13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
Thanks all for your responses and advice. On closer inspection I would tend to agree with leaf miner damage as well...I had a slight problem with it last year and looking back at pictures of my columbines it looks more like the classic squiggly line leaf miner patterns. Have trimmed off the affected foliage and removed it, may just let it finish flowering and trim the whole thing to the ground. Was so happy when it came back so strong this year and now devastation lol...oh well, it did flower beautifully
dsbirdwell, you might consider applications of neem oil, beginning early in the season. Neem won't kill the insects, but is very helpful in preventing them from laying their eggs in the first place. Neem is also an anti-feedant.
Be sure to read and follow the instructions when using neem oil, or any product.
did the yard get standing water in it before during similar rains?
I am sure the fabric isn't helping with getting some water to drain.... And I would also think that with the crushed stone under you new path that it would drain away a bit.
There's always rain gardens!!
What several have already said about digging up the plants in fall, removing the weed fabric, and adding soil/amendments as needed ... after correcting the drainage issue if necessary. Did water pool there before? If so, might there be compacted soil or a clay hardpan? You'll have to break through this to improve drainage. Also, since you're adding soil on the other side of the walk, make sure you're not going to be directing water towards your house.
Fall is actually the best time to plant. The air is cooler, the sun's rays weaker, putting less demand on the plants, but the soil is still warm, so encourages root growth.
With very few exceptions, plants (whether annuals, perennials, shrubs, vines, trees ... whatever) should always be planted at the same depth at which they had been growing. Their roots have developed at the proper depth to provide the water, oxygen and nutrients the plant needs. Changing the soil level will, at best, stress the plant, at worst, kill it. (Tomatoes are one notable exception. Since they have an abundance of adventitious buds in their stems that will produce roots, you can bury a goodly portion of the stem when planting, to encourage a larger root system.)
1) It really doesn't look anything like the oak hedgehog gall. They are round and furry.
2) That wasp will not use geraniums as a host, no matter how close the geraniums are to the oak.
3) Looks like a gall from an erineum mite or other mite, but I can't find a picture of said galls on geranium, in particular.
I do think that these are galls, but I must say that I've never seen anything quite like it.
i wouldnt waste time nor money on treating LOV ...
crikey.. you cant kill the stuff if you wanted to ...
any chance you had any hail .. to cause leaf damage ... if so ... treating some later problem... wont help the initial insult ...
if this stuff dies.. from lack of treatment.. i can send you a dump truck full ..
i wouldnt do anything..
ken
Heh, I am not as concerned that the colony will die, it will probably come back the first spring after a nuclear attack ;) But right now it looks pretty ugly, and it's right at the driveway entrance, so is pretty visible. Not a great expense either as it's only probably ~10sqft. Plus, it's good to know if something more valuable develops the same symptoms.
Don't think we had hail this year, but there was certainly plenty of rain.
hey campy ... lin is in chicago.. more attuned to my winter ... we are talking ground freeze ...
late fall summer/fall sowing will get you nothing but spring hatch .. depending on how late ... and that is fine for the two plants asked about ...
cat.. i used to weed ... back in suburbia... on a small lot ...
ken
the other trick ... since they need to contact soil .. rather than be spread on top of mulch ...
is to clear a one foot circle ... and so when 20 of them pop up.. in that circle.. odds are.. they will be what you planted ... and the circle will tell you you did plant something there...
they can be moved at the first true leaf or two ... dig a new hole.. pop the whole little plant out with a hand trowel ... insert in new hole ... do it on a cold rainy day .. in spring ... the idea being.. you get the whole tiny root with it.. and it never know you did it ...
you cant wait until its large .. no real sense of humor about that..
ken
Yeah, I wondered about that, too. I thought it might be an arkwrightii at first, except the absence of purple leaves doesn't fit. But my daughter has an 'orange gnome' that was pictured in the catalog as having purple-bronze tints to the leaves, but hers has never had much purple in the leaves at all. I believe the purple foliage is mainly in the spring(?). Maybe this year's crazy weather patterns has something to do with it. Or has it had all green foliage in previous years, too? Still, whether arkwrightii or another variety, it surely is a lychnis of some sort.
rouge - that is the Wolf Eyes dogwood - I thought it was dead this spring but it has leafed out on the top. There is a lot of deadwood that needs pruning out. Since that one is under the shelter of the pines, I thought it was well-protected, but obviously not! It had a fair bit of winterkill last year too, so I wonder if it is a weak tree - or maybe it doesn't like being protected! Maybe I need to try another one in a more open location...
green_go - up there you are obviously not subject to 'the lake effect' :-) But it's surprising that your redbuds did better than ours here - we obvious had a really abnormally cold winter here!
When you plant things, they aren't full size. Look up what width they can get to and plan your spacing from that. As I mentioned above, if you plant too closely with your humidity, you may have disease issues, especially on plants with delicate leaves like coleus, so you will have to decide if you want to chance that or not. Regardless, since the plants aren't full sized when you plant, mulch well right after planting, and then the plants will grow to mostly or entirely cover the mulch. Avoid colored mulch since you don't want it as the feature but to disappear into the background.
I think it might be mugwort... not delphinium :(
If you rub the leaves and it has a spicy smell its probably a definite on mugwort. Rip it out if possible, brush on that stuff if you want, but cutting it off at the bottom won't be enough since it's an aggressive spreader by root.
Thanks so much, Katob. I think you have it nailed. I looked up mugwort and your hunch seems sound. I just now read that even the smallest bit of root will be enough for a plant to come forth. Tomorrow I will take a spade and lift up the entire plant combination. I'll try to separate out the good, remove it from the soil, wash and replant it. Then I' toss the mugwort and soil into the trash bin. I don't need another pesky invasive weed in my gardens.
Katob, I'm sorry, I meant to mention that I put ONE stake near a clump and tied the biggest stem to it. Then I tied other stems from the clump to the big stem, etc.....so within one delphinium clump stalks are tied to each other using either one bamboo stake or one spiral stake. Even the stalks tied further away still held up ok in heavy rains.
Thyme- do you ever thin the clumps? I suppose I could justify staking if there were fewer bloom stalks to stake.
I came across this photo from last year. There are so many great garden photos on gardenweb I sometimes feel like I should stand up for the brown thumbs out there!
It looks like a fungal infection. I had one much the same attack my mini rose. I had some sulpher based fungicide and sprinkled it with that and it did the trick. I'd take as much of the infected leaves off as you can. Do not leave them laying on the ground. Put them in the garbage. When you water don't wet the plant. Water the ground around it. A plant fungus will spread with water carrying the spores from leaf to leaf
What a wonderful display....just reinforces my wish to have a wide variety of coneflowers in my garden. I wintersowed a few different varieties, and bought some this spring, in addition to the others that I had when I started my backyard garden project (digging up lawn, making alot of new beds!)
JUST BEAUTIFUL!
Thanks all. Katob... nice detective work on the bog and arundo stalks. I will post more photos of the garden..
I have three bogs for carnivorous plants... which during this time of year smells quite bad on a windless day. All the pitcher plants are filled with all sorts of bugs.
For the arundo... every year I cut them down... after getting halfway through just chopping them up for the compost... I think... " I should have done something with those!" ... so this year I made the arch. They become quite brittle though. One strike with the weeder and they shatter. The moon flower vines don't seem to be doing much so far... just sitting there as small sprouts at the base... so my plan to have them over the arch probably won't happen.