"in the midst of winter, I found there was within me, an invincible summer" Potting shed chat continues here

[funnyperson]

So as agreed (by 2 other people!) I have started this thread for spring gardeners follwing on from the previous thread : Welcome one and all. experts and novices alike and draw up your chairs and join in discussion on all things garden related (and even not garden related)

More rather nice garden square photos

These show how foliage provides colour and also how the canopy can vary vertically to provide at least three layers of foliage and flower

Light and shade in the back garden

Had the chance of a check around the garden today, in a few dark corners ( explained by DGS and a football...!) and oh dear, my Viburnum Tinus is in a state - I remember shove asking about it up thread, and not thinking anything of it. I always get a bit , but I managed a proper look and it is devastated ,the new leaves this year are awful. Not sure if I can do anything at this late stage, just hope it survives. Its an old shrub, and enormous.

I've re- read my post - I didn't mean to dismiss shove , sorry ! - it was more of an "I had no idea' .......

No, don't worry book - I know exactly what you meant!!

I don't think you missed anything - those larvae move SO quickly once they get started. I checked my Guelder Rose quite carefully a couple of weeks ago, because I am worried that it is going to be hit when we start building work later in the year, so have been uming and ahing about moving it and knew we were getting a week of rain to help it establish (I decided to leave it in the end). Point is, it was fine. A week later, the leaves are like lacework. There are very few pests I've experienced myself that move with such astounding rapidity!

Unfortunately, the chemicals to control it are some of the nastiest on the market - Pyrethrum seems to be the organic option. Mine is right next to a bed of deutzia and nectaroscordia in full flower, and dozens of happy bees and I'm worried about them being affected so I have sprayed after dark.

I have also ordered some Neem oil from Amazon, which should arrive today and I will let you know if it's effective. I shall be using this after dark too. The neighbours are going to wonder what on earth is going on!

I gather that, because of the life cycle, we need to hit them straight away!

I am really enjoying your pictures funny - the light and shade one is beautiful

I have just been googling, and don't know if I can even try this on mine as its so big, But , it may be possible to break the cycle by stopping the larvae going into the ground by putting some barrier around the trunk. I wonder if the grease bands or something similar might work at all, or at least reduce the problem. We may just prune really hard, and forego the flowers I think.

My philadelphus has finally flowered after 3 years of waiting. Hopefully, my Lilac, planted at the same time, might follow. I live in hope

Lovely photos, Funnyperson.

I have a philadelphus that needs to be planted. The spot I have in mind for it is quite shady - in the corner of two fences - is it likely to be happy there?

My viburnum opulus was wrecked by the larvae, but the tinus seems, oddly, to be pretty much unscathed. I think I'll go out later to see what's flourishing and what's not and to take some photos.

Shove - what's neem oil supposed to do? I imagine I could get some from our Asian pharmacy, so might try it.

Maud - it's an organic oil from a tree that grows in South Asia and India, and it works as an insecticide while having a low environmental impact. I am suffering an outbreak of both viburnum beetle AND woolly aphid (the latter proving resistant to detergent spray), so I will try it for both. I think it works by a systemic action, so it's like a foliar feed - you spray it on and the plant takes it up and then the leaves don't taste as good and the compounds they deliver interfere with the insect's reproductive cycle. It's food safe, too, which is great because the aphids are on my apple tree.

book - a barrier might work, you know - since they need to get to the soil! You are one clever gardener!

Have had a discussion with DH and we are going to give it a really , really hard chop - it is enormous, its 30+ years old, and its also quite a thug. Its going to be c'est la vie - if it survives, great, and if it doesn't we will do a re-gig, and plant something else next near. Its going to be ugly. I have taken a 'before' picture, and we are pruning this afternoon.....

Good luck book - sounds like a hard afternoon's work. Tinus are tough beasts, hopefully it'll bounce back. Keeping fingers crossed for you.

I gave (or, rather, my gardener friend gave) my viburnum tinus a fairly drastic chop a few years ago, at which time I guess it was about fiftenn years old, because I wanted to raise the canopy and reshape it. It coped fine. They are very robust plants.

Thanks for that, Shove. I was being lazy as I could have googled! Several pharmacies here stock products containing neem oil, so I'm hoping I can get the oil itself. The apple trees seem to have a particularly bad infestation of woolly aphid this year.

If you can't find it - I got mine from Amazon with free postage! It was about £9 for 500ml and you use it dilute, so I'm hoping that it'll last a while.

I don't believe it. I think I have box blight.

I have several topiary balls in a bed, and one has gone very definitely brown in the last week or so. It rained incessantly here, and I do mean absolutely unceasingly, for about a week - and it was warm, so incredibly humid during that whole time.

This year is a nightmare. I feel absolutely besieged. Slugs. Viburnum beetles. And now blight. GAH!!

oh shove nooooo ! Thats so disheartening. Fingers crossed its something just a little less problematical.
Well - we did it - just under 2 hours for the both of us ( so 4 man hours I guess?) . Taken off about a third at a guess, chopped the height down well too. We didn't go quite as deep in as I worried about, but decided we had done sufficient. Now going to leave it, and give it another hard chop next year, as it doesn't look quite as bad as I thought - thats with half closed eyes....
so before/after... rather tidier actually!

Wow, great job book. It does lovely now, not that it didn't before.

I have to admit, I feel embattled. I'm normally pretty good at handling these things but tonight I feel distinctly upset. I'm dealing with:

1. A woolly aphid infestation on my apple tree. It's really set in and the tree is big and probably close to 100 years old. Using neem oil after fail with hosing and with dilute washing up liquid
2. Viburnum beetle tearing through a guelder rose, and yes, it's has started on the tinus too. Using pyrethrum.
3. Box blight. It definitely is this and the worst kind. I've disposed of the box ball that was infected and am desperately hoping the 7 others in the same patch of ground will be ok. Using Bayer fungus stuff.
4. Slugs. Worse than I've ever known them and I'm on clay and north facing so they are a constant presence. Using a organic slug pellets, nematodes, traps, coffee.

I feel thoroughly disheartened. I try not to use anything where possible and I now seem to be spraying everything large. :(

Sorry to hear about your battles with pests Holly and Book it is so disheartening. This year our slug and snail rampage is not as bad as in previous years, that being said 1 or 2 more 'at risk' plants have been devoured. As there appears to be some natural predators at work I'm reluctant to use pellets at all, so have just started experimenting with coffee grounds.

My biggest upset is one of our pyracanthas appears to have scab, with brown patches and leaf drop. I cannot spray, because it is home to a large family of nesting sparrows, so I have my fingers crossed that it can survive without any intervention. The top growth does still seem healthy and vigorous.

My other pyracantha has struggled with woolly aphid for years now, we may just give up and cut it down this Autumn

I think looking at shoves list, I have got off easy.
I am going to have a really good look at everything closely from now on.
Non gardeners have no idea how attached you get to plants - they are like family in a strange way, and it is horrible when they are suffering. You feel as if you are doing something wrong, or that you are not doing something that you should. That sounds a bit weird really......

I get what you mean Book. It makes you feel neglectful when you haven't noticed when a problem has got out of hand or if a tender new plant gets decimated by slugs after planting.

W My very sick pyracantha makes me feel particularly guilty as its gone on for years and I've never really got to grips with it because it's in an out of the way place in the garden.

The Neem tree is known for its antiseptic and antifungal properties, I think it is rather like the Australian Tea tree in its properties. I have some Neem seeds which I must sow.

What I am not sure about is if you spray a plant with an oil, does it harm the leaves? I think oil might block the pores of the leaves and affect photosynthesis. The same might apply to earthworms

I admit to using Roseclear on the roses in the end so that blackspot didn't overtake the garden, but so far havent used anything for slugs or beetles other than picking them off and relocating them. Whether this is sensible in relation to slugs which will only reproduce, unless eaten, is debateable.

The lilies have survived, but one or two of the hostas are being chomped and the sweet peas and most of the cosmos seedlings are struggling.

Love the before and after pruning shots: so satisfying.

My plants are like companions to me. As are the robins and the blackbirds. I even talk to the crow sometimes which makes DS laugh. The birds do recognise people and have their own call for them. Now when I appear, the call in the canopy here has changed from the 'tiger' call
(which I recognised from an Attenborough film) to a very musical 5 notes which are always the same.

I'm quite regular about picking off infected leaves or branches of plants and I always wash my secateurs in dettol between plants and my hands in neem soap.

regarding Philadelphus and sun:

I think they prefer sun, maud. I noticed the Philadelphus in one of the garden squares in quantity at various aspects. The one with the most flowers and most (wonderful) fragrance was in a sunny spot. The one in shade had far fewer flowers and as the foiage wasnt interesting, wouldnt have earned its space in a smaller garden. Which variety do you have? Apparently the Aureus variety tolerates some shade