Sunday, July 16, 2006


You can never have enough Monarch butterflies.



I was calling this Delicious Plant until John told us its real name: maple leaf viburnum. Sadly, I have yet to see one with its leaves intact. I've been reading about the viburnum leaf beetle, which is what caused the damage you see here. They've become a big problem in our part of the world. It's the usual story: the pest shows up, probably imported along with its host plant, and there are no/insufficient predators to check its spread. You can read more about the beetles here and here.

Here's a tansy plant getting ready to bloom, and one in full splendour.

Even the humble chicory has a flower of great beauty.

1 comment:

Donwatcher said...

Here's a link about a scientist using field reports from people like me to study VLB and look for control methods:

http://www.hort.cornell.edu/vlb/index.html