Soul Catcher

Slipped My Disco

North Wind Moe

Trance starting to bloom

That's all for now!

Debra

Beauties as always! Ah Memphis, it's so beautiful. Trance looking great. Your Dearest Valentine is such a pretty pink. Love that group photo with Summer Snowball.

How do you know it's grubs damage?

Nat - Five ways I know it was grubs. First, two summers ago I had about 300 Junebugs swarming over the garden where The Dominator and Sweeten Creek are planted. Many plants in that bed have had short scapes, low bud count, and lost fans from fall to spring. Second, when I dug plants for sale and to divide last year in both fall and spring, there were 2-8 grubs eating the roots of each plant. Three, when I make new beds for seedlings, I find as many as 60 grubs in the ground. Five, I got a mole problem, and moles move in where grubs are plentiful. I've declared an all-out war on grubs. It seems to be working better in the backyard than in the frontyard. I'm using Grub-Ex, Milky Spore, and putting plants among the daylilies that Japanese Beetles and Junebugs are supposed to hate.

Debra

I also love the photo with Summer Snowball, great plant contrast. Dearest Valentine is the show off today, such great saturated color. CarolinePaleface looks a lot like Sweet Isabella, I have SI so you know I like CP. I like Memphis, a great pastel. Now I know why we didn’t see much of The Dominator this season, hope it improves for next season.

Sherry

Sherry and Nat - I love the photo with Summer Snowball too. It's one of my top favorites of the season.

Debra

And how clean has Summer Snowball been? Memphis is very well budded this year here too.

Mantis - Summer Snowball is pretty clean, considering how heavy the dew has been the last couple of weeks.

Debra

You certainly do have a terrible situation with grubs! No wonder you are in full armor against them. I like the Summer Snowball picture as well with the garden perennials in the background. I did not have a good bloom on Summer Snowball this year but am giving it a pass for a first year plant. The Dominator made a great photo. I always liked your Sweeten Creek.

Kate

Sweeten Creek is a nice lighter yellow. And Memphis always has such nice form.......... I hope you manage to get the grubs under control. We have some, along with a few moles, but nothing like you are describing. Do you have some sort of lights on at night that draw the June Bugs your way?..........

Maryl - We live on a corner, and the street light is on the other side of the street. I didn't know June bugs were drawn to light. I don't know how I got so many junebugs in the front. The property across the street does have several rose bushes, and their front lawn was decimated the year after the huge swarms. They had to put down new sod.I have Japanese beetles in the backyard that are drawn to my row of Rose of Sharon bushes. I cut those way back this year, so they won't flower until late July, after the Japanese beetles are gone.

Debra

Street Lights will do nicely for June Bugs. Here's kind of an icky story. We put one of our chairs underneath the porch light on our back porch one year. I was sitting there one night and all of a sudden I was mobbed by June Beetles; scratching my face, tangled in my hair etc. I think my DH changed the type of bulb to a different one that didn't attract them as badly - one of those more yellowy lights. Now I'm usually too exhausted from gardening when they arrive in our area to sit on the back porch, so outside of seeing a few floating in my watering can, I don't encounter them that much........Does milky spore soil drench work on June Bugs (we are talking about the brown one aren't we?) ? We checked into it many moons ago (when we had the June Bug problem) and I thought it was just for Japanese Beetles, not June Bugs. I know the grubs all look similar and my memory may be hazy, but you might want to check it out...............Maryl

Maryl - I wouldn't want to be mobbed by June Bugs!!! The June Bugs I have are green like the Japanese beetles, but about four times their size. Milky Spore is supposed to kill white grubs of both Japanese beetles and June Bugs. I understand it will also kill grubs of the Chafer beetle. I also tried nematodes on the new seedling beds. It may be overkill, but I'm tired of the daylily damage.

Debra

Debra, thanks for the grubs tips. Oh how awful. #3 - I did find some grubs earlier this year when making a seedling patch ready for this year ones. Oops. Last year was so bad with Japanese beetles I was ready to give up. Read on them again and ppl say they don't care for clematis (oh yes they do) and some annual that I happened to have last year is sorta toxic for them (no it wasn't). I hope your measures will help, it is Too frustrating. What was #4 btw?

Not to beat a dead beetle to death so to speak, but from your description are you talking about the Fig Beetle?.........Maryl

Fig Beetle

Nat - I misnumbered. Number four is in another dimension. LOL Although I can give you this. Red Edition, in my front bed, increased every year from three to six fans. But by spring, those increases were gone. This happened three years in a row. I moved it last fall to a place I knew there weren't any grubs and used the Milky Spore in it as preventive. Red Edition this year has all six fans, and is multiplying from that.

Debra

Ah ok :) I should read about those milky spores.

I really like dominator, but also like Slipped My Disco.

kay

Maryl - Yes, my green June Bugs look like what that article calls fig beetles. I wonder if they're here because of my neighbor's peach trees?

Debra

kay - The Dominator has a beautiful bloom. I just need too protect the plant from the beetles so it can multiply. Slipped my Disco is still growing in a pot after many years. Maybe I'll get it in the ground this fall.

Debra

Debra: I've seen a few Fig Beetles off and on over the years here. One year we had enough that I looked them up to see if they would damage anything. They didn't seem to bother my flowers. However, Buster Brown (our lovable but dufus cat) dug a grub up from the ground and was walking around carrying it in his mouth. It was huge. He continued to do this for the next few days having great fun in the process. He never did eat one (I made sure of that), but found them interesting to dig up and carry around for a reason known only to him and his little cat brain. If these grubs eat plant roots (and I'm sure they do) they would have to eat a lot of them to reach that size. That definitely could do some damage to a smaller plant like a daylily...................Maryl

Maryl - Yes, those green june bug grubs are larger than the Japanese beetle grubs. My herd of cats doesn't seem interested in either type.

Debra