What's happening in your neck of the woods..with friends!

I dont think the lily beetles have reached the coast yet but they are on the way!
Betty I am so sorry to hear about your lilies. Squish them. I dont think they attack any other plants- here's a link with some good information.

http://plantlilies.com/growlilies/101-beetlecard.html

I have just come back from the vet with Fancy who has been having some odd breathing issues and increasing lethargy. She has something nasty going on in her lungs but we dont know what- could be infection, could be cancer. Tomorrow having an ultrasound to see if by chance a tumor in her abdomen anywhere.
Then we will decide how to proced.
She is 13 so if it is a cancer I would not treat.

just a few flowers that opened

I've gotten to the point that I can hand squash the adult beetles. The larvae that are all covered in poop - well that's another matter. Definitely requires sturdy gloves. Try collecting a handful of red beetles and hold them up to your ear. They will all be frantically chirping to each other. If I get enough, I drop them on a solid surface and step on them.

Meant to say they will attach anything in the lily families - I start seeing them on my Fritillaria. And they don't have natural predators in Canada.

This message was edited Jun 7, 2010 11:31 PM

Fancyvan, wishing you and Fancy good news at the vets. It's hard to lose a pet, anytime, but after 13 years...

Lots of reading and facts and 'WATCH OUT FORS' to catch up on here this morning.

As far as I know .. my Lillies are bug free .. the deer likely have bellies full of those red bugs though!!
Linda .. the 'green iridescent' bug, I think, you're speaking of is a 'weevil' and, they are not destructive, but they ARE downright irritating !!!

Carol, I wish you all the best with Fancy .. and the wee one is absolutely beautiful .. I can imagine within a month I may sleeping on the floor beside a crate with a pups a dog in it as well .. exciting but I know it's going to be tiring as well for the first while.

I got 14 pots planted yesterday .. bought the lime green yellow potato vine, as well as the maroon .. and 4 flats of pansies, some tuberous begonias and, of course, petunias .. the garden shop had HUGE urns filled with pansies .. had I brought the truck I would have puchased one .. but I had the car .. have a feeling I'll be going back (several times)

Betty .. last weekend the furnace came on through the night, and by 2pm that day the A/C was on .. gotta love Canada.

Lovely pics Jen ^_^

Meeting my new Hospice client this afternoon, best get some morning stuff done around here ..
Enjoy your day

~M~

Back with a quick comment. Went outside and looked at my Tiger Lillies, Day Lillies and Asiatics .. all good .. BUT .. I am noticing that some flowers are way EARLY this year.
The Minuet Lilac usually blooms in mid July, and is in flower now, as well the wild Columbine is out .. maybe it's just a ME thing .. but I wondered if the totally hot and humid weather we had for 2 weeks in May, might have pushed things along.
Betty, my Rigella is just starting to flower, as is the Honeysuckle .. yer right about the flowering bushes, the blooms never stay long enough .. especially the Forsythia ..

Toodles

~M~

Carol
I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Fancy!

Lilly beatles are everywhere and I will be checking mine on a regular basis. I will squish but with gloves on, yech!
I wonder if you bought the larger sticky sheets and held them under a plant and gave it a shake. Would they fall on the sticky sheet and be stuck ? Just a thought.
Weather here is back to rain and I don't have all my stuff planted. I guess I will just get it out when I can. Oh well....
I think there is a patch of blue sky, yahoooooo.
Ann

Ann, mactac just might work..have some as well, going to check that out as well, lordy you all have such wonderful ideas...

Carol, any news on Fancy yet...sure hope it's just infection and meds can help...bet you are worried silly!

Not good news- Fancy appears to have invovement in kidney,liver,spleen and gall bladder. Did do a biopsy of spleen as that is easy for the vet to reach.

Putting her on a heavy duty antibiotic and steroids in hopes it will releve some of the inflamation and thereby ease the pressure of one grpowth on her trachea. That causes breathing problems which seems to be the only things that is distresssing for her.

I had to hand feed her moist food this morning as she does not want to put her head down to eat.

That surely is not good news...you must be devastated...glad you've got meds..did the Vet suggest any kind of surgery?


Just came in, busy job this sqishing lily bugs...did it with my foot..still not fun!

Betty I used malathion to slaughter the little B......rds.It must be safe as they are still selling it.It said it was safe to use on food crops two weeks before harvest.I tried the squishing but it wasn't effective,,,three years ago..I bought a pressure sprayer at the $store for $2;00 this year and it is easy to use.....old arthritic hands.I also tried Neem but it didn't work. I reall advise you get the malathion or you lilies will suffer. Most gardeners her in the east have had to resort to the heavy stuff if they want to grow Lilies

Was telling Suzanne about the lillies today, her hubby is the gardener and he has so many lillies..she said, no they didn't have the critter, said I must have purchased a lily recently to have it in my garden, well, she just called, hers are infested as well...

Joy where would I purchase malathion, will go looking tomorrow...

Carol, she's adorable..let's hope you can make her comfortable..

Aww, Carol, so sorry to hear about Fancy's condition. She is such a lovely dog, has always been my favorite. Give her nose a scratch for me. Poor girl.

Joanne

Carol, I"m so sorry to hear about Fancy's illness. She looks like a graceful girl. Comforting hugs sent to you both.

Thoughts and prayers and a huge hug from me to thee and Fancy too Carol ..

Have developed 'Beetlemania' here, find myself trotting out to the Lilies to have a looksee, so far, so good !!

Had a healthy dump of rain overnight, expecting more today as well. Up early as Lilly is due at the groomers at 8am .. have no idea why I take such early appts, but, at least it gives me the rest of the day to putz at home as she'll be done by 1030 or 11.

Take care all

~M~

"M" you have me laughing, same here, keep peeking over at them and wondering if they are eating up a storm???

I'm like you, rather get everything done early morning so I have the rest of the day to myself...

Sure wish all the stores opened at 5:00 a.m. lol

I bought the malathion at Canadian Tire.The salesman said the gov.have taken the worst pesticides off the market.I used it about three weeks ago and again last week.There is no sign of the beetles now.
I hope Fancy isn't in pain JOY

thanks Joy, will drop in and see if the Barrie store carries it, if not I'll head out to Midland and see...

Lily beetles

Hope you can read this - there are a couple of other products besides Malathion that help apparently.

I don't believe we can still buy malathion in Ontario, but let me know if I'm wrong.

I'm going in search of it Ann, am hoping we can..read a lot on the internet and it says that Neem Oil spray does well also..cannot believe I'd not have notice this bug before now..guess I just thought they hadn't sprung up to say hello yet..

Betty I have tried Beem and found it wasn't very effective.

Gloomy day again, light rain off and on and cold!
So I went out to one of the greenhouses this afternoon to look for some plants I wanted, some of which I found. When I was finished I went over to the annual building to use the washroom and look what I came across! Just had to have them!
Fancy is much the same, exertion of any kind leaves her panting for a while. She has not eaten much today, threw up her breakfast but had some of my watermelon at lunch and then our dogwalker was here and she knows he is the pocket full of treats guy! He has walked her once a week and sometimes looked after them if I needed to be away for about 6 years so he spent some time with her before and after he took the other dogs as he may not see her again and she was quite happy to accept his treats!
My new foster dog Limi will go to his new home next week- I am busy this weekend so we could not arrange a pick up .

Hi! Time to stop lurking and say hello. Have been around on Dave's garden for quite awhile now. The name Growum is actually a name my husband picked and he was the one that signed up in the first place. He passed away in November and I just stuck with the name. We had been starting a nursery selling only perennial plants then a few years ago decided to add fresh vegetables to the mix. We had about 4 years into it then last year it came to a crashing halt with a cancer diagnosis. Nothing got done around here last year except for the bare minimum. Well now I am absolutely overwhelmed. I don't have gardens anymore, I just have a mess of weeds. Spring was hard without him - just looking around and seeing plans crumble around me. Well have picked myself up a bit and dusted off and trying to take it one step at a time. There is no hope for the vegetable gardens - they are too far gone and I have a full time job so just don't have the time to grow vegetables like we did. I did manage to put in a small vegetable garden - peas,beans,onions, carrots, brocolli - just enough for me. Now I turn my eye to flower beds and am just trying to take them one at a time. Still pretty overwhelming when I look at some of them. I have 100's of pots of perennials and would like to fill up the gardens with them once they are weeded and mulched. Fellow around here makes his own mulch from the waste from the salmon factories and it is great stuff. He brought me a truckload last week. So I start - got the lily bed cleaned out last weekend and mulched so that is one done. I will get the rest and by fall hope to have an amazing yard. Bought a small electric lawn mower so don't have to frig with gas and it does the trick just fine. Don't imagine I will stay in the house forever - it is too big for me and right now all my family is in Ontario. I will be here till next year though so will make the best of it. The computer is great for connecting with them. I have a huge loveable dog that greets me everyday and she is great.
So hello, my name is Laurie.....nice to finally meet you all. Hoping this doesn't sound to down in the dumps because I really am getting out of there. Just finding the gardening part a little overwhelming and trying to sort out what to do next.
I very much enjoy reading all your posts.

Hi Laurie and welcome.
I am sorry you have had such a tough year. But glad to hear you are climbing out of the dumps!
You are right- one at a time! By fall it will look great. Dont try to tackle a huge amount all at once.
Weeding compulsively is the trick I think. When I had my back yard landscaped almost 20 years ago I didnt have enought money left to buy a lot of plants. But it was a rainy spring/summer so of course the weeds came up. I was working full time and every day when I got home I would go weed for an hour or so - started at one corner of the yard and worked my way around full circle, took me about a week to do the whole yard initially, and every week I would start over! By the end of the summer I could do it in a day ! My mother visiting commented it was too bad cows didnt eat flowers!

Hope you enjoy visiting with us.

Thanks good idea with the one hour a day. I may try that.

Hi Laurie and welcome to our eclectic mix of Canadian gardeners ^_^
Sorry for your loss, but, happy to hear you are coming around.
WEEDS .. lordie, they can consume you for sure !! Unlike Carol (fancyvan), I tend to be NON selective in my weeding, if I see it, I pull it .. my problem is, I seem to leave the weed where it fell .. BIG NO NO .. so, my yards have plastic bags placed around them so the weeds go in there and then off to the dump !!

Rain is expected here in Thunder Bay for most of the weekend, starting today. Remember when I was lamenting about it being so DRY !!!!

Hope everyone has a splendiferous day, and, weekend !!

~M~

Morning Laurie, sorry about your loss as well..know how difficult it is..my Roger was 47 when he passed on, everything as well seemed overwhelming..then gradually as you are doing, taking one day at a time, finding friends, sometimes because of the loss and friends of both don't know how to bond with you as a solo, I found new friends whom I call 'Earthly Angels' and they were my salvation..am hoping in some way we can be of help to you..where in Ontario are you thinking of moving, oh wouldn't it be grand if it was in my neck of the woods?

I'll go with the girls before me, weeding can become an obsession, great way to clear the mind, right girls....

Carol, was hoping with the meds that Fancy would be feeling better! Love the boots...I bought a pair similar but the colors are not as nice as yours..actually wore them to get into the pond the other day, must have a hole in the left boot..maybe it's time to go looking for a pair such as yours...

It's a sunshine day here today, infact I can barely see my computer screen as I type..I'm off but working today, my boss (BIL) wants me to go to his house to sew some kind of canvas cover for some outdoor furniture..lordy he thinks I can do anything..watch me disappoint him..but to be on the lake on such a glorious day, well I'll try real hard not to..

He bought my dad's place when dad passed on 4 years ago so know I'll have a few memories and likely shed a few tears while sewing..ooops hope tears don't stain material..

Well I must get all my sewing goodies together then head out, need to see what he wants, need to do measurements then wait until 9:30 when Fabricland opens to get the materials...

Have to take the sunshine rays in today because like you "M" it's going to rain all weekend....

So enjoy your day, hope it's filled with sunshine..

Will move us over

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