colocasia. elephant ear
Blooming in August
Yikes, that hibiscus is a mess; it is likely another caterpillar and I would look carefully and re-locate it (the cat) ASAP. There are hibiscus bugs but they are not common around here. I would see if I could find the culprit and if I couldn't then I would resort to a dust or spray with BT or bacillus thurengensis in it. This is a biologic control, not a chemical.
Trent: your passi's may be more mature than mine. Mine is a young'un started from a 6" cutting that's only been in the ground since June. I think it's just too much water for it's little roots. Funny about the caterpillars - that's one of the reasons I wanted the passiflora, so I'd have more GF butterflies. :)
Deb
Trent, I think your hibiscus pest may be the sawfly. Check out this article and see what you think.
http://www.emmitsburg.net/gardens/articles/frederick/2005/sawflies.htm
well it is a hardy hibiscus if that makes any difference in the treatment thanks for the article... i'll go look
This message was edited Aug 23, 2008 5:42 PM
i looked and saw nothing except a few real small black dots on one of the stems of a leaf. i saw a few black bumps that could be poop but idk. this is completely confined to one branch.
Last time I had a hibiscus with that look, it was sawfly. But they were clearly visible on the remaining leaves.
there was a little bright green translucent caterpillar that had back stuff inside which im guessing were its guts. the underside was white. there was only one and it was on a different plant
BT?????? Oh I wish they still sold dursban.
Trent please keep the sawflies down the road at your house. I've no problem with my hardies and I don't want one. LOL. I did get some sort of weevils in my seeds last year. Bugs hatched after I had bagged up a bunch of seeds.
ugh gross... well i'll do my best to keep them from spreading...lol this is the first problem ive had with them other than one being too wet oh well
Trent, if your critters are saw fly larvae (rose slugs) they will not respond to BT because they only look like caterpillars but they are really insects, so you would need another route to clean them up. It is important that you discern which you have because insecticides won't work on cats. Very confusing, Huh?
http://www.sactorose.org/ipm/84rosesawflies.htm
Edited to add many insecticides won't work on cats but some of them will kill anything, including us. I advocate products with BT on cats because it is one of the safer materials to use - only if necessary.
This message was edited Aug 24, 2008 9:41 AM
...so youre saying to remove all the affected leaves and kill the worms like the other website says?
those holes are cool. i figured out that the variegation on my EE's is mosaic virus. bwilliams told me some pretty valuable info about it
As for the blotches this is something I have been noticing for sometime on Colocasias and Alocasias. I don't think anyone is going to be happy with the rest of my message here. I am sure what you are seeing as odd blotches streaking in the leaves is in fact a virus. This seems to be a form of Mosaic virus. It looks to be the same virus effecting Cannas and I have even started seeing it on bananas. It can be spread from any sap transfer. This virus will not kill the plant and at times it may look completely gone if grown in good conditions but under stress or if heavily virused it will show up. It seems this virus will effect any Aroid so do be careful when cutting plants or using digging tools. From what I have gathered their are many forms of mosaic virus most can be in plants and never show a sign or even effect the growth of the plant. The problem is an Asian form of the virus that has been sweeping through the US for a number of years. This virus weakens the plant and can effect growth and vigor. Also if combined with other forms of the virus it can really effect a plants growth and at times even cause death. Most cannas tested had several forms of virus in them with no visual signs of it. All forms with this new Asian form of the virus all showed signs at least at some point while growing.
This message was edited Aug 24, 2008 2:00 PM
This message was edited Aug 24, 2008 2:00 PM
and...
Well the only well known way the virus is being spread is from sap transfer this is the only positive way we know it is being spread. The fact is it seems at times jump or spread quickly to other plants. This maybe caused by insects. At the rate it spreads it will soon be in everyones yard and collections. The worst part was it was introduced to some larger canna companies years ago and rather than destroy their stock they sold them across the US. This helped spread the virus like wild fire. Some plants carry the virus and show no signs other have signs from time to time. It is pretty much impossible to say for certain that any plant does or does not have the virus
well it turns out that half of my ee's had it, so now those that showed signs are in the trash. i'll keep an eye on them though.
This message was edited Aug 24, 2008 4:47 PM
Did you photo shop that picture? That is a very intense color.
The only changes to my pictures are cropping and resizing.
Lucky you to have some Lobelia! Was it already there or did you grow it from seed? I think all of the ones I grew have died. Mom told me just Friday that hers were gone.
The Seashore Mallow/Lily pic is great for perspective and the Dahlia is gorgeous. I think I'm in love with all the Dahlias I've seen pictured this summer because I've never had any.
The Cardinal Flower just pops up wherever. :) It grows wild in the sloughs and ditches here and I've had the most success with just letting the wild Cardinal Flower do whatever it wants. I've had little success both with seeds and transplanting plants. I had *one* plant from Niche (that I bought to put Cardinal Flower where I didn't have any) that lived for 5 years, but for the most part Cardinal Flower just doesn't live a really long time and has to seed in.