Plague.....or not....

Potted plants line the front edge of our balcony. F has tried growing various things over the three full summers we have had here. The only consistent thing has been Cape Daisies. Bamboo died when chaffer grubs ate off its roots, as did most things that year - melons, wavy grass stuff, kumquat, even some of the Cape Daisies. The chaffer grubs were legion. It took us a while to work out what the problem was, and what to do about it... by then too late for most of the plants.

A year later and the problem was woolly aphids.  Everything was getting sucked to death and F was constantly washing them off the plants. We started trying to grow chilies that year and fought a valiant battle with aphids, and so it seems did all our neighbours. There were aphids on everything.

Last year there was a human plague going round but the potted garden was remarkably free of anything that reached plague proportions and we got a good harvest off our chilies.

Winters are hard on our potted garden.  The sea throws salt at the balcony.  It sticks to the windows after it has finished killing off all but the hardiest plants, and the Spring comes and we start all over again. This year the Cape daisies have been joined by other varieties of daisy - usually described as 'common'.  There are some basil plants, a scented geranium (we start one every year), lots more succulents than we have had in the past (they are hardy), and a small seed pot with moss rose seeds in it (thank you for reminding us Madsnapper Sandra and Beau).

Today we were mooching about the balcony, F pulling off the dead flowers when she noticed some little bugs on a pink daisy. The pink daisy shares a huge pot with a yellow daisy. Pink daisy flower centres were mobbed with bugs sucking up nectar. Yellow daisy was entirely bug free.




So which daisy would you have in your plant pot? Bugs or no bugs?

Comments

  1. No question about it Tigger. Tell F to keep the bug-free one, it is really pretty and who needs to be fighting bugs all the time?

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    1. We don't think they are bad bugs (as in plant killers). They appeared to be just drinking nectar, but it just goes to show that some modern hybrids (ie the yellow one) are not good for things that rely on flower nectar for food.

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    2. Like honey bees for instance...butterflies, hover flies....

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  2. Hari OM
    I think the bugs look intersting and pretty in their own right... and if all they are doing is taking the nectar, then perhaps they are part of the great architectural plan of nature that requires them to go from flower to flower and help the plan manifest... (a suitably Sunday thought?) Hugs and whiskeries, YAM-aunty xxx

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  3. I love daisies and if i had to choose would go with the one with no bugs because its beautiful to me. i checked google lens and it says the bugs are Anthrenus pimpinellae which is a type of beetle. you might need to get rid of them... for aphids we use dishsoap, hot sauce in a gallon of water and spray the foliage... it works great. even just dishsoap helps. i had goregous flowers in a big planter and along came snails one year and ate all the flowers, the next year beetles ate all the leaves.. it is a constant battle. I will not be sending our NEW contractor to visit because he might not come back... he is a jewel newly found.. and my search shows those beetles are harmful so do some research as in think CAT!

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    1. Thanks - we checked, most species are harmless pollen eaters. That's definitely what they were doing on these flowers. Strangely the yellow one looks better in photos than it does in reality. I hadn't been very impressed with it until I saw the photo. It has no insects at all. The pink one had these beetles and hover flies and small wasp looking things, so it is clearly the more nature friendly plant. xxx Mr T and F

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    2. great news that they are cute and harmless.. and of course beautiful...

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    3. You look very knowledgeable in your garden Tigger.

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    4. I’d definitely go the bug free
      It wouldn’t be so bad out in a garden but sharing living space with bugs isn’t my idea of a fun time

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    5. Your chooks would love the bugs.

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  4. I lived in small seaside towns so I managed to find out what grows in coastal gardens with sea salt and spray and I found out that rosemary, lavenders, daisies etc do. I hope the bees don't sting Tigger's nose though.

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  5. Tigger nose all about bees. We used to have beehives in our English garden.

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