Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Friday, January 26, 2007
Mealybugs, Aphids & Scale. Oh My.
I thought I was doing a good deed. Saving the plants in the garage from a frozen death by bringing them into the house where they could warm up and maybe put out a few new leaves for the spring. And how do they reward me? They make it harder to justify keeping them. The few etiolated shoots on the Cupheas are now infested with aphids. The florists' azaleas have scale. The Kaffir Lime has scale and mealybugs. All this within 48 hours of bringing them in and cleaning them up a bit. The scale and mealybugs I know I can deal with - it just takes some time with Q-tips and isopropyl alcohol to remove them. But aphids? Be a good organic gardener and simply wash them away with a spray of water! Ha! They always come back, refreshed from their shower. (If not the very same ones, then their children.) But I really want to keep the Cupheas, so I perservere.
Labels: bugs
2 Comments:
That's a hard call on the Cupheas - are they difficult to find where you live? Mine sometimes make it outside and sometimes die. I don't bother trying to bring them in because they're inexpensive at local nurseries and they grow quickly here. My Meyer's Lemon, on the other hand, would be worth the trouble of using Q-tips and alcohol. I saved a Jade Plant with that technique long ago, and the patient is now 33-years old.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
I have a few oddball Cupheas that I'd like to keep. I mail-ordered them last year from Singing Springs Nursery, which has since gone out of business. The one with the most aphids was sold as Cuphea laevis. It looks like a pink version of Cuphea ignea on a taller plant. I had one a few years ago called 'Twinkle Pink' that looked very similar (identical?), and I overwintered that a couple of times and then let it freeze. I'll probably try a soapy water spray on the aphids, if washing them off doesn't work.
Two that I don't care if I save are the bat-faced Cuphea 'Tiny Mice' and Cuphea ignea. The bat-faced Cuphea has gotten easier to find locally, and I learned least year that Cuphea ignea is very easy to start from seed.
I killed a Meyer Lemon once. Can't remember now if it had scale or if I left it outside too long. I had it long enough for it to bloom one time - the blossoms were just amazingly fragrant.
Wow, a 33-year-old Jade Plant! My oldest house plant is a 20-something Schefflera. It thrives on neglect and I'm afraid to start being nice to it.
Post a Comment
<< Tangled Branches: Cultivated, main page