My garden is under siege, and we are not winning. Unfortunately, it looks like the trip inside may have invited a few nasty pests to wreak havoc on our plants. Early this week, I noticed small white dots on the bidens and calibrachoa in the middle container, and on the champanula. Plus, there were green dots on the nicotiana. I did some internet research and did not come up with much on the white dots, but figured the green dots were the most dreaded of all garden pests - aphids.
I'm still not sure what the white dots were, but various home remedies all failed, and I had to say good bye to the victims. I tried two solutions. The first was a combination of water, liquid dish soap and baking soda in a spray bottle. The second substituted vegetable oil for baking soda. The idea is to spray the leaves to get the buggers to slide off and not come back. It was definitely too late to get rid of the white guys. The aphids seemed to respond to the vegetable oil, but I'm still not sure if the battle has been won and it looks like they may be attacking the browallia.
Unfortunately, I had to trash the bidens, coral calibrachoa and champanula. I tossed the dirt in all of their containers too and scrubbed the containers down to try to get rid of the bugs. I also bought some organic insecticide to try to wage my own war on the invaders to prevent further contamination. We will see how that works out. So far, it's bugs 3, Me .5 (nicotiana are still hanging in there).
So, we had some openings in our garden and it was time for some succession planning. It is a bit early to be thinking fall, but I figure there is not enough summer left to plant any thing but hardy fall winners. So, here are the successors:
Replacing the bidens & calibrochoa in window box #2: Hardy mums & lemonade lantana.
Replacing the champanula - Sunflower hybrid.
New addition - Z_____ (I know it starts with a z, but I can't remember anything else!).
These guys have the funniest new buds. They hold everything in until they are ready to open, so they look like little pouches.
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