plants: love/hate
when i moved out of my father's house, he gave me a couple of plants to take with me. a big hibiscus and another, nameless one. i myself added a lilac and some honeysuckle. i was all ready for a big jungle out on the balcony (and a huge mess trying to find someone to water it when i went on holiday). but things haven't been half as smooth as they used to be.
first, my hibiscus was visited by some tiny white flies, which kept laying eggs so that at the end of the summer, i simply had to cut down the plant to a stump, as no amount of insecticide would help. the plant has now grown back to it near-original size (which is amazing, cos it's quite big!), and now, despite the utmost vigilance, i can see the problem is reappearing. hopefully, i've caught the problem in time, but somehow, i can't imagine i'd actually be that lucky.
in the meantime, the nameless plant, which was also quite big at the beginning of spring, suddenly started wilting away. it took some time before i noticed that some white fungus was attacking it. not only that, but it was spreading to the honeysuckle. back i went to the garden store and i was once again assured that the product i was buying would solve the problem and no, i didn't have to cut down the plant (they'd said that about the hibiscus last year...). half the plant has already died, although it does indeed seem like the situation is stabilising.
and so yesterday, while treating the hibiscus again, i noticed that quite a few of the lilac's leaves had been chewed on. this isn't new, but it originally wasn't much and i couldn't figure out what was doing it, seen as there were no caterpillars or other such bugs around. but yesterday, i found some black flies that seemed quite settled on the leaves. and now i'm really pissed off cos lilacs are my favourite flowers.
the question remains, though: where have i gone wrong? i'm doing nothing that i didn't used to do at my father's place, the plants come into contact with just as many other plants as before (well, fewer actually, which you'd think would reduce the risk), and i'm just at a loss as to what to do next...
first, my hibiscus was visited by some tiny white flies, which kept laying eggs so that at the end of the summer, i simply had to cut down the plant to a stump, as no amount of insecticide would help. the plant has now grown back to it near-original size (which is amazing, cos it's quite big!), and now, despite the utmost vigilance, i can see the problem is reappearing. hopefully, i've caught the problem in time, but somehow, i can't imagine i'd actually be that lucky.
in the meantime, the nameless plant, which was also quite big at the beginning of spring, suddenly started wilting away. it took some time before i noticed that some white fungus was attacking it. not only that, but it was spreading to the honeysuckle. back i went to the garden store and i was once again assured that the product i was buying would solve the problem and no, i didn't have to cut down the plant (they'd said that about the hibiscus last year...). half the plant has already died, although it does indeed seem like the situation is stabilising.
and so yesterday, while treating the hibiscus again, i noticed that quite a few of the lilac's leaves had been chewed on. this isn't new, but it originally wasn't much and i couldn't figure out what was doing it, seen as there were no caterpillars or other such bugs around. but yesterday, i found some black flies that seemed quite settled on the leaves. and now i'm really pissed off cos lilacs are my favourite flowers.
the question remains, though: where have i gone wrong? i'm doing nothing that i didn't used to do at my father's place, the plants come into contact with just as many other plants as before (well, fewer actually, which you'd think would reduce the risk), and i'm just at a loss as to what to do next...
posted by The Archaeologist @ 4:33 PM
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