Insect Sprays
No Comments »11th April, 2006; Category: Caring for Native Plants
ABC TV’s Gardening Australia programme on the weekend had a session on controlling pests in the garden. It was good to see the recommendations demonstrated, rather than just being talked about. The presenter used an old toothbrush to scrape scale from the stem of plants, when there are not many insects to deal with. The other treatment was a homemade oil spray which smothers scale and kills the insects.
The recipe for this is 2 cups vegetable oil, 1 cup pure liquid soap. Whip together with a ‘stab’ type mixer or in a food processor until it is white. Store in a screw cap bottle, labelled with the contents. To use this, mix 1 Tablespoon of the solution in 1 litre (2 pints) of water and spray over the scale. Do not spray when the temperature is 30C or above as plants could be burnt.
Scale is carried around by ants, so deal with the ants in the garden as a first step to controlling scale on plants.
Aphids are another pest which ruin the growing tips of plants, and destroy flower buds. For strong stemmed plants, spraying a jet of water onto the leaves will dislodge the insects.
I am trying to find more suitable methods of dealing with insect pests in the garden than using some of the nasty sprays that are available.
Annual Everlastings
These are wonderful flowers which can be naturalised in the garden. That is, have them growing in patches rather than in rows. They flower over a longer period if extra water is available, but still give a marvellous display on diminishing moisture in the soil. You will have seen photos in brochures about Wildflower tours to Western Australia, where it is pink or yellow or white for as far as the eye can see. That is not trick photography!
You can do the same thing on a smaller scale in your own front or back yard. Set aside a patch a few square metres in area, and put in some plants or seeds. Seed of some species is available from supermarket garden centres as well as specialty seed merchants. You can buy seedlings, or more advanced plants in the same way that you buy “potted colour†from nurseries. Instead of buying petunias, look for Rhodanthe (Helipterum) species.
These will drop seed which will probably germinate with the first rains in autumn and continue to appear year after year if you have a sand mulch on the garden bed rather than leaf litter or other organic mulch.
Don’t forget the mass planting in a large tub… be creative about your pots.
These plants need a lot of sunlight to do well, so the location of your few square metres, or your planter is an important issue for these species.
More on everlasting daisies…
The Xerochrysms (Bracteantha, Helichrysm) mentioned before come in a variety of colours. The small hybrids range through shades of pink, yellow, gold, bronze and shades of wine red
One that I have begun to grow I bought in as “Red Hybridâ€, the result of breeding, and the seeds come true to colour. I would say that the seed of the flowering plants in the home garden may produce some surprises which I will know about soon! These daisies do interbreed and throw back to originals, but are fun to sow and grow on because of the diverse colourings.
Fertilisers suitable for Australian native plants promote good growth in these plants. In general, Blood and Bone types, and slow release granules are recommended, but I suspect that any good organic fertiliser would do the job with these too. As with most gardening, taking the time to prepare soil, add fertiliser and make decisions about watering will bring the best results.
The main pests seem to be green caterpillars which you don’t find until great chunks have been eaten out of the leaves. Remove by hand if you can find them, rather than resort to sprays. I have also found at certain times of the year that aphids gather on the growing tips. These will distort the flower buds if you do not do something to control them.
Using Everlasting Daisies
These daisies have papery “petals†and are great in posies and flower arrangements. When used with other long keeping flowers and foliage they will last for many months.Â
The flowers are picked when the bud is full, as the petals continue to open after picking, during the drying period. Alternatively pick in tight bud and the bud will continue to open a little. You need to experiment with timing according to the effect you require. Hang the flowers upside down to keep the stems straight, or use florist wire to wire the flower heads. Cut the flower with a 1-2cm stem, poke the wire into the length of the stem, and place the wire stem into a container while the petals continue to open. I have found that the amount of opening is reduced if the heads are wired. If you prefer to, wrap the wires in green florist tape designed for this purpose.
These plants flower for months. The shrubby varieties are Xerochrysm (formerly Bracteantha), and prior to that they were known as Helichrysm.
The small flowered hybrid forms have lovely colours and a massed planting of one colour, or mixed shades can be very attractive. These small varieties would be wonderful in a cottage garden. They would also look good planted 3 or 4 to a large tub.
The flowers need to be picked regularly, either for use as cut flowers, or removed altogether when fully opened and becoming fluffy on the bush. This promotes new shoots and therefore more flowers.
Â
Germinating Everlasting Daisies
I made a point of sowing a lot of seed of some Xerochrysms and others last season thinking that it was a few years old and therefore the germination would be poor. However I also made the decision to smoke all the older seed to see if germination rates would improve. Unfortunately I wasn’t very scientific about it as I did not sow any unsmoked for comparison. I had little lawns sprouting in the seed containers, much to my delight and then consternation when I realised the work involved in potting on!Â
I tried a smoked vermiculite product called Regen 2000. It must be kept perfectly dry once the pack is open. As only a small amount of vermiculite is used on top of the seed you need to be using a lot of it considering the size of the pack. Smoke for this purpose can be bought in various forms, as a liquid which is diluted, or smoke primers which are soaked in a little water, to which the seed is added. Or of course you try lighting smoky fires and doing your own!