Battles with Beetles, and Other Updates

So while I've been in Ithaca this week, Palash has been battling the Rochester heat and Japanese beetles. The latter fight began even as I was there last weekend: we spent a lot of Sunday evening locating and stamping out the bugs that were punching holes in our precious plants. The garlic-infused water strategy did not do much except make the whole flower bed reek, so finally on Sunday night, after a frustrating and never-ending search for the horrible things, Palash to get creative. He sprayed Lysol on the zinnias and some of the sweet peas and morning glories.



By the time I was about to leave Monday morning, the plants looked a little worse for wear, though it wasn't clear how the JBs were doing. Palash researched online though and found that neem oil was an effective way to get rid of them (we did not want to use insecticides because we kind of like our bees and butterflies); Namaste had it, so he got to work with it. He reports that he may have got a little overenthusiastic with applying it... but hey, if it works, I don't think we'll be complaining!

And the progress: well... so far, he's removed the Thumbelina zinnias that the monsters had perforated, and probably some sweetpeas that didn't like either the Lyzol or the neem. We have to wait to check out the long term effects.

As for flowers: many more blooms appeared in the garden and my inbox this week.

The cosmos(es?) and convolvulus(es? i?) are really picking up momentum, and the far end of the flower-bed is now a riot of colour. The sweetpeas proved our dread that our harvesting them would upset them and make them stop blooming wrong.



We did not plant any cornflowers this year, but apparently they self-seed and are quite happy left well alone. This little one showed up among all the creepers in the middle of the bed. The nasturtiums that we planted finally bloomed: this orange guy is "Alaska," which is supposed to be good for keeping something away, I forget what (squirrels?). The smaller dark green leaves of the "Empress of India" variety (a name like that, how could we not plant it?!) are yet to bloom. All their leaves look a little worn though, either because of the Lysol or the neem, who knows which!


These two are among our first-time blooms: California z-scape poppy and morning glory (Celestial mix?). The poppies were a surprise, since we had given up on them and were treating them as green ground cover. Apparently more of these pink morning glories have bloomed. (I'm really really eager to see the Heavenly Blue and the Crimson Rambler, because of their rich, glowing colours!)


And these are our gladioli, planted in a container. We thought they wouldn't have enough room for their roots and therefore won't bloom, but apparently they don't ask for much. How we love low-maintanance plants! (Ok, so they did need generous applications of fertilizer...)

By the way, I loved Palash's subject line for the photo on the right :)) : "pinky-pinky, what colour?" And a wet surface does look much better than a dry one on camera....