Pests, Diseases and Cures

I never tasted the difference rusty and green leeks so dont worry about it too much.Oh funny plummer joke, made me giggle thanks.

Have you had your water tested? perhaps the PH is abnormal or it contains some other chemicals on minerals that ends up turning them purple? Do any plants that you never water (Ones that only recieve rain water) have any purple leaves?

good point/idea!

As if we didn't have enough to put up with!

Looks like it is slightly crowded to me, and the bush the other side, it looks like a choisya, have a look here at some details, but this is the yellow version! You will know if it is a choisya, it will have a very distinct smell, some say like cats when it is cut/disturbed.I would give the...

Thank you 'will ting' (love the name btw! lol) We have recently bought a new house and the garden is a blank canvass - need to design it and lawn it etc so i can't really put it in the ground yet. Would a bigger pot help? Would you recommend i water it more regularly?As you mention that you...

Placing salt and other barriers along the areas where you think they are arriving is, as the two people immediatwly before me said, a very good start. I alwas feel very sad when this time of year comes around and the usual "let's kill all the slugs" bandwagon starts rolling. Pretty bad that we...

Bryony thats it.

Yup, almost certainly powdery mildew. I used to have a very large laurel hedge in my previous garden and it would get powdery mildew in patches every year, whatever the weather.You can trim off the worst affected extremities if you like but it will return from time to time. Mildew is one of...

I have a mature laurel hedge bordering a lawn. A few weeks ago I used lawn sand to kill off moss on the lawn's edge next to the laurel bushes. The moss has disappeared and the lawn is growing well but the laurel bush is withering. About half of the leaves are curling up with a white powder on...

It most probably does Kristen, but I'm using a belt and braces solution:D

I have a gooseberry bush whos leaves have gone black and dropped the fruit had started to go brown when picked I think it is a invicta it started on one side and is spreding across the bush. Is this american mildew or something else? I dont want it to spread to my other bushes do I need to...

I seem to remember having the same problem years ago with morning glory.Some types are more tender than others and very susceptible to changes in temperature.Its just a thought and might be wrong, but the really tender types need hardening off well before being put outside, a sudden...

Yes thanks Flinty, the Hydrangea is not looking any where near as good as past years. It is normally beautiful by now. I have the name of the remedy written down here so a trip to a garden centre is on the agenda!

Plants in general tend get mildew if they are stressed - ie unhappy. Not enough water is often the problem. And this is made worse by a lack of circulation of air.

I think my Acer palmatum 'Shania' is starting to die back as clusters of leaves are becoming shrivelled and dry. It has been planted for about 3 years and has seemed happy in its position until now. I have read of similar problems on ubc botanicals forum with suggestions that it might be...

Apart from the last two weeks it has been very dry in parts of the UK and as silver birches are surface rooters, well mine seem to be, it could well be lack of water. But this should have cleared up by now.If planted in grass then it needs at least 18" all round to be kept clear and mulched

There is a 14 spot yellow ladybird about 4.5mm and a 22spot 3.5mm you can get variations in the number of spots.

Yeah it does lol

Well exactly. How would a blackfly know?I once carefully moved dozens of ladybirds from nearby weeds onto my broad beans. It took about 10 minutes for them to carefully move themselves back where they wanted to be.