I've just uploaded some garden photos at
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/mehitabel.snaps

It's a very ordinary South London back garden, nothing exotic and full
of mistakes, but we are fond of it and if the wind weren't blowing quite
so hard I'd be out there now reading the paper, sniffing the
extraordinarily fragrant climbing hydrangeas and listening to the mad
birds.

There's another album there too called 'what's wrong? and I would be
extremely grateful if someone could give me a hint as to what might be
going wrong here - I wondered if it was too much hard water, but you've
all reassured me on that. On various plants, unrelated to each other as
far as I know, we're getting a kind of leaf shrivelling - the hollyhocks
are worst, but the heuchera and small fuchsia are also bad, and it
affects some pelargoniums and some roses as well. I've attached some
photos from August of last year where the roses were affected, though as
they've come back unaffected as yet this year, I don't know whether it's
all related or not.

There's also a problem with some roses where something is nibbling at
the leaf stem and breaking it off, but I can't see anything and they
have been well and truly sprayed.

--
Kate B

PS 'elvira' is spamtrapped - please reply to 'elviraspam' at cockaigne dot org dot uk if you
want to reply personally

"Kate Brown" wrote

I've just uploaded some garden photos at
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/mehitabel.snaps

It's a very ordinary South London back garden, nothing exotic and full of
mistakes, but we are fond of it and if the wind weren't blowing quite so
hard I'd be out there now reading the paper, sniffing the extraordinarily
fragrant climbing hydrangeas and listening to the mad birds.

There's another album there too called 'what's wrong? and I would be
extremely grateful if someone could give me a hint as to what might be
going wrong here - I wondered if it was too much hard water, but you've
all reassured me on that. On various plants, unrelated to each other as
far as I know, we're getting a kind of leaf shrivelling - the hollyhocks
are worst, but the heuchera and small fuchsia are also bad, and it affects
some pelargoniums and some roses as well. I've attached some photos from
August of last year where the roses were affected, though as they've come
back unaffected as yet this year, I don't know whether it's all related or
not.

There's also a problem with some roses where something is nibbling at the
leaf stem and breaking it off, but I can't see anything and they have been
well and truly sprayed.


"and they have been well and truly sprayed." What with Kate?
I ask because it looks like a problem caused by chemicals spraying onto the
leaves. With the Holyhocks I suspected Rust but there is no sign in the
photo and It looks like all the plants are suffering from the same problem
which suggests a chemical/pollution cause.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
just W. of London

On Sun, 31 May 2009, Bob Hobden wrote

"Kate Brown" wrote

I've just uploaded some garden photos at
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/mehitabel.snaps

It's a very ordinary South London back garden, nothing exotic and full of
mistakes, but we are fond of it and if the wind weren't blowing quite so
hard I'd be out there now reading the paper, sniffing the extraordinarily
fragrant climbing hydrangeas and listening to the mad birds.

There's another album there too called 'what's wrong? and I would be
extremely grateful if someone could give me a hint as to what might be
going wrong here - I wondered if it was too much hard water, but you've
all reassured me on that. On various plants, unrelated to each other as
far as I know, we're getting a kind of leaf shrivelling - the hollyhocks
are worst, but the heuchera and small fuchsia are also bad, and it affects
some pelargoniums and some roses as well. I've attached some photos from
August of last year where the roses were affected, though as they've come
back unaffected as yet this year, I don't know whether it's all related or
not.

There's also a problem with some roses where something is nibbling at the
leaf stem and breaking it off, but I can't see anything and they have been
well and truly sprayed.


"and they have been well and truly sprayed." What with Kate?
I ask because it looks like a problem caused by chemicals spraying onto the
leaves. With the Holyhocks I suspected Rust but there is no sign in the
photo and It looks like all the plants are suffering from the same problem
which suggests a chemical/pollution cause.


Oh dear. It would be Roseclear3, I think. Though it's only the roses
that have been sprayed as such, I suppose the other plants could have
been inadvertently sprayed as well. We did have an absolute infestation
of green and blackfly earlier in the year, and were worried when we went
away in early May that there would be nothing left when we came back. I
didn't think it could cause that much damage - it's at the proper
dilution. Indeed, there are still green and blackfly about!


--
Kate B

PS 'elvira' is spamtrapped - please reply to 'elviraspam' at cockaigne dot org dot uk if you
want to reply personally

"Kate Brown" wrote in message
...
I've just uploaded some garden photos at
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/mehitabel.snaps

It's a very ordinary South London back garden, nothing exotic and full of
mistakes, but we are fond of it and if the wind weren't blowing quite so
hard I'd be out there now reading the paper, sniffing the extraordinarily
fragrant climbing hydrangeas and listening to the mad birds.

There's another album there too called 'what's wrong? and I would be
extremely grateful if someone could give me a hint as to what might be
going wrong here - I wondered if it was too much hard water, but you've
all reassured me on that. On various plants, unrelated to each other as
far as I know, we're getting a kind of leaf shrivelling - the hollyhocks
are worst, but the heuchera and small fuchsia are also bad, and it affects
some pelargoniums and some roses as well. I've attached some photos from
August of last year where the roses were affected, though as they've come
back unaffected as yet this year, I don't know whether it's all related or
not.

There's also a problem with some roses where something is nibbling at the
leaf stem and breaking it off, but I can't see anything and they have been
well and truly sprayed.

--
Kate B

PS 'elvira' is spamtrapped - please reply to 'elviraspam' at cockaigne dot
org dot uk if you
want to reply personally

Hi Kate,

I've read Bob's comments and am, in part at least, inclined to agree.
However, the chemical spray certainly didn't make those holes in the rose
leaves. I wonder if the many little holes are capsid damage?, but of the
bigger holes I'm not so sure. Could the distorted rose bloom be caused by
a tortrix caterpiller? I see similar damage in my roses sometimes. The
caterpiller descends from overhanging trees on a silken line and eats its
way into the bud, subsequently distorting the bloom as it opens. Another
possibility is the chafer beetle, whose chomping habits can leave similar
damage.

I occasionally see Heuchera leaves like yours on my own plants. I don't use
chemicals anywhere near them, so spray drift certainly doesn't explain what
I see. Depending on current circumstances, I either put it down to drought
(not enough hydraulics to inflate the opening leaf properly), or insect
damage. It doesn't seem to affect all the leaves, so I just nip off the
damaged one(s).

It's difficult to tell with the hollyhock. As Bob says, it does look a bit
like rust damage, except that none is shown. Neither can we see mildew,
which would have the same affect. So it could be spray drift, it could be
virus injected by a sap-sucking insect or, perhaps, mosaic virus. I can't
lay my hands on an image of mosaic damage, but I believe that distortion is
possible without the usual colour streaking (which is most usually seen in
Abutilon).

Having also looked at your 'good' pictures and admired your lovely garden, I
think I can help you by identifying the mystery 'pretty but prickly'
red-flowered bush. It looks like Ribes speciosum (sometimes called
fuchsia-flowering gooseberry).

I'm pleased to note that you grow Aquilegias. We love them and our garden
is almost full of them just now. I'd love to get hold of A. longissima;
it's yellow with extraordinarily long spurs. One day ...

Well, it's way past my bedtime, so I'm switching off now. Night. (Yawn)

Spider

In article ,
says...
I've just uploaded some garden photos at
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/mehitabel.snaps

It's a very ordinary South London back garden, nothing exotic and full
of mistakes, but we are fond of it and if the wind weren't blowing quite
so hard I'd be out there now reading the paper, sniffing the
extraordinarily fragrant climbing hydrangeas and listening to the mad
birds.

There's another album there too called 'what's wrong? and I would be
extremely grateful if someone could give me a hint as to what might be
going wrong here - I wondered if it was too much hard water, but you've
all reassured me on that. On various plants, unrelated to each other as
far as I know, we're getting a kind of leaf shrivelling - the hollyhocks
are worst, but the heuchera and small fuchsia are also bad, and it
affects some pelargoniums and some roses as well. I've attached some
photos from August of last year where the roses were affected, though as
they've come back unaffected as yet this year, I don't know whether it's
all related or not.

There's also a problem with some roses where something is nibbling at
the leaf stem and breaking it off, but I can't see anything and they
have been well and truly sprayed.


Most of the shiveling in your whats wrong pictures has been caused by sap
sucking insects, which have probably been and gone, wide range of choice
but aphids are usually near the top of the list .
as for the stems being chewed my first reaction was "Damage what damage"
there will be plently of people here would be glad of such healthy
looking roses (me included) I normally let nature take its course but you
can of course spray but that is best carried out before the damage
occures
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea

On Mon, 1 Jun 2009, Charlie Pridham wrote
In article ,
says...
I've just uploaded some garden photos at
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/mehitabel.snaps

It's a very ordinary South London back garden, nothing exotic and full
of mistakes, but we are fond of it and if the wind weren't blowing quite
so hard I'd be out there now reading the paper, sniffing the
extraordinarily fragrant climbing hydrangeas and listening to the mad
birds.

There's another album there too called 'what's wrong? and I would be
extremely grateful if someone could give me a hint as to what might be
going wrong here - I wondered if it was too much hard water, but you've
all reassured me on that. On various plants, unrelated to each other as
far as I know, we're getting a kind of leaf shrivelling - the hollyhocks
are worst, but the heuchera and small fuchsia are also bad, and it
affects some pelargoniums and some roses as well. I've attached some
photos from August of last year where the roses were affected, though as
they've come back unaffected as yet this year, I don't know whether it's
all related or not.

There's also a problem with some roses where something is nibbling at
the leaf stem and breaking it off, but I can't see anything and they
have been well and truly sprayed.


Most of the shiveling in your whats wrong pictures has been caused by sap
sucking insects, which have probably been and gone, wide range of choice
but aphids are usually near the top of the list .
as for the stems being chewed my first reaction was "Damage what damage"
there will be plently of people here would be glad of such healthy
looking roses (me included) I normally let nature take its course but you
can of course spray but that is best carried out before the damage
occures

Thanks, Charlie. I hope it wasn't the Roseclear as it seems to be a
useful all-round product, and we aren't using much, if any, at the
moment - it was the April wave of greenfly that needed some combating,
especially as all the ladybirds that squatted in our house over winter
(nearly all the windows had a little colony) seem to have gone off
elsewhere without doing their bread-and-butter duty.

As for being glad of such healthy roses, thank you - but each one is so
different and so gorgeous I resent every single attack! Perhaps I
should just relax a bit....

--
Kate B

PS 'elvira' is spamtrapped - please reply to 'elviraspam' at cockaigne dot org dot uk if you
want to reply personally

On Sun, 31 May 2009, Spider wrote

"Kate Brown" wrote in message
...
I've just uploaded some garden photos at
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/mehitabel.snaps

It's a very ordinary South London back garden, nothing exotic and full of
mistakes, but we are fond of it and if the wind weren't blowing quite so
hard I'd be out there now reading the paper, sniffing the extraordinarily
fragrant climbing hydrangeas and listening to the mad birds.

There's another album there too called 'what's wrong? and I would be
extremely grateful if someone could give me a hint as to what might be
going wrong here - I wondered if it was too much hard water, but you've
all reassured me on that. On various plants, unrelated to each other as
far as I know, we're getting a kind of leaf shrivelling - the hollyhocks
are worst, but the heuchera and small fuchsia are also bad, and it affects
some pelargoniums and some roses as well. I've attached some photos from
August of last year where the roses were affected, though as they've come
back unaffected as yet this year, I don't know whether it's all related or
not.

There's also a problem with some roses where something is nibbling at the
leaf stem and breaking it off, but I can't see anything and they have been
well and truly sprayed.

--
Kate B

PS 'elvira' is spamtrapped - please reply to 'elviraspam' at cockaigne dot
org dot uk if you
want to reply personally

Hi Kate,

I've read Bob's comments and am, in part at least, inclined to agree.
However, the chemical spray certainly didn't make those holes in the rose
leaves. I wonder if the many little holes are capsid damage?, but of the
bigger holes I'm not so sure. Could the distorted rose bloom be caused by
a tortrix caterpiller? I see similar damage in my roses sometimes. The
caterpiller descends from overhanging trees on a silken line and eats its
way into the bud, subsequently distorting the bloom as it opens. Another
possibility is the chafer beetle, whose chomping habits can leave similar
damage.

I occasionally see Heuchera leaves like yours on my own plants. I don't use
chemicals anywhere near them, so spray drift certainly doesn't explain what
I see. Depending on current circumstances, I either put it down to drought
(not enough hydraulics to inflate the opening leaf properly), or insect
damage. It doesn't seem to affect all the leaves, so I just nip off the
damaged one(s).

It's difficult to tell with the hollyhock. As Bob says, it does look a bit
like rust damage, except that none is shown. Neither can we see mildew,
which would have the same affect. So it could be spray drift, it could be
virus injected by a sap-sucking insect or, perhaps, mosaic virus. I can't
lay my hands on an image of mosaic damage, but I believe that distortion is
possible without the usual colour streaking (which is most usually seen in
Abutilon).

Having also looked at your 'good' pictures and admired your lovely garden, I
think I can help you by identifying the mystery 'pretty but prickly'
red-flowered bush. It looks like Ribes speciosum (sometimes called
fuchsia-flowering gooseberry).

I'm pleased to note that you grow Aquilegias. We love them and our garden
is almost full of them just now. I'd love to get hold of A. longissima;
it's yellow with extraordinarily long spurs. One day ...

Well, it's way past my bedtime, so I'm switching off now. Night. (Yawn)

Spider

Thanks for this - I've had a google on capsid bug damage and it does
indeed look suspicious. I can't see any bugs at the moment, though. Do
you know if there's anything we can do to foil the little blighters?
One site I saw suggested malathion but that seems highly toxic to bees -
perhaps if one tried to keep it to the leaves or closed buds?


--
Kate B

PS 'elvira' is spamtrapped - please reply to 'elviraspam' at cockaigne dot org dot uk if you
want to reply personally

"Kate Brown" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 31 May 2009, Spider wrote

"Kate Brown" wrote in message
...
I've just uploaded some garden photos at
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/mehitabel.snaps

It's a very ordinary South London back garden, nothing exotic and full
of
mistakes, but we are fond of it and if the wind weren't blowing quite so
hard I'd be out there now reading the paper, sniffing the
extraordinarily
fragrant climbing hydrangeas and listening to the mad birds.

There's another album there too called 'what's wrong? and I would be
extremely grateful if someone could give me a hint as to what might be
going wrong here - I wondered if it was too much hard water, but you've
all reassured me on that. On various plants, unrelated to each other as
far as I know, we're getting a kind of leaf shrivelling - the hollyhocks
are worst, but the heuchera and small fuchsia are also bad, and it
affects
some pelargoniums and some roses as well. I've attached some photos from
August of last year where the roses were affected, though as they've
come
back unaffected as yet this year, I don't know whether it's all related
or
not.

There's also a problem with some roses where something is nibbling at
the
leaf stem and breaking it off, but I can't see anything and they have
been
well and truly sprayed.

--
Kate B

PS 'elvira' is spamtrapped - please reply to 'elviraspam' at cockaigne
dot
org dot uk if you
want to reply personally

Hi Kate,

I've read Bob's comments and am, in part at least, inclined to agree.
However, the chemical spray certainly didn't make those holes in the rose
leaves. I wonder if the many little holes are capsid damage?, but of the
bigger holes I'm not so sure. Could the distorted rose bloom be caused
by
a tortrix caterpiller? I see similar damage in my roses sometimes. The
caterpiller descends from overhanging trees on a silken line and eats its
way into the bud, subsequently distorting the bloom as it opens. Another
possibility is the chafer beetle, whose chomping habits can leave similar
damage.

I occasionally see Heuchera leaves like yours on my own plants. I don't
use
chemicals anywhere near them, so spray drift certainly doesn't explain
what
I see. Depending on current circumstances, I either put it down to
drought
(not enough hydraulics to inflate the opening leaf properly), or insect
damage. It doesn't seem to affect all the leaves, so I just nip off the
damaged one(s).

It's difficult to tell with the hollyhock. As Bob says, it does look a
bit
like rust damage, except that none is shown. Neither can we see mildew,
which would have the same affect. So it could be spray drift, it could be
virus injected by a sap-sucking insect or, perhaps, mosaic virus. I can't
lay my hands on an image of mosaic damage, but I believe that distortion
is
possible without the usual colour streaking (which is most usually seen in
Abutilon).

Having also looked at your 'good' pictures and admired your lovely garden,
I
think I can help you by identifying the mystery 'pretty but prickly'
red-flowered bush. It looks like Ribes speciosum (sometimes called
fuchsia-flowering gooseberry).

I'm pleased to note that you grow Aquilegias. We love them and our garden
is almost full of them just now. I'd love to get hold of A. longissima;
it's yellow with extraordinarily long spurs. One day ...

Well, it's way past my bedtime, so I'm switching off now. Night. (Yawn)

Spider

Thanks for this - I've had a google on capsid bug damage and it does
indeed look suspicious. I can't see any bugs at the moment, though. Do
you know if there's anything we can do to foil the little blighters? One
site I saw suggested malathion but that seems highly toxic to bees -
perhaps if one tried to keep it to the leaves or closed buds?
--
Kate B

PS 'elvira' is spamtrapped - please reply to 'elviraspam' at cockaigne dot
org dot uk if you
want to reply personally


By the time you see capsid damage, it's already too late. They suck sap
early in the season, then the holes expand as the leaf grows. It may be
possible to use a systemic pesticide which targets sap suckers and plant
eaters. However, I can see how that may cause problems for leaf-cutter
bees. It may be worth your while to google on systemic pesticides, then
ring the manufacturer for advice. Otherwise, if you have knowledgeable
staff at your local nursery/gc, then you could enquire there or simply
peruse their labels. Sorry not to be more helpful, but I've lost track of
what's been withdrawn lately, mainly because I use very few chemicals. I
confess I tend to put up with that level of minor damage (your roses do look
very healthy), but I know I run the risk of viruses introduced by sap
suckers.

Spider