<h4>You're browser does not support iFrames - here is an exerpt of the content</h4> <a href="http://www.exoticgarden.com/blog/the-garden/exotic-garden-bug-delight/">Click here to read the article in full</a> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-729" src="http://www.exoticgarden.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/13-585x391.jpg" alt="1" width="585" height="391" /><br /> EDP article for Sat 24th July</p> <p>I do enjoy high summer – warm evenings and balmy days, though last week’s winds played havoc with the garden. Two coach parties of enthusiastic gardeners visited the Exotic Garden on Thursday last week to be greeted by pots and containers lying on the ground. Many of the visitors propped them up only to fall over again, so in the end it was easier and safer for the plants to lie on their sides until the winds died away. The visitors were totally unabashed by this, knowing that you have to go with the flow when the wind blows at this time of year. High wind desiccates plants far quicker than hot weather, in fact the creeper Crimson glory vine -Vitis coignetiae – which covers most of the front of the house here at the Exotic Garden looked in a sorry state for 48 hours as the winds howled through leaving the foliage looking rather forlorn and drooping, though a good watering reinvigorated the foliage which sprung back to life by the weekend.</p> <p>As I look out of my studio window which overlooks the xerophytic garden, I am saddened to see that despite the coldest winter for over 30 years, my large old Horse chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum has been ravaged by the horse chestnut leaf miner cameraria ohridella. I was hoping that such a hard winter would put an end to, or at least severely cut back this pernicious pest. Mine and most other trees in the neighbourhood are absolutely devastated as miniscule caterpillars feed on the tissue between the upper and lower surfaces of the leaf, producing ‘mines’. These are tunnels through the leaf where the tissue has been eaten; causing the foliage to look shrivelled with leaves turning a crispy pale brown and withered – a very sad thing to see in high summer. This tiny (non-native) moth was first seen in Macedonia in the 1970s, though it may have originated in Asia. It was first noticed in the UK in 2002 and has now spread like wildfire across England. I have noticed over the last few years that the leaves are becoming smaller year-on-year as are the conkers. I fear that these wonderful trees will become a thing of the past in years to come as they may become more susceptible to lethal diseases, as Dutch elm disease did in the second half of the 20th century. Some Conker trees are resistant to the moth and luckily I have two pink flowered Horse Chestnut Aesculus x carnea which are completely unaffected by the moth.</p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-730" src="http://www.exoticgarden.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/24-585x391.jpg" alt="" width="585" height="391" /></p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-732" src="http://www.exoticgarden.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/35-585x391.jpg" alt="" width="585" height="391" /></p> <p>While we are on the subject of pests – have you noticed the number of small beetles on any flowers in your garden that are yellow? It is a small black beetle with a metallic brassy or blue-green sheen. It is in fact the common pollen beetle – Meligethes aeneus and is harmless on garden flowers, though it can make the flowers look rather unsightly. From spring to autumn it is very common; feeding in a very wide variety of flowers, especially yellow species, from spring to late autumn, and may descend in huge numbers on yellow items of clothing, washing hung out to dry and even yellow cars! They are most widespread in areas where oilseed rape is grown as it is here in Norfolk and are attracted by the colour yellow in all its shades. I have noticed them en-mass crawling all over my Hemerocallis ‘Burning Daylight’. This can be the bane of flower arrangers using yellow flowers, but as they are also attracted to light, placing affected flowers in a dark shed with a bright light source may lure them away from the blooms. Mostly, the beetles do little harm although occasionally they may nibble on unopened flower buds.</p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-733" src="http://www.exoticgarden.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/4-Hemerocalis-Burning-Daylight-with-pollen-beetles-585x391.jpg" alt="" width="585" height="391" /></p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-734" src="http://www.exoticgarden.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/5-Pollen-beetle-585x414.jpg" alt="" width="585" height="414" /><br /> The garden itself is looking fantastic at the moment with much now in full bloom and of course the warm weather and mild nights mean that everything in the garden is growing at record speed especially with the large amounts of blood fish and bone that was liberally spread around most of the plants in the garden earlier in the year. One plant that is particularly eye-catching at the moment is the Giant Mallow – Hibiscus moscheutos growing in a container near the front of the house. This flowering gem is a deciduous, perennial shrub, though it is often grown here as an annual. It is originally native to swampy areas from Massachusetts to Florida and westward to Alabama in North America. The ‘Southern Belle’ strains have the largest flowers in the Malvaceae family and what a size they are with blooms reaching up to 20cm (8ins) across on plants 1.2m (4ft) plus tall. This whopper of a flowering plant comes in a variety of colours from pink to white, red, rose and bicolour making it a veritable showstopper!</p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-735" src="http://www.exoticgarden.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/6-Hibiscus-moscheutos-Luna-Red-406x585.jpg" alt="" width="406" height="585" /></p> <p>Most of the tender perennials and annuals are now almost up to full size and growing to perfection. When they are planted out in late May, the gaps between them always seem huge making you want to plant them closer together, but after six weeks or so they start to form a patchwork carpet of colour to titillate the eye and put a smile on your face – high summer in all its glory is here…</p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-736" src="http://www.exoticgarden.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/DSC0104-585x391.jpg" alt="" width="585" height="391" /></p>
