Alfred Grille from Suzy

Here is Alfred Grille -- one of them.

Suzy

And here's what the rest of them look like, despite 3 and 4x daily handpicking.

Suzy

Whoops! I missed...HERE'S what the rest of them look like

Oh dear heavens, what the heck are those?? Did you pluck that bloom off and tick it in a vat of hot water and oil? Oh my...

As Al would say: " I vote for the first Alfred Grille!"

Yeah, what the heck ARE those things; the dreaded Japanese beetles? Someone, somewhere would become famous and wealthy if they could come up with a permanent solution to those little shiny buggers. Worse than earwigs by far!

Susie, you have a strong will and stomach to garden with those things around.

Suzy - That is nice and NASTY - must fight the urge to cut off that flower and seal it in a plastic bag forever I bet. I actually vote for the first 2.LOL

Sudhira, Those are our Japanese Beetles. A bad year for them. Naw, you just take around a milk jug with water in it (and a drop of soap to break the surface tension) and drop them in -- in this case, by the handful. I will have to say this is the worst JB year in my entire memory, and I can only think it's from the dry, dry, DRY spring we had whereby the birds couldn't break through the concrete soil to get the grubworms so they all hatched.

Or maybe it's my newfound organic gardening practices that aren't working? There are a lot of things you can put on the soil to kill the grubs as they come up -- and milky spore is the organic version, but it takes 3 years to start working effectively.

Pooch, you know the hose for the earwig traps? I haven't checked them for like 3 weeks -- why bother, sez I?

Al, For some reason the JB love three flowers -- that Alfed Grille, one Ragged Reggie marigold, and the tip of a certain rose bush -- and this is *with* a brand spankin' new Japanese Beetle trap installed far away from my flowers. The thing about these 3 flowers is that I always know where to go with my milkjug to get maybe 50 JB at a time. Of course, being organic now, I have to pluck them off with my hands....that's sort of gross. LOL!

JB's -- apparently you 3 don't have them, but when they are disturebed, they drop straight down. You can carry a widemouthed cottage cheese container and just disturb them and they'll drop down into the water. During the day they are a little more feisty, but after dinner, I go out 2x and get maybe 150 of the little devils in one fell swoop.

Suzy

Great Alfred Grille! (the first one)

Gee, Suzy, I used a rather short Lavender Ruffles last year as a "honey pot" for the insects, as the stems were too short to cut them. But THAT, wow!! Maybe the nematodes can help you next year if they can't help Jam!

http://www.buglogical.com/beneficialNematodes_control_soilDwellingPests/beneficialNematodes.asp

Tod, Sorry I didn't respond -- I clicked on the link and started reading and forgot! LOL! I'm still thinking about it, but th good news is the JB are waning and are down to a dull roar.

Here are some dahlia photos, and keep in mind it's been a TOUGH season here! Whatever could go wrong withthe weather did, and I either burned or froze about a million dahlias through some bad decisions...well, it's been tough, and I would admit I get a D- in Dahlia growing!

Here is Alpen X. The way the petals spoon atthe base, it is a perfect night time spot for JBeetles to sleep. I might not buy any more formal decoratives because of that flaw in their construction. LOL.. And I realize this isn't as nice as most, but it's mine. I don't like how the flowers are all jammed together...is that a flaw in my staking?

Suzy

Edited to add the name is Alpen X, not Castle Drive. I forgot to look at the nametag and just guessed when I posted.





This message was edited Aug 12, 2007 11:53 PM

This is Giggles....a most disappointing colored flower, no matter what this photo looks like. It is a washed out sort of orange-red, not the gorgeous color in the photo I am about to post...not sure why it's washed out in real life, but I believe I would toss this in the trash (or let it rot in the ground) rather than hold it over the winter if the flowers remain the color they really are.

Oh, and it opened deformed, but I took a picture anyway :)

This is well, I don't know what it is because I'm not tall enough to see the flowers -- they are waaaaaay up at the top. It has nametag, but it doesn't matter because I'm calling it "Compost".

Normally you might ask about my use of fertilizer, specifically nitrogen, but I am not using any frtilizer and anything that might have been in the ground would be 6-24-24.

This looks like the lone remaining survivor from last year's tubers of Mystery Day, except last year it was 10 feet tall with gigantic flowers and this year it's, well, it's 1/4 that size. Please tell me it's not Mystery Day, it's really Duet (or something).

If I am that bad a gardener, maybe I should take up knitting.

Suzy

............BUT To end on a high note, myseeds fro 'Bishop's Children' are the most beautiful dahlias in the world!!!!

Here is one, but I have a dozen, and each is more beautiful than the next! I love them all and the Monarch butterflies love them and they look good,stand up straight without staking, and thenumber one reason I love the is: The Japanese Beetles are easier to pick off the single flowers!

Suzy

That bi-color ("Duet" or whatever it is) is so striking! Very nice.

Suzy, I can't believe you got one that tall with no more fertilizer applications! I find a small step ladder comes in handy! I'm gonna need a big one for Big Wow this year by Fall. For Castle drive, perhaps remove some laterals? Nice flowers anyway, be vigilant!

Who sent Suzy a Mazama? That one always exceeds height expectations here. Are the buds purple Suzy?

Castle Drive looks great, ignoring the chew spots. Todd's suggestion is good: just scrape off the little side buds when you find a new main bud forming, for one main flower. Do you think you have it tied to tightly that the stems are all mooshed together? I don't know- it's looks like a nice healthy plant though. What's wrong with the bi color dark purple and why can't it be Mystery Day? It's beautiful, as is the Bishop's Child(ren) LOL. Nice color there.

I wouldn't give up on dahlias just yet- you're kicking out some nice ones despite the help from the evil Japanese Beetles. Those things would drive me nuts!

Things could always be worse - you could be in Cleveland.LOL

Hang in there Suzy - not all bad there. I don't think I could tell the difference between Mystery Day and Duet in a well lit alley. Yes disbud Castle Drive to open it up more.

Okay, The Beetles are nearly gone and here's one they didn't like, Kenora Frills, and it is gorgeous. This is from a side branch from that giant plant in one of the posts above. I knocked the flower against the door jam when I came inside, so that's why it is missing some petals on the left side.

And sorry about the focus. I'm still working on indoor shots.

Suzy

Focussed or not, Kenora Frills looks good to me. A very lovely dahlia in a great color.

Do the JBeetles go away until next year once they're done now?

Supposedly they are here for 4 weeks -- July 1th - Aug 1th, but they are still hanging around, I think it's because it was such a bad, bad year for them.

I read some stuff on the internet, but I don't know if they are right or not. They said that JB go in 3 year cycles. Next year we should have hardly any, then the next year there will be a medium amount, and then the following year will be like this one -- heavy.

I've never had many flowers before because we live in a Batcave of trees, but a couple of times I have started perennial gardens (only to have them ripped up a year or two later from a house addition) and I never noticed them, REALLY noticed them, except on some roses.

We quit the Chem Lawn treatments a couple years ago as our contribution to the green movement, and I'm not sure how much or how little that had to do with my JB outbreak. Guess I'll know next year.

I didn't realize that not everyone in the country got these.

Suzy

Suzy,

That Kenora Frills looks like an amazing flower. Beautiful.

I wanted to post a more flattering photo of my dahlia, Kenora Frills. (tee hee! Do I sound like a proud mama?!)

Looks nice Suzy. I'll have that one in a bit.

Perfect Kenora Frills Suzy. Gordie Leroux who was the Kenora originator died this summer, so you have part of his fine legacy.

"I didn't realize that not everyone in the country got these." We have no Japanese Beetles but we have our own garden enemies on a grand scale. The label seen here is about 4 inches tall, the slug as long as my forefinger when not stretched out. He didn't eat the Heuchera (the deer got it!) LOL I just put the label there for scale.

That's a beaut Suzy!

Annie, I think heuchera must be the tastiest dessert to rabbits and deer. I got a bucket of Rabbit Scram and spread it around the thing, and the rabbits no longer go near it. They have Deer Scram as well (it smells like dead deer!)

dead deer smell- ick! I wonder if they make Slug Scram?

Just got done doing the JB rounds, get them at dusk when they are sleepy and they drop right into the bucket ,
got about 2 dozen tonite which makes a grand total of about 6 dozen today. Nasty things! They do cycle so it's true what you read but from experience i would say it's more like a 4-5 year cycle. They love the heat and the sun, cloudy days, cool days,and wet days you won't see to many and they are slow. The sun gives them their energy. We have half as many as last year. They go for whites, yellows and light colors and tall plants, thats why I am growing a lot of reds this year as they stay away from reds for some reason I am not sure.

Willow, I think I saw the first one of the season today, eating whole petals of my latest Goshen Giant flower! We just don't get many, but he had to make the trip to make a mess out of it! :) What a grip he had on that flower.

Here's Camano Phantom. Your choice: a photo with the right color that's out of focus, or this one that is in focus, but too pink...Camano Phantom is dark purple.

My first bloom. I sort of forgot about it. Poor thing has come up on the side of the driveway and has had not one drop of water that didn't come from the sky.

Suzy

Pooch, I'm not sure about that Escargot you got there...Looks like the main course insead of the appetizer!

Here is Blown Dry. I couldn't get a head-on photo because of where it's planted in relation to the house.

I would say the color got sucked out of it because the color according to the Corralitos header on their website is a gorgeous coral. BUT Sudhira showed us a photo of hers, and it was this pale yellow, too. So now what?

Suzy

I'm back with some more photos now that the weather has cooled, the beetles are gone and we got some rain. I didn't keep up with tying my plants up, but otherthan that they look ok-ish.


This is one of the Bishop's Children. It has looked like this all summer long.

This is Mingus Kyle D that I got from Tod. A nice Cherry Red with lots of blooms. It is growing in part shade.

This is Oreti Harry from New Zealand. Not too in love with the different flowers on one plant, but maybe it would be better if it had a better home.

Alpen X -- easily the best one I grow in terms of number of blooms., but they are all jammed up on the stems and I don't disbud.

Wow, Suzy that's actually the second pic I can recall seeing of any of my "kids". Even the people at work I gave them to haven't shown me any. They all look great BTW! I like Oreti Harry, but then I think I would like to try Freak of Nature too.

Now I am getting a crop of tiny tan beetles with brown spots. At least they don't eat too much, but they leave dark stains on some of the blooms.