden already this spring.

Our raddeanas are blooming; they look kind of ratty, as they've suffered through several nights of 17 degrees F, and 4 inches of wet snow, while in full foliage. This is one tough fritillary. Hopefully Patti will have a better picture from a better climate.
Don

But yours does look perfect to me, Don! It looks an impressive one, it has something of the grandeur of the imperialis.
I love that kind of subtle greenish cream-white. Do the flowers really looks upwards ? That would be an exception in the family.
If it is such a strong one, like you say, I might try it. But if it demands full sun, I'd better forget it.

The flowers at the top of the stem look up somewhat, and the ones running down the stem hang down... there are almost too many flowers for the stem. if you look close, you can see the nectar droplets in the flower, just like imperialis.
Don

That raddeana does look perfect. I might have to have that one!

zonedenial, I will be thrilled if mine blooms so well. How tall is it ? The bulbs that I bought from two sources were quite different in size. I fear the small ones did not make it. But then our dogs enjoy making beds in the beds and always do a bit of bulb redistribution in their digging. I have even resorted to digging them up spots that I leave unplanted, but they seem to like to choose a spot with something already planted in it. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, but I do love them. Patti

They are about two foot tall (or were before a 45 mile/hr. wind storm and a wet snow storm).
Don

I don't think this fritillary has shown up in this thread: Fritillaria nigra.
don

Nigra is really great. I have "Snakeshead" in my garden. It's so cute and dainty.

Most of my big frittilaria haven't come back after the first year, but some Persicas have, and the first Imperial I planted 4 1/2 years ago has a total of 10 offsets, and the original is in bloom now. I even had to dig them up 2 years ago when we put a pathway there and replant them a few feet away, and they seem happy - a few of the offsets look like they might be big enough to bloom next year.

Image from the freak April 16th snowstorm here near Philly (~2" of slushy snow)

Been there; done that... they should be o.k., except for a little bent over. My imperialis took 17 degrees for three nights on top of the snow, and just got a little frazzled.
don

My raddeana are starting to open. Smelly but nice. Lovely soft color. It seems quite robust and wind tolerant, as we had a pretty big week of wind and hard rain last week and they suffered no damage. Patti

Well, looks like my Fr. Persica are not going to bloom again this year...I planted three more, stupidly, in the same spot as last years non-bloomers and just foliage so far, aside from THREE lily beetles I just found, little buggers. I am going to move bulbs to my upper cutting garden which is sandy, rocky and sunny. Can I do that now? They are taking up some prime real estate. The empty spot here will make way for some more ferns. That being said, Wallaby1, I laughed out loud at the translation of that euro website, 120 glasses of water...and Bonitin thanks for your kind words. I took some amazing photos this morning of my Frit. michailovskyi which seem to love it here, will download soon. Here is a photo of my checkered ones from last year which came back happily and were my first experieince with Frits. I love frittilarias and plan on getting many more varieties in the ground this year. Well back to the garden to evict more of those bright red demons. HAPPY MAY!!!

This is my pallidiflora

At least your meleagris look happy Abbydale!
For me they are the only ones that come back loyally every year, but they also suffer from attacks of the dreaded lily beetle.
My persica has hardly anything left of its foliage, its all chewed up!
I definitely give up on that one.

Galanthophile those pallidiflora look sooo attractive! They really tempt me to try once again to grow them.

Well this is my 3rd attempt but I love it so much I'm determined to succeed with it.