Ladybug, Ladybug This Is Your Home

This is Amy's amaryllis.  Most people keep amaryllis for just one year.  I'm way too cheap  thrifty for that.  In 2110 this one flowered late in May. I think it will be earlier this year.  I have been told that plants with scale should be disposed of immediately.  If you have never seen scale, they are the five brown spots on the leaf in the picture.  Think leeches for plants.  However, we have ladybugs in the house.  I took this picture yesterday.

Today the ladybug is still there.  If you check the scale you will see that they have had the juice sucked right out of them.  The residue  wiped right off the leaf.  Hope the ladybug sticks around to finish off any new ones that hatch.  Amy's amaryllis gets to stay!  I think this will be its seventh summer.

I Feel The Need...

 The snow outside reminds me of the old  song, "I'm being eaten by a boa constrictor ... " . We are slowly approaching "Oh heck. I'm up to my neck."  I look out over the snow covered garden and I feel the need, the need to weed!  I found just what I needed. Wood sorrel, one of the weeds that I battle in the garden every year, was growing in my pot of society garlic.  I got my garden claw and nippers.  I hardly needed big tools for the tiny weeds, but it was my happiness that was the issue here.  I purposely left the gloves in my garden cart. I wanted to get my hands dirty and some dirt under my nails.

There's not a lot of dirt in the pot, but I did get my hands a little dirty and a little bit of dirt under my nails.  I also found scale on the plant.  I can't tell you the satisfaction I felt scraping those little suckers off the plant with my fingernails.  I know the house plant experts say to toss a plant that has scale, but this plant was a Mother's Day gift and I have had it for years.

I left the plant looking like this.  It thanked me by releasing its scent when I watered it. It's not an aroma I would dab behind my ears, but I loved it just the same.  I'm sure I didn't kill all the scale on this plant, but the weeds are gone. The plant is trimmed.  I don't know if the plant feels better, but I know I do.  As for the scale,  "I'll be back!"

Return of The Dreaded Spider Mites

Once again a wave of invaders threatens my house plants. I have so much hope for my lemon verbenas this year.  So often by this time they look like dead sticks waiting for the compost pile. Ed is getting some winter exercise carrying these plants up the stairs to the bathroom where they get a shower followed by a treatment spray of vodka  and soap. While I am doing that he is vacuuming the spot in front of the basement window to make it ready for their return.

Before the shower I try to remove as many bad leaves as possible. Once the spraying has been done, Ed carries the now much heavier pots back to the basement window sill.

The aroma of vodka has filled the house for several days. The sweet bays had sticky leaves again. Whether the clear liquid is scale barf or something worse makes little difference.  I just want the little suckers to die. This close up of my curry leaf plant looks really good. I think those are flower buds.

A step back reveals that the plant is still looking a pretty pathetic. It did look worse! I have a feeling that this curry leaf plant should be cut back, but when and how?  I'm open to suggestions. This plant has been through a lot already. We look forward to spring and the chance to put these plants outside where the spring breezes, and rain can join in the battle. Some scale and spider mite eating bugs would be nice too!

Another Shot for My Curry Leaf, and Leave the Bottle!

For two months my curry leaf plant has been in solitary confinement in my bathroom.  It looks pretty pathetic.  In January it had more leaves at the top and looked like this.  In between then and now things have been sad.  It seemed like every day more leaf stems were falling to the floor. I fed the plant yogurt.  I gave it an eggshell and I continued to spray it from time to time with vodka and soap. I was all but ready to give up,  but then to my amazement new growth began to appear on the tall spindly plant. The first growth started at the base of the plant.

Then a new set of cute little leaves appeared  along the stem.  Tiny green bumps can be seen in other places too.

If the plant can try this hard to battle those disgusting little sucking scales,  then the least I can do is do my part.  Maybe my lush plant can be a lush plant again if I hang in there, and if the booze holds out until spring.  It's worth at least a shot or two!

Happy to Start a New Year!!!

December in the garden has been warm and cold. What little snow we have had has not lasted long. The garden has been experiencing freezing temperatures at night in the twenties or sometimes in the teens. During the day the sunlight  melts the snow and softens the ground. White remains only in shaded locations. The plants in the garden have to deal with the constant change of freeze and thaw. It looks like a pretty snow covered garden photograph will not appear this year.

My focus has shifted to indoors and my "lush" house plants. I have never been really terrific at caring for house plants. I am usually content to get the plants through the winter . Most years things go pretty well. There are always a few dead plants to compost, but most of the plants get by fine. This year it has been a battle. The enemies have been spider mites and scale . My plants have been getting their soap and vodka spray. They are running up a considerable bar tab. These are definitely not the kind of lush plants I would like to have. For now the spider mites seem to be gone. You can see from the shiny leaf on my bay tree that the scale is still with us.

My curry leaf plant still has scale too. If you compare it an earlier photograph, you can see it is losing more of its leaves and the battle.  I'm thinking one more shot of alcohol for New Year's Eve, but when 2012 gets here this curry leaf plant may find itself out in the cold. The sweet bays will surely get a reprieve. They seem to be holding their own and waist high bay trees are not as easily replaced.

December Weeding

This wet bleak December day may not look like a prime gardening day but it does present a rare opportunity to air out the lemon verbenas, Aloysia triphylla, that are over wintering in the basement.  Hardy to zone 8, a day in the light rain with temperatures in the mid 40s should be good for these plants.    A little wet breeze may end some white flies and improve the overall condition of the leaves.
We will have to keep a weather eye open since the temperature may not remain  above freezing for long.  The risk of cold damage is slight as zone 8 lows are in the 10 to 20 degree range.

The usual weeds, catnip, Johnny jump ups and chickweed, were cleared from the pots.  No serious informed gardener would bring unsterilized garden soil inside but we prefer a natural route.  Chemical fertilizer  and soil less mixtures are of no interest to us so we deal with bugs and weeds.

Our patchouli plant hit the compost pile today.  We thought that it had a good year here.  Planted in the shade garden, the plant grew.  It survived the move into the house but went downhill after that. We keep our house too cool for this plant.  Between the chill the spider mites and the scale, it was pretty much dead.  I was surprised to find very little new root growth.  As a mail order plant, it arrived in a small plastic pot that was filled with a soil less mixture.  Swishing the plant in a bucket of water before transplanting removed much of this chemical laden soil but some remained.  The plant roots never really ventured beyond the limits of the original pot.  Others must experience similar problems with nursery plants.  Has anyone found a method  of transplanting that results in vigorous root growth?  There must be a better way and we would like to know what it is.

My Poor Curry Leaf Tree

Last winter my curry leaf tree came through the winter with flying colors. It even had pretty white fragrant flowers. This year things are not so rosy. I really love it when my plants are healthy. When they are not I don't have the knowledge or the patience to deal with it. My curry leaf tree is currently residing in the bathroom. I knew when I found it with sticky leaves that it was in trouble. Now the poor thing is isolated from its friends and being treated to my version of intensive care. I wasn't feeling too awful about how spindly the tree had become until I read Garden Rant and saw a picture of healthy happy curry leaf trees.

My plant nursing skill is sadly lacking but I do  know one thing. Here are the real villains. It's scale! These disgusting tiny little suckers cling to the leaves like grim death and they multiply faster than rabbits! I'm giving the plant showers, scraping the scale that I can see off with my fingernails, using detergent mixed in water. Today I read that full fat yogurt mixed in water fed to a curry leaf plant will perk it right up. Perhaps I'll try that too. Secretly my plant probably wishes it could just hop a plane to Mumbai for the winter, but I'm afraid it's stuck here in upstate New York with me. Six months of intensive care in my bathroom nursery could turn out to be a life sentence or maybe the yogurt will turn the trick and give the plant the will to live and I will find the perfect solution to kill the scale.