Hobbies and Crafts

I noticed today that the leaves on one of my camellias has got what I think is sooty mould :-( does anyone know if soapy water works to clear this or do I need to spray the leaves with a bug spray?

Lesley x

I don't know but I googled.

Sooty mold is a fungus that lives on the sugary honeydew excreted by insects like aphids, scale, mealy bugs, or psyllids. These insects, with mouthparts like hypodermic needles, stick their little beaks into the plant’s veins and suck sugary sap out. Then they poop honeydew (sticky varnish-like sugar-rich goo) onto your plants. It’s the sticky goo excreted by these insects that the sooty mold feeds on.

Yes, your two symptoms are related. Those little white casings under the leaves that look like tiny cocoons are cottony masses of scale insect eggs. Adult scale don’t look like bugs at all, they look like little lumps or bumps attached to leaves and stems of your plants. So who would guess that they’re laying eggs all over the place? But, they are. Microscopic crawlers hatch from the eggs and walk around until they find a suitable place to settle down. When they find a good vein they stab it with their mouthparts and stop moving. They cover themselves with a hardened shell for protection, and end up looking like lumps. As they feed, they poop the honeydew all over the leaves.

So what to do about it?

First, look for columns of ants marching up and down the stems of your camellia. Many species of ants are “dairy farmers” whose “cows” are aphids, scale, or mealy bugs. These ants carry the scale insects to your plants, place them carefully, and tend and protect them. The ants eat the honeydew excreted by scale insects or aphids. If ants are involved you’ll have to control the ants in order to completely conquer the sooty mold problem. If you find ants, control them by putting a sticky band of Tanglefoot around the trunk of your camellia to trap the ants and keep them from climbing up the stems. It also helps to place a ring of diatomaceous earth around the base of your camellia.

The sooty mold and the honeydew it feeds on are easily washed off the leaves of your plant. Washing is a temporary solution until you control the scale insects. Washing the plant with insecticidal soap kills the tiny scale crawlers. Spray the undersides of the leaves with Neem oil to kill the adult scales and smother their eggs.

Thank you Ann, I wish I had waited until the morning before reading this though...not the best bedtime reading...scratch scratch itch itch :-D

Lesley x

:-D :-D :-D :-D

Thanks again Ann yesterday I had looked under some leaves and couldn't see anything today glasses on I could see some small pale cream spots which I assume are the casings.

It's s-ds law it would be the this camellia affected as it is one I took from my mums garden after her death in 1999...it will be getting lots of TLC:-)

Lesley x

It does say it can be cured Lesley so fingers crossed. :-)

Lovely picture Ann.

Glad you had a lovely time.

M. :-)

Should have taken the 'b*m' bag off but yes we had a great time thanks.

There is going to be upheaval in the garden in the next two days as our fence is being replaced. We (that is the royal we) have cut back the honeysuckle and released everything that was attached to the fence. I have moved my Hosta pots and am hoping against hope that the Hostas growing in the gravel bed next to the fence are not yet showing themselves. I can see the shoots in the pots but not in the gravel. I should hate to lose them.

Oh, don't......

I am dreading it, when our 17 panels finally arrive, should be next week. On the other hand, the dog will have his escape plans thwarted once and for all.

Everything is growing up so well in the borders, I can't imagine all of them being put in place without some disaster or another.

Himself has been out this afternoon and bought the gravel boards in readiness. A third of one of the borders is full of Spring bulbs which are up and in full flower as well as Summer flowering bulbs which are starting to show themselves. The other two thirds that side and the other long border opposite are full of perennials, all shooting nicely.

Of course, last year, when it never occured to me that the fence we had just put up would be blown down again so quickly, I planted climbing roses and clematis up one side. All doing well but now on a broken and collapsed fence mostly in next doors garden.

Conservatory roof is now repaired, patio next but we need good weather for that.

Work coming on nicely inside too.

No sign as yet of my £ shop unusual bulbs.

Gosh, its freezing here today in the South, I don't want to lose all those patio/ basket plants that have survived the Winter so far now at this late stage !!!

M.

Or some reason when we were away a couple of weeks back we lost all the violas that have been flowering in a tub all winter, don't know what killed them.

Luckily we have no bulbs flowering by the fence that is being replaced and the climbers are easily bent back, we had actually cleared the bed by the fence before we decided to replace the fence and have not yet replanted.

The marigolds.....

The manky ones have gone to marigold heaven (or hell), the other pot doesn't look nice at all.

I wanted a bit of colour on the back patio. I have lots of green, mostly ferns & orchids.... and the orchids are not flowering at this time.

I'll stick to local (sub-tropical) plants in future.

No more marigolds!

We had a few really quite warm days whilst you were away, maybe after all the rain a bit of warmth was just too much for them ?

After not having to water my hanging baskets of Pansies and Primulas for weeks I suddenly realised they were drooping yesterday and had to give them a drink.

M.

I did wonder if it could be that they died through lack of water, our neighbour is good at watering in the summer but may not have realised they had dried out.

Well fence is down and both gardens are covered in bits of wood. they also found one post was imbedded in concrete so that had to be broken up to remove it. Good job we get on with the neighbours as they are in and out of both gardens all the time.

Just now got a quote to have our lower patio redone, got the quote before OH could say he'd do it himself as I didn't want him lifting heavy slabs. Luckily he is ok with it. It is quite a large patio and it is to be done in coloured, they call it cobbles but it is like block paving of different sizes, very pretty (£480) I am hoping that it can be done before we start doing the garden for summer as it is the patio we sit with a drink in the evenings. :-)

I hope your fencing is all sorted now Ann. OH has been doing running repairs to ours this weekend as it rattles non-stop and is a bit battered here and there. I'd like to replace it but I'm not sure we can afford it at the moment as we are responsible for all the fencing round the house, so no neighbour to share the cost. The garden might be small but there are two very long fenced side paths either end of the house as well.

OH says he will repair the fence and paint it. I would repaint it the same reddish wood colour we have but himself wants to do it pale green. He wants a pale colour and I've talked him out of green and in to grey, but I'm still not very sure about that. Anyone got any better ideas?

We moved a table, chairs, a couple of benches and all the pots around and set things out differently and the garden is now looking a bit bigger and less scruffy. I miss my big herb bed from the old place so I've filled a half barrel with compost and so far have a couple of types of thyme, some chives and some parsley in it. And I have put apple mint and a small bay plant in nice pots. They'll all go under the kitchen window with one or two other pots and that'll be my herb "bed".

I can at last see possibilities for this garden so I'm feeling a lot happier now.

How about sage green for the fence Vera. We have a seat that colour, it is garden paint and is a sort of bluey green, quite pale.

So you don't have any neighbours then? I had not realised that. Unless I read your post wrong. Our fence is finished and looks great, they have now started to re-lay the patio at the end of the garden. when they removed the slabs this morning they found a large now unused (thank goodness) rat's nest. Ugh!!!! Although we had not seen any rats. I assume theyw ere killed when the man in the bungalow at the end of our garden smoked them out some time ago. :-) :-)

Vera, are you like us ?

We have one neighbour one side then three houses back onto the other, so the end of their gardens are along the other side. at the very end we have the farm fields.
At the front we are also at the end of the garden of the house which is on the corner of the road.

So we have several neighbours, including " the thug" but we are responsible for all fences, except the end, but we put a more substantial fence up on our side because of the sheep over the back.

None of the neighbours seem to have been capable of fixing the broken fences or even propping them up again, they would obviously rather have the dog running about, yapping, in their garden or our broken fence on top of their flower borders, than move them.

The only problem with being at the end of several gardens, is that although they are all big and long, they all have their compost heaps and bonfires at the end of them. Can be a bit pongy sometimes, especially as " the thug " is a pyromaniac who loves a good Bonnie on a Summers evening and also keeps a very whiffy compost heap. He also forgets that the end of his garden is right outside our lounge patio doors and youngest son's bedroom window.

Still no sign of our 17 ordered panels and the flowers are growing quite high now.

Himself put the bird table back up just now and managed to squash a Phlox. Goodness knows what will happen when the fence goes up.

M.

PS Ann, I love that sage green colour on fences and sheds.

We do have a few neighbours though the layout is odd so a bit difficult to describe. We are in a little private close (sort of spoon shaped) with just six homes. The ends of two of the gardens join ours and the back garden of a house in a parallel road has a fence in common with us as well, but according to our land registry certificates we are responsible for all the boundaries round our house.

I can only think it is because the builder who built five of the six houses (the other one was older and already there) lived in ours himself for a short while and may have wanted to keep control over his own garden. He still owns the private roadway so he has to pay for all the maintenance and we have rights of way over it.

Now you mention it Ann I wonder if OH meant that sage green colour. I wouldn't mind that at all. When he said pale green I was visualising a sort of light apple green but he may not have meant that at all. I'll ask him later.

Garden now looks more of a mess than ever, barrow being wheeled up and down the lawn is making a path!!! I am assured by OH it will recover but I am not sure. I am toying with the idea of making the path permanent Lol!!! I had not realised how large that patio was down the bottom, should look good when finished.

Just been and bought compost for potting on the tots we bought at the weekend plus some more seeds. I don't know what happened to his 'I am not planting seeds any more, he seems to have gone mad this year. Must be with not going away for a month in May.

I daren't watch what they are doing, too stressful.

The lad is so strong, we had a stone trough down the bottom, about 18 inches by 2 to 3 foot full of earth and alpines, I wanted it up the top OH couldn't move it, we expected two of them to lift it but OH turned round and the lad was carrying it on his own. Oh to be young, fit and strong like that. And he always has a smile on his face too. Sadly the boss's mother died yesterday but he is working today as he says there is nothing he can do at home.