Show and tell...

Now I know we are all enthusiastic gardeners and do our damnedest to get things right but I'm telling you now...I shall NEVER grow lillies again..If I aint fed up of those bladdy Lily Beetles....The last couple or so years I've spent a few bob on bulbs and been attacked by the little critters...well I've had enough...how can you cut these to put in a piggin vase



Feel free to add any of your disasters.

 

Sorry @lolimac I'm so ashamed of my many failures I don't keep any photos... You just have to see the pile of labels that I rub the names off for reuse to know how many I 'lose'...

My sympathies with the disgusting lily beetle grubs. I found previously that they were quite selective in what they went for. Standard asiatic and martagon ones were the food of preference (with a side order of cardiocrinum), but they didn't go for the robust old lilium tigrinum, and I also think pumilum was ok. It may be old age or selective memory, but I'm sure they weren't around 30 years ago.

 

I grow them pretty well. However, I did use a systemic insecticide in early spring. Watch out for the grubs hidden in their excrement. Squash this or spray.
Organically, squash the red blighters when you see them but speed of hand and sight is essential
I sprayed just the once and it was enough....as it has been in recent years

 

What is a piggin vase?

 

Just a Northern politish swear word.

 

And there was me thinking it was some kind of special device reserved for lillies.

 

@Fat Controller up until a couple of years ago I didn't have any bother with them but they've gone mad since...I've given up on trying to kill them and it shows you how horrible they are...even the staff aka chooks which I normally leave 'pest control ' to won't touch them...

 

My Lillies have been magnificent this year. I did however see a sole red lily beetle in May but it seemed to just disappear a few weeks later. I had no desire to squish it .... not into squishing .... ugh!

No idea what type they are, they were from £land.

 

They look wonderful @BellaBlue ..Rub it in why don't you...

 

Beginners luck perhaps. I thought they were doomed when I saw the lily beetle.

Mind you, can’t say the same for my hosta as shown above. Slug breakfast, dinner and tea!

 

I don't photograph failures either!
My lily beetle battles begin with the Frits and then they move on to the emerging Lillies and Tricyrtis. I recently found one on a Roscoea which isn't even a member of the Lily family!
Early morning is the best time for a squish fest and thankfully they don't do too much damage. Lilium formosanum var.Pricei germinated last spring and a few are now blooming...........
Lilium formosanum var.Pricei by longk48, on Flickr

 

You've heard of a ship in a bottle....................well this must be a 'pig' in a bottle.

Sorry it's this damned heat. OK. I'll get me coat.

 

Over time i've spent a small fortune on lily bulbs. Being a member of the RHS Lily Group, most of what I purchased was from a member who is an importer of lily bulbs. Having started with what might be called the run of the mill types, I becam more ambitious and found myself paying, for my financial status, at times very high prices per bulb. Having what I term a small garden, my specialities were cared for in the greenhouse. The greenhouse became something like, Kew Gardens packed into a shoe box. Sadly my lilies became fodder for just about every predator.

Chucking the contents of pots into the garden. I learned a thing or two. Although at times the Scarlet Red Invader could be found in the garden, but not so destructive to plants in the GH.
Something else I discovered. Often plants of whatever species etc in pots, for some reason seem to attract pests to a much greater cost, than the same plants growing in the open garden.